Diverticulitis is a condition in which diverticula are perforated, infected and inflamed. Diverticula are pea or grape sized protrusions in the intestinal wall. What causes this disease, like most others, is unknown. However, it is known that smoking, a poor diet and stress worsen symptoms. It is a condition that often goes undetected for many years, as most people pass the symptoms off as indigestion. It usually develops somewhere between the ages of fifty and eighty, after our body has been bombarded and weakened by toxins almost our whole lives. It is also important to note that once diverticula develop, they do not go away, nor do they cause problems by themselves. It is once they get infected or inflamed by something we have contributed, that we feel the symptoms such as fever, severe pain, nausea and chills.