Dr. Isha Khurana

Diverticulosis refers to a serious medical condition when pouches develop on the walls of your colon,which is another name for the large intestine. These pouches are small in size and usually vary from 5 to 10 millimeters, but can get bigger when this condition becomes serious. Diverticulosis is usually discovered while performing tests for other medical conditions on your body. Once these pouches become infected and inflamed, they may cause acute pain in your abdomen. This condition is called diverticulitis and is considered quite serious.

Causes of Diverticulosis:
Doctors have suggested that the pouches in diverticulosis are formed when pressure increases inside the colon and presses against the weaker spots in the walls of the large instesine. The differences in pressure may create tears or pouches within the colon resulting in the disorder. Some of the causes are mentioned here:

1. Low fiber diet: Low fiber diet causes small hard stool which makes it tough for the colon to put much more pressure. Low fiber diet can also increase the amount of time stool stays in the bowel which adds to high pressure and thus may contribute to this condition.
2. Age: The chances of diverticulosis increases when you are above the age of 60 which has something related to the weakening of bowels over time. A bad diet over many years can make this worse.
3. Lifestyle: Certain lifestyle habits which generally contribute to bad colon health may also result in diverticulosis by increasing pressure on the blood vessels of the bowel wall. This then pushes against other vessels resulting in the formation of pouches.

Diagnosis
Many people with diverticulosis may not even know they have this issue until it is detected while looking for other issues within the body. There are many cases when diverticulosis has been diagnosed when various tests like X-ray which use barium enema or colonoscopy is performed on your body for other medical reasons. If your white blood cells are higher in count than normal then it can indicate infection which may turn into diverticulitis. You may also be asked to undergo CT scan to check if the pouches are infected.

Symptoms of Diverticulosis:
Diverticulosis is hard to diagnose as it may not show any symptoms at all. In most cases symptoms start showing when it progresses towards diverticulitis. However certain generic symptoms which may prompt the doctor to require a detailed examination are as follows:
1. Diarrhea
2. Vomiting
3. Bloating or gas
4. Loss in appetite
5. Constipation

Treatment can be done at home or you may be asked to stay in hospital depending upon the severity of the case. Proper bed rest and liquid diet may be prescribed to enable the diverticula to heal properly. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a Gastroenterologist.

Ashwagandha is one of the most powerful Ayurvedic herbs and is commonly known as the Indian ginseng. Ashwagandha can be loosely translated to mean the ‘strength of ten horses’. It can be used to treat a number of diseases, relieve stress and fatigue, helps heal injuries and may also be used as an aphrodisiac and can help prevent male infertility.

1. Ashwagandha helps rejuvenate the body: This herb not only calms a person down, but also restores the balance of their body. Hence, it is also known as rayasana or a herb that rejuvenates. Ashwagandha stimulates the immune system and boosts the production of white blood cells thereby, elevating levels of antioxidants such as superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase. The effects of this herb on a person’s nervous system and endocrine system can also harmonise the body, mind and spirit.
2. It increases positivity: Stress and anxiety can lead to negative thinking and ultimately to depression. By fighting stress Ashwagandha helps negate these problems and instead boosts positive thinking. It may also be used to treat depression itself.
3. It helps regenerate nerve cells: Along with diseases such as asthmatic bronchitis, emphysema and gynaecological disorders, Ashwagandha can also be used to treat neuro-degenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s. It helps regenerate nerve cells and dendrite growth and even improves communication between nerve cells. This stimulates the body’s ability to heal any damage to the nervous system.
4. It enhances memory and treats insomnia: Ashwagandha is one of the best Ayurvedic remedies to treat insomnia. It not only helps you fall asleep faster but can also improve your sleep quality. A restful sleep increases a person’s ability to concentrate and prevents drowsiness through the day. Ashwagandha also increases the levels of acetylcholine in the brain. This has a direct effect on boosting memory and elevating brain functioning and intelligence. Ashwagandha also increases the production of nitric oxide that helps regulate blood flow and blood pressure thus elevating the brain’s oxygen levels.
5. It boosts libido: Ashwagandha helps optimise the functioning of the thyroid and adrenal glands and helps deal with both hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism. Similarly, this Ayurvedic herb also benefits the adrenal glands and thus influences the overall mental and physical health of a person. The functioning of the thyroid and adrenal glands have a direct effect on a person’s sexual health and libido. Thus by enhancing the functioning of these glands, Ashwagandha improves sexual health and boosts libido. The nitric oxide produced by Ashwagandha also helps improve fertility.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Getting hallucinations is a mental condition where a person sees, feels, hears, and tastes things that actually don't exist beyond one's heightened imagination or delusion. It involves the experience of perceiving something not present.  Hallucinations can be pleasing or frightening. However, there is almost always an identifiable cause behind it. 

They can be triggered by:

1. Taking hallucinogenic or psychotropic substances
2. Mental conditions like dementia and schizophrenia
3. Neurological conditions like Alzheimer's disease or Parkinson's disease
4. Macular degeneration, leading to loss of vision
5. Migraines and brain tumor can also lead to such delusions

Some of the signs of hallucinations:

1. Hearing voices: The medical term for hearing voices is called an 'auditory hallucination'. A person may sense sounds or noises coming from inside or outside of their mind. The noise might be random or disrupting. One might also feel the voices talking to each other or trying to tell them something. Most of the times, these voices come from inside the person's mind; or in some cases, one's heightened perception may make a normal noise delusional.
2. Seeing things: This is also called visual hallucinations. For instance, one may see unnatural things like a floating chair in thin air. It all depends on a person's perception. Sometimes these hallucinations appear as bright flashy spots or rays of light.
3. False sense of taste and smell: Technically, these are known as gustatory and olfactory hallucinations respectively. One may feel a kind of odor coming from one's body or surrounding; or a person might feel that something he/she is drinking or eating has an odd taste. This is again too much thinking, causing delusional sensory activities. 
4. Tactile hallucinations: This is when a person feels things that don't exist. One may feel that he/she is being touched or tickled even when no one else is around or that insects are crawling beneath the skin. One may experience strange sensations, which are not a part of a reality.