Prognosis
Even if complaints such as diarrhea and vomiting are not among the most pleasant sensations our body can experience, the symptoms of infectious bowel inflammation are usually temporary if we pay sufficient attention to the fluid and salt balance and, even without medication, end within a few days. Chronic inflammatory bowel disease can be treated with medication, but in most cases it cannot be cured, so that one must expect to experience a life-long flares of inflammation. Diverticula in the intestine are not dangerous in principle, but an inflammation can lead to the breakthrough of the entire intestinal wall, which can then become life-threatening. Since diverticula usually become larger with age, suspicious diverticula should be observed and removed in time.
Prophylaxis
The easy ways of transmission make it very difficult to prevent infection with the bacteria and viruses that cause intestinal inflammation. Among other things, it is important to pay particular attention to personal hygiene. Washing your hands regularly can reduce the number of germs on your hands enormously, as most pathogens can only survive for a very short time outside the gastrointestinal tract.
Washing hands after going to the toilet and before preparing food in the kitchen is particularly important. Vaccination is only possible against a small number of pathogens.A prophylaxis of a chronic inflammatory bowel disease is difficult due to the partly hereditary origin. As with many other intestinal diseases, diseases of the rectum are also unfavorably influenced by smoking and nicotine should be avoided in intestinal diseases.
