Get To Know Overactive Bladder
Overactive bladder causes a frequent and sudden urge to urinate that may be difficult to control. The definite causes of overactive bladder remain unknown. Overactive bladder occurs when the muscles of the bladder start to contract involuntarily even though the volume of urine in the bladder is low. These involuntary muscle contractions produce an urgent need to urinate. Symptoms include a frequent urge to urinate and waking up at night to urinate regardless of the amount of water intake. As a result, overactive bladder significantly impairs self-confidence, increases risk of depression and other psychological effects as well as induces sleep disturbance, leading to decreased quality of life. Overactive bladder has been commonly found in women than men, aged 30-40. In fact, the prevalence of overactive bladder collectively increases with age where the highest prevalence is found in people aged over 50. Several conditions may contribute to signs and symptoms of overactive bladder, including neurological disorders such as stroke, diabetes, hormonal changes during menopause in women, abnormalities in the bladder, such as tumors or bladder stones and factors that obstruct bladder outflow. Other possible risk factors may include certain medications, excessive consumption of caffeine and alcohol and declining cognitive function.
Oab: Drinks That May Increase The Urge To Go
One of the biggest OAB culprits iscaffeine, which can make you urinate more. Studies show that reducing caffeine intake to below 100 milligrams per day â the amount in one cup of drip coffee â may help reduce urge incontinence symptoms.
Cut down or cut out these problem beverages:
- Caffeinated drinks such as coffee, colas, energy drinks, and teas
- Acidic fruit juices, especially orange, grapefruit, and tomato
- Carbonated beverages, sodas, or seltzers
- Drinks with artificial sweeteners, such as aspartame and saccharin, which may irritate the bladder
If you canât imagine starting your day without a morning cup of coffee, try to lower the amount of caffeine you take in. Make a cup thatâs half decaf and half regular. You may want to wean yourself gradually to avoid caffeine withdrawal headaches.
For fruit juice, try switching to something with less acid, such as apple or pear juice, and dilute it with water.
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Should I Limit The Amount Of Fluids I Drink
No. Many people with bladder pain syndrome think they should drink less to relieve pain and reduce the number of times they go to the bathroom. But you need fluids, especially water, for good health. Getting enough fluids helps keep your kidneys and bladder healthy, prevent urinary tract infections, and prevent constipation, which may make your symptoms worse.9
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I Remember My Overactive Bladder Symptoms Starting About Three Or Four Years Ago Whenever I Would Sneeze Or Cough I’d Urinate A Little Bit Then It Started To Become Pretty Frequent Which Was Frustrating But Not Yet To The Point Where It Was Disrupting My Life
I remember my overactive bladder symptoms starting about three or four years ago. Whenever I would sneeze or cough, I’d urinate a little bit. Then it started to become pretty frequent, which was frustrating, but not yet to the point where it was disrupting my life. Then after a while, my symptoms got a lot worse. I would be making my way to the bathroom and suddenly it would just let loose. I was terribly embarrassed, and a little worried too. My symptoms really started to interfere with my day-to-day life. Still, I thought it was just another milestone of aging and something I had to live with.
At first, I tried to manage it on my own by reducing how much water I was drinking during the day and buying absorbent pads for overactive bladder. Unfortunately, it just didn’t help enough. I would leak so frequently that it was hard to go anywhere, even with the pads.
The problem really started to dictate my daily activities where I just didn’t want to go out as much anymore. I never wanted to be too far from a bathroom so driving became an issue. I also love garage sales, but being out became a problem so I just didn’t go. We also stopped traveling as much as we used to, but when we did go, I would have to pack an extra bag just for the pads. All of this really affected my mood. I felt like I didn’t have a choice anymore. It was very upsetting.
This resource was created with support from Urovant.
Try To Avoid Caffeine Carbonated Drinks Sugar Alcohol And Spicy Or Acidic Foods
- Caffeine is a diuretic which makes you need to use the bathroom more often.
- Carbonated drinks and sugar are thought to stimulate the bladder.
- Alcohol switches off the ability of your body to concentrate urine. This means you tend to urinate more dilute, watery urine, which dehydrates you. Since you are dehydrated, you may drink more.
- Acidic or spicy food may aggravate your overactive bladder and worsen your symptoms. Certain acidic fruit and juices like orange, grapefruit, lemon and lime can aggravate your bladder, too.
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More Natural Ways To Manage Your Overactive Bladder
1. Control Your Weight
One way to take stress of your bladder is to lose some weight. The Mayo Clinic has discussed the idea that those who are overweight have a bigger risk of developing stress incontinence. Stress incontinence happens when a person loses control of their urine during physical activity. This is from their having weakened pelvic muscles. This can happen during coughing, laughing or working out. Women most commonly suffer from this type of incontinence.
