Can Constipation Cause Bladder Incontinence

Medications For Urinary Incontinence

If your problem is overactive bladder, a medical professional will likely prescribe you anticholinergic/antispasmodic medications such as Ditropan XL, Detrol, Enablex , VESIcare, Sanctura and Toviaz . The most common side effects of these are dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation, nausea, dizziness, drowsiness and joint pain.

Avodart and Proscar , known as 5-alpha reductase inhibitors, are also commonly prescribed for overactive bladder. However, they are associated with sexual side effects, such as erectile dysfunction. A recent study also found that men on Avodart had a higher risk of developing diabetes and high cholesterol compared to those taking another overactive bladder drug, Flomax, which is known as an alpha blocker.

For stress incontinence, you may be prescribed a tricyclic antidepressant such as Tofranil and Elavil or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as Cymbalta . Antidepressants come with some nasty side effects, from constipation to vomiting, weight changes and decreased sex drive.

Alpha-adrenergic agonists are another option and include ProAmatine and Sudafed , which is available over the counter. Common side effects include loss of appetite, insomnia and skin rashes or itching.

Constipation And Pelvic Prolapse

You spend your days running here and there, and its not often you get a chance to sit on the toilet and have a bowel movement. But even when you have the urge and the time to go, youre not able to get anything moving. You get plenty of dietary fiber, you drink lots of water, and youre active, so what gives? The truth is, this could be a sign of pelvic prolapse.

Dr. Neeraj Kohli and the rest of our team at Boston Urogyn treat women living in the Massachusetts communities of Wellesley, Weymouth, Oak Bluffs, and Hudson. If going is a regular problem for you, we want to help find the reason behind your chronic constipation. If it is pelvic prolapse, we can treat it safely and effectively.

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What You Need To Know

• Issues with urinating or passing stools are referred to as bladder and bowel dysfunction.
• Bladder and bowel problems often originate with nerve or muscle dysfunction, as these systems control the flow of urine and the release of stool.
• Other health issues may cause bladder and/or bowel dysfunction, including medicinal side effects, stress, neurologic diseases, diabetes, hemorrhoids and pelvic floor disorders.
• Therapy and management for these conditions can range from dietary changes and exercise to electrical stimulation and surgery depending on individual diagnosis.

Bladder or bowel incontinence means a problem holding in urine or stool. You may have unwanted passage of urine or stool that you cant control. These conditions can be stressful to deal with. But dont feel embarrassed about talking to your healthcare provider. They are used to dealing with these issues, and can help you manage the problem.

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When Should I See A Health Care Professional

See a health care professional if you have symptoms of a bladder problem, such as trouble urinating, a loss of bladder control, waking to use the bathroom, pelvic pain, or leaking urine.

Bladder problems can affect your quality of life and cause other health problems. Your health care professional may be able to treat your UI by recommending lifestyle changes or a change in medicine.

Symptoms Of Urinary Problems In Ibs

The symptoms of urinary problems in IBS can vary slightly depending on the underlying cause:

• Overactive bladder syndrome: frequent need to urinate, needing to pee at night and urinary incontinence.
• Interstitial cystitis: frequent urination, bladder discomfort, painful urination.
• Chronic prostatitis: lower pelvic pain, frequent and urgent urination, painful urination, urinary incontinence.

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How Does A Stroke Affect Your Bladder And Bowels

Damage to brain cells

If you lose consciousness during a stroke, you could soil yourself without realising it. And a stroke can damage the part of the brain that controls your bladder or bowel. Urine retention can also happen soon after a stroke. You may find it difficult to empty your bladder and it may become very full, but this usually only lasts a few days for most people.

Mobility and communication problems

If you are having difficulty walking you may not always be able to get to the toilet in time. If you have communication problems, it may be hard to ask for help in time to get to the toilet. If you have to work harder to move around, the extra exertion can make it more difficult to maintain bladder or bowel control.

Constipation

Being less mobile than usual can make you more prone to constipation (not emptying your bowels regularly. This may cause continence problems because a full bowel can put pressure on your bladder. You may not be able to eat or drink as much as usual because of the stroke, and might not get enough food and water. This can also lead to constipation.

Medication

Some medications can affect your bladder and bowels. For instance, some types of blood pressure medication may affect bladder control or cause constipation when you start taking them. If you have any questions about your medication, ask your pharmacist. Dont stop taking any medication before speaking to your GP.

Being immobile

Using Palliative Care To Ease Discomfort

For both urinary and bowel incontinence that is caused by compression of nerves in the spinal cord as a result of prostate cancer that has spread to the spine or bones, palliative treatments for metastasized cancer may be of use. These treatments include radiotherapy, medication, or surgical removal of spinal cord tumors. However, these treatment options are not indicated for every situation. Your doctor will help you determine what path is right for you and to improve your quality of life. As always, coping with quality of life symptoms like these can take a toll on an individual or their caretaker both mentally and physically. For this reason, it can be a good idea to consult a therapist or counselor if needed for extra support.

