In extreme cases, doctors recommend surgery, but this is exceedingly rare. If the cause of the condition is bacterial, you might also need antibiotics. You may need to change your diet to address the symptoms physicians often recommend higher fiber diets. If your physician diagnoses you with diverticulitis, you’ll likely need a CT scan to confirm the presence of the inflammation. Mild symptoms can include cramps, bloating, and constipation. Symptoms can include sudden abdominal pain, fever, nausea, and bleeding. It’s also extremely common in the United States, about 35 percent of people have diverticulosis, which can become diverticulitis if left unchecked. Diverticulitisĭiverticulitis is inflammation of pouches in the large bowel walls (the diverticulum), and it’s often debilitating. You might be able to reduce your symptoms simply by paying closer attention to your daily routine. If you’re frequently dealing with digestive issues, consider how your activity has changed. Otherwise, you’ll be risking some unpleasant symptoms. If you’ve recently started exercising, you should be especially careful with your diet. Too much exercise can also stimulate blood flow to your intestinal tract, prompting your body to, ahem, speed up your schedule, if you get our drift. Adults also have a tougher time creating the enzymes that allow them to break down beans, which leads to symptoms that…well, everyone remembers the rhyme. As you age, your ability to digest certain foods will also change lactose intolerance, for example, affects adults far more severely than children. We’ll start with a few of the more common issues that affect your digestive tract before we get into the medically significant stuff. With that said, let’s look at a few of the most common causes of regular stomach issues, and what you’ll need to know if you’re diagnosed with any of them. In many cases, you can treat the symptoms in a matter of days once you know what you’re dealing with, but putting off a visit to the doctor’s office could make you even sicker. Before we get started, remember: Some conditions can be medically significant, so if you have regular upset stomachs, we strongly encourage you to see a doctor. Of course, you won’t get those answers from a list on the internet-you really should speak with your physician-but we can provide you with an overview of some of the more common medical issues that can cause nausea, cramps, and other gastrointestinal symptoms (we’ll let you use your imagination for that last part). Abdominal discomfort isn’t a whole lot of fun, and when you’re regularly suffering from an upset stomach, you want fast answers.