Flare-ups of bowel symptoms such as constipation and diarrhoea are more likely to occur during summer and autumn, a new scientific review has found.
The University of Sydney analysis, published on Wednesday in the JAMA Surgery medical journal, found cases of the inflammatory bowel condition known as diverticulitis peak in summer and autumn — with reported cases up to 27 per cent higher during those seasons — and drop off in winter.
Diverticulitis can cause inflammation of parts of the bowel, and symptoms can include nausea, fever, diarrhoea or constipation.
Senior researcher Dr Mina Sarofim from the University of Sydney said diverticulitis is very common among older people in Western countries such as Australia who have low-fibre diets.
"It’s associated with other risk factors such as obesity and smoking and reduced physical activity," Sarofim said in the report.
Sarofim said one of the main findings of the review is that attacks of diverticulitis could be linked to changes in weather conditions throughout the seasons.
The reason for this is unclear, but could be related to dehydration due to the heat and changes in diet throughout the year such as decreased consumption of high-fibre foods due to attendance at summer social events such as barbecues where more processed foods may be eaten. Reduced vitamin D levels brought about by reduced exposure to sunlight could also be a factor in developing diverticulitis.
"The important thing there is that we now have these clues as to what triggers diverticulitis and whether or not these triggers can be changed and whether or not these triggers actually relate to other inflammation problems or infections that we can also research, instead of just diverticulitis," Sarofim said.
Due to the scale of the review, the findings could be instrumental in further research of diverticulitis and other conditions.
Around 1.1 million diverticulitis cases recorded between 1997 and 2019 were examined across eight studies and spanning four different continents.
Sarofim said there were many possibilities now for future studies, including looking at whether vitamin D supplementation or dietary changes could reduce hospital admissions.
He said they eventually hoped to reduce the number of people with serious infections from diverticulitis who ended up in hospital, reducing antibiotic use and pressure on hospital resources.
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