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Causes Of Stress Incontinence

Stress incontinence is when the pressure inside your bladder as it fills with urine becomes greater than the strength of your urethra to stay closed. Your urethra is the tube that urine passes through to leave the body.

Any sudden extra pressure on your bladder, such as laughing or sneezing, can cause urine to leak out of your urethra if you have stress incontinence.

Your urethra may not be able to stay closed if the muscles in your pelvis are weak or damaged, or if your urethral sphincter the ring of muscle that keeps the urethra closed is damaged.

Problems with these muscles may be caused by:

• damage during childbirth particularly if your baby was born vaginally, rather than by caesarean section
• increased pressure on your tummy for example, because you are pregnant or obese
• damage to the bladder or nearby area during surgery such as the removal of the womb , or removal of the prostate gland
• neurological conditions that affect the brain and spinal cord, such as Parkinsons disease or multiple sclerosis
• certain connective tissue disorders such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
• certain medicines

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Can Constipation Cause Inability To Urinate

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Main Reasons Why Constipation Causes Uti

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There is a known correlation between UTIs and constipation. Why does constipation cause UTIs? In this post, I explain the mechanics of the process and will list some easy peasy preventive measures.

Lets be clear on the definition. According to WebMD here are the symptoms of constipation:

• Straining during a bowel movement more than 25% of the time
• Hard stools more than 25% of the time
• Incomplete evacuation more than 25% of the time
• Two or fewer bowel movements in a week.

Treatments For Bowel Problems

Advice and treatment for bowel problems may include:

• Bowel retraining involves regular visits to the toilet. This is usually after meals, when the bowels are stimulated to move by a natural reflex. You also learn to delay bowel movements once on the toilet to improve your ability to hold on.

• Pelvic floor exercises can strengthen the muscles that control bowel movement.

• Dietary changes such as eating more fibre.

• Medication: mainly laxatives to treat chronic constipation and impacted stool, which is the most common cause of leaking faeces. If you have true diarrhoea, medication can help. It is important you seek help to find out what is causing your bowel problem.

• Drinking more fluids helps soften the stools.

• Enema or bowel irrigation may be used to clear the bowel if faecal impaction occurs.

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The Lowdown On Pelvic Prolapse

Pelvic prolapse often happens in older women, but it is not simply a part of getting older. Its actually a serious problem that requires correction for long-term health and wellness. Often, its the result of vaginal childbirths, but being overweight, having a family history of this issue, or having had a hysterectomy can all increase the likelihood of its occurrence as you age.

Is Pelvic Floor Dysfunction A Disability

Pelvic floor dysfunction isnt currently listed as a social security disability. However, depending on your symptoms you may be able to claim disability under the Disability Evaluation Under Social Security Section 6.00, Genitourinary Disorders. For more information, check with your provider and social security contact.

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Study Design And Procedure

Primary objective of this study is to evaluate whether Overactive Bladder Symptoms Score of female patients with latent FC is higher than that of patients without latent FC at the urological department of the general hospital or not. For the secondary objectives are to investigate the associated factors for latent FC and mild to moderate OAB, wet OAB, and dry OAB. Sample size was determined by the free software of Vanderbilt University.

Urinary symptoms were evaluated by OABSS and constipation was evaluated by the Rome III criteria. The OABSS was developed to assess the presence and severity of OAB symptoms as a self-administered four-item questionnaire . OAB was defined as OABSS 3 and Q3 2 and it was classified into wet OAB, which was OAB with urinary incontinence, and dry OAB, which was OAB without urinary incontinence. OAB was also classified into three severity categories as follows: mild OAB , moderate OAB , and severe OAB . The Rome III criteria include six items related to defecation: straining, lumpy hard stools, sensation of incomplete evacuation, use of digital maneuvers, sensation of anorectal obstruction or blockage with 25 percent of bowel movements, and decrease in stool frequency . Latent FC was defined by positivity for two or more of the Rome III criteria . The clinical background was also investigated, including the medical history and drug therapy .

Do The I Love You Massage

Did you know your gut has its own nervous system. Massaging along your large intenstines can help the peristaltic action by tuning into this system. Always start from your right hip moving up to the right ribs, then across your upper Abs and then down to your left hip. You can do this in stages staying at one portion for several passes before moving on or doing the whole U. The best time to do this is before bed, so you body can digest and be ready for a poop in the morning.

