Vitamin C For An Overactive Bladder
Vitamin C is a powerful water-soluble antioxidant, which helps to strengthen the immune system and also protect the bladder from any damage or impairment caused by harmful free radicals in the body. Experts believe that vitamin C can decrease bladder inflammation, relieve bladder pressure, and prevent bladder infections. The recommended daily intake of vitamin C for adults is 1000 mg. Some vitamin C rich foods include cranberries, blackberries, strawberries, kiwi, grapefruits, oranges, pineapples, broccoli, spinach, Brussels sprouts, and tomatoes which you can eat in plentiful for combating the problem of an overactive bladder.
Pelvic Floor Exercises Can Help Immensely
You cant see your pelvic floor muscles however, just like other muscles in your body they lose their strength if they are not put to use.
Pelvic floor exercises help strengthen the pelvic floor when done consistently at least twice a day. How are they done?
- Imagine you are holding back gas or urine.
- Squeeze and lift the rectal area without tightening your buttocks or belly. Try and hold it for a count of three before relaxing. Repeat this cycle 10 times. Do 10 sets of Kegel exercises, at least 3 times a day.
- Increase your contractions as your doctor recommends.
- Do not hold your breath when you do Kegel exercises. Keep your stomach, back, and leg muscles relaxed.
- Don’t use Kegel exercises to start and stop your urine stream which can lead to incomplete emptying of the bladder and an increased risk of a urinary tract infection.
Review our information about Kegel exercises for both women and men to learn more about the techniques.
Is Bladder Training Effective
Bladder training can be effective for OAB. Lets see what some of the research says.
An of 85 people with OAB found that bladder training reduced urinary frequency, urinary urgency, and nocturia. It also found that bladder training improved quality of life.
A more recent 2018 study on women agreed with these findings. Participants receiving bladder training had improved quality of life, as well as reduced urinary frequency and urine leakage.
The effectiveness of bladder training may also be boosted when its combined with other types of treatment. A suggests that bladder training is more effective when combined with biofeedback, electrical stimulation, or both.
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Overactive Bladder Testing And Treatment
Overactive Bladder TestingTo diagnose OAB and rule out other conditions, your doctor will do a physical exam and discuss your medical history. In addition, a urologist may order the following tests:
- Urinalysis: a sample of your urine to check for infection, blood or other abnormalities
- Urodynamic Testing: a series of tests to measure how well your bladder and urethra function
Overactive Bladder Treatment
There are many treatment options for overactive bladder. Most people who are treated see an improvement in their symptoms.
- Lifestyle Changes: Adjusting activities that make your OAB symptoms worse such as eating or drinking caffeine or acidic foods is the first step in treating OAB.
- Bladder Retraining: Through retraining, you learn to resist the urge to go and increase control over how much urine your bladder can