2. Have Bladder Training
This is the most popular OAB treatment that doesnt use medication. Bladder training will affect the way you use the bathroom. Instead of going whenever you feel you need to, you go at set times during the day. This is called scheduled voiding and it can help you learn to control the urge to go. You start by waiting a few minutes before going and then increase to an hour between visits and further from there.
3. Do Pelvic Floor Exercises
4. Try Acupuncture
Acupuncture is another natural treatment for OAB. A study of 20 subjects spanned over ten weeks. Each received 30 minutes of acupuncture in targeted points. With the study, over 75% of those with IDI, or Idiopathic Detrusor Instability, were cured of symptoms. IDI is a common cause of urinary tract storage trouble such as urge incontinence, frequency and urgency.
5. Stop Smoking
Precautions And Proper Diagnosis
The main symptoms of OAB can also occur in other health conditions like bladder cancer, urinary tract infection and enlarged prostate. Seeing blood in your urine is not a symptom of OAB.
A sudden and frequent need to urinate is common in both OAB and a UTI. How can you tell the difference between these two urinary health issues? Unlike OAB, a UTI also comes with other symptoms such as discomfort while urinating. In addition, OAB symptoms are continuous while UTI symptoms are sudden and may also include a fever.
Overflow incontinence is characterized by the involuntary release of urine from an overfull urinary bladder, often in the absence of any urge to urinate. This condition is not associated with OAB. It typically occurs in people who have a blockage of the bladder outlet, which can occur with benign prostatic hyperplasia, prostate cancer or a narrowing of the urethra. Overflow incontinence can also occur when the muscle responsible for removing urine from the bladder is too weak to empty the bladder in a normal way.
It is very important to see a doctor to ensure a proper diagnosis if you experience any changes in your urine and/or urination habits.
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Botox Injections In The Bladder
An option for women who have failed all other medications. Onabotulinum toxin A is injected into the bladder muscle and causes partial paralysis of the detrusor muscle. Each course last approximately 6-12 months and patients typically will require multiple top-ups for the botox to be effective . This is performed under sedation in hospital as a day case and the botox takes approximately 7-10 days before working.
The botox is injected into the bladder wall as shown in the image, thru a small cystoscope that is introduced via the urethra. Approximately 5% of women will have trouble emptying there bladder following botox and use of a temporary catheter would then be required. The botox is now funded on the PBS in Australia when administered by a Urogynaecologist.
Keeping A Bladder Diary May Help Identify Triggers
Keeping a diary may sound time consuming, but it will help both you and your doctor identify any triggers for your overactive bladder and establish just how often you visit the bathroom each day.
How should you keep a diary for your overactive bladder?
- Document exactly what kind of fluids you drink and their volume.
- Write down the type and quantity of food you eat.
- Record the number of trips to the bathroom and rate your trips as successful or not.
- Indicate what you were doing when leakage or the urge to urinate occurred
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What Causes Bladder Leaks
There are two main types of urinary incontinence:
Stress incontinence
If you have this type, activities that raise the pressure inside your abdomen cause urine to leak through the ring of muscle in your bladder that normally holds it in. Coughing, sneezing, jumping and lifting heavy objects could lead to a leak.
Going through childbirth, smoking or being overweight can raise the risk of stress incontinence for women, Wright says. Stress incontinence in men is rare, and when it arises, its often due to prostate cancer treatment, such as radiation or surgery.
Urge incontinence
With this type, your brain, spinal cord and bladder dont work together properly to allow you to hold and release urine at the right time. Your bladder may suddenly empty itself without warning. Or you may feel like you need to urinate frequently, a problem called overactive bladder.
Some diseases that affect the nervous system, such as multiple sclerosis or stroke, can cause this kind of incontinence, says Wright. In men, an enlarged prostate may be the culprit. But in many cases, doctors dont know what causes urge incontinence.
It is possible to have both types of incontinence at the same time.
Overactive Bladder Diet: Foods And Drinks To Manage Bladder Health
Written byDr. Victor MarchionePublished onOctober 31, 2016
As studies have shown, those who suffer from overactive bladder can manage their bladder health with diet adjustments. While it does take a little planning, it can bring many OAB sufferers a lot of relief.
Overactive bladder is best described as a bladder problem that leads to the sudden urge to urinate or the need to urinate frequently throughout the day and night. While volume of fluid intake can have an impact on this condition, there seems to be a lot of personal testimony suggesting the type of fluid and the kind of foods that are consumed play a very big role in the symptom flare-ups.
Statistics indicate that approximately 33 million Americans have overactive bladder, but there are likely many more people who havent reported the problem to their doctors. Part of the reason people go undiagnosed is because they are too embarrassed to talk about it or they think there is no way to treat it. Its a shame because overactive bladder can disrupt a persons work, social, and family life.