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Bladder Incontinence In Women

Bladder incontinence is more common in women than in men. Other than the possible causes listed above, some things that may increase risk of bladder incontinence in women are:

• Changes to urinary or vaginal tissue from hormone therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, or targeted therapy
• Hormonal changes from menopause
• Pelvic prolapse – the bladder, uterus, and or rectum may slip backward or downward into the vaginal canal because of weak pelvic wall muscles

Treatments For Bowel Incontinence

Treatment can help improve bowel incontinence and reduce the impact it has on your life. The best treatment for you depends on whats causing the problem.

Treatments for bowel incontinence include:

• incontinence products such as pads you wear in your underwear or small plugs you put in your bottom
• changes to your diet such as avoiding foods that make diarrhoea worse
• medicines to reduce constipation or diarrhoea
• pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the muscles used to control your bowels

Surgery may be considered if other treatments do not help.

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How Does Obesity Work

Currently, over 30% of American men are obese based on a body mass index of > 30, about two decades past, this figure was two times less.Usually, you have an excessive body mass, not because of muscles but fat. Fat or how it called adipose tissue consists mostly of lipid-rich cells which are the energy storage of the body. It has been shown both on humans and animals that adipose tissue is a site where the high activity of enzyme aromatase is observed. Aromatase converts testosterone a male hormone produced in the testicles and making you masculine, into estrogen, or the most common form of estrogen estradiol. Although E2 is called a female sex hormone, it plays a crucial role in multiple functions, including reproductive, in mens bodies as well. And it works perfectly as long as you did not gain extra weight. Obese men have more aromatase activity than normal, more T irreversibly converts into E2 disrupting their balance. Males with increasing obesity have on average twofold higher estrogen levels in both systemic circulation and locally in the prostate. And of course, these hormonal changes not only make a man more feminine affecting his body shape, sexual sphere, and even his social behavior but have a significant influence on prostate health as well.

BMI > 30 has been found to correlate with higher prostate weight, prostate-specific antigen , and more aggressive prostate cancer . BMI thus is an additional risk factor besides PSA.

Pelvic Floor Muscle Training

Pelvic floor muscle training is a type of exercise programme used to treat cases of bowel incontinence caused by weakness in the pelvic floor muscles.

A therapist, usually a physiotherapist or specialist nurse, will teach you a range of exercises. The goal of pelvic floor muscle training is to strengthen any muscles that may have been stretched and weakened.

You’ll probably be required to carry out the exercises 3 times a day, for 6 to 8 weeks. After this time, you should notice an improvement in your symptoms.

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A Herbal Helping Hand If Need Be

Depending on your primary symptoms, some herbal remedies could help to normalise your toilet habits initially. If constipation is occasional, remedies such as Linseed and Senna can certainly make a welcome addition. Although I dont often recommend using it in the long-term, alongside some of the aforementioned diet and lifestyle tips, it can help to get you off to a more regular start.

Then, despite your best efforts, if the symptoms of cystitis are still lingering, adding in some Uva-ursi & Echinacea complex may be a good option for you. This remedy has been used traditionally to help counter the symptoms of cystitis and can be taken up to 5 times daily during a course.

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Causes Of Total Incontinence

Total incontinence is when your bladder cannot store any urine at all. It can mean you either pass large amounts of urine constantly, or you pass urine occasionally with frequent leaking in between.

Total incontinence can be caused by:

• a problem with your bladder from birth
• injury to your spinal cord this can disrupt the nerve signals between your brain and your bladder

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When To See A Doctor

• Pain or cramping in your pelvic or lower abdominal area
• Pain or burning while urinating
• Urgent or frequent need to use the bathroom
• Leakage of urine
• Blood in your urine

If you have or think you are having bladder spasms, it is important that you see a doctor for a proper diagnosis. Your symptoms may be due to an infection that can be treated. In rare cases, bladder spasms may be a sign of a serious underlying condition.

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Use A Stool Or Squatty Potty

The pelvic floor also relaxes the most in a squat position .

To compensate for using toilets we add stools, like a Squatty Potty, to bring the legs into a squat position. This not only relaxes the pelvic floor but it also unlocks the colon by changing the angle of the puborectalis muscle that shuts it off

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What Is The Prognosis For Fecal Incontinence

For children born with anorectal defects or Hirschsprung disease, doctors are able to predict the potential for bowel control fairly accurately. Once a childs reconstructive surgery has healed, physicians will evaluate several factors and give caregivers an idea of what to expect. This is particularly important to help parents set expectations around potty training, and to determine if they need to adopt a long-term bowel management program.

Factors that indicate good prognosis for future bowel control:

• Good bowel movement pattern, of 1-2 well formed bowel movements per day
• Evidence of sensation when passing stool

Factors that indicate a poor prognosis for future bowel control:

• Abnormal sacrum

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