What causes a diverticulum?
The colon moves food residue from the junction with the small intestine on the right side, up and over to the left, and down to the rectum where it is stored for defecation. If the contents are soft and easy to move, the colon need only squeeze gently to move things through. When the contents are hard, much pressure is generated by the colon in order to keep it moving. Squeezing under high pressure pushes the inner lining between the muscles of the intestinal wall much like Play-Doh pushes between your fingers if you squeeze it hard. After a while, the inner lining remains pushed out, forming a pocket or diverticulum. High fiber diets trap water and provide substance to the intestinal contents making the material easier to move and less likely to squeeze between the intestine’s muscle fibers. The reason this is bad is that these little pockets get irritated and inflamed and that can lead to infection and bleeding. Infected diverticuli can become an abscess which might rupture, spilling