Certain foods can irritate the bladder and urinary tract. Although the impact of different foods vary from person to person, many people do find that slight adjustments to their diet or focusing on foods for bladder health are a good way to help treat OAB.
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Treatment Of Nocturnal Polyuria
General measures that reduce excessive urine production at night include:
- Reduction in fluid intake in the 4-6 hours before going to bed.
- This includes eating foods with a high fluid content such as fruit, vegetables, salads, soup earlier in the day.
Other treatments for excessive urine production at night include:
- Use of a diuretic in the 6 hours before going to bed.
- This causes increased urine production in the hours after the diuretic medication is taken. The aim is to expel the excess fluid in the afternoon and early evening rather than overnight.
What Are The Symptoms
The main symptoms of overactive bladder are:
- An urgent need to urinate.
- The need to urinate often.
- Waking up to urinate 2 or more times a night.
- The need to urinate even if you have just used the toilet.
- Taking many trips to the toilet only to urinate just a little bit each time.
- Leaking urine when you have the urge to urinate.
You may have some or all of these symptoms.
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Lifestyle Changes For Bladder Health
Tension, diet, and being overweight can all contribute to urinary incontinence. The good news is that you can do something about all three:
- Eat more vegetables and fiber. Fiber helps you avoid constipation, which may help reduce pressure on your bladder.
- Reduce tension. Tense situations can make you to feel as if you need to pee. Deep breathing exercises are one of the tools that can ease tension.
- Exercise. If youâre overweight, losing weight will keep extra pounds from adding to the pressure on your bladder. Exercise may aggravate stress incontinence, though.
- Use good posture when you urinate. Sit back on the toilet. Donât lean forward, since this may put unwanted stress on the urethra and bladder.
Will azo help with frequent urination?
Phenazopyridine is a medicine thatâs used to relieve symptoms of a urinary tract infection , which may include burning, pain, irritation, frequent urination, and an increased urge to urinate.
Can overactive bladder go away on its own?
More often than not, OAB is a chronic condition it can get better, but it may not ever go away completely. To start with, doctors often recommend exercises such as Kegels to strengthen pelvic floor muscles and give you more control over your urine flow.
What really works for overactive bladder?
Causes Of Urge Incontinence
The urgent and frequent need to pass urine can be caused by a problem with the detrusor muscle in the wall of the bladder. The detrusor muscles relax to allow the bladder to fill with urine, then contract when you go to the toilet to let the urine out.
Sometimes the detrusor muscle contract too often, creating an urgent need to go to the toilet. This is known as having an âoveractive bladderâ. The reason your detrusor muscle contracts too often may not be clear, but possible causes include:
- drinking too much alcohol or caffeine
- poor fluid intake this can cause strong, concentrated urine to collect in your bladder, which can irritate your bladder and cause symptoms of overactivity
Stopping these medications, if advised to do so by a doctor, may help resolve your incontinence.
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Foods To Avoid If You Have Oab
Doctors have identified a number of foods and drinks that can worsen overactive bladders, including:
- Caffeinated beverages and foods
- Artificial sweeteners
When these foods and drinks collect in the bladder, it can cause irritation resulting in bladder muscle spasms. Those spasms can create the sudden urge to urinate and increase your frequency of urination. Because each person will react differently to trigger foods coffee might bother one person, while dairy can be problematic for someone else doctors suggest keep a food journal so you can see which foods affect you the most.
But there are certain beverages that are known to cause repeat trips to the bathroom. Even a moderate amount of alcohol, coffee, tea, or soda will increase the amount of urine your bladder must manage. Research published in September 2016 in the journal Current Urology showed nearly one-half of people over the age of 60 who drink more than 300 mg coffee a day suffer from overactive bladder symptoms, which is significantly higher than peers who do not consume large amounts of caffeine.
Also, chemicals in cigarettes have been shown to irritate the bladder and increase the risk of bladder cancer. Smoking can cause coughing spasms that increase problems with stress incontinence. The American Cancer Society offers extensive resources on quitting, noting smokers are at least 3 times more likely to get bladder cancer compared with nonsmokers.
Take Charge: Seek Your Doctors Advice
Approximately 80% of those affected by urinary incontinence can be cured or improved, yet only one in 12 people with incontinence issues seek help. Talk to your doctor about your bladder control as it can dramatically improve your lifestyle.
Your doctor can investigate and establish a cause for your overactive bladder. Treatment can then be tailored to this cause and may involve medications, bladder retraining, pelvic floor exercises, absorbent products, surgery, or combinations of these options.
Plus, consider joining the Drugs.com Overactive Bladder Support Group. Here, you can connect with people with similar questions and concerns, share your experiences, and keep up with the latest new drug approvals, ongoing research, and medical news.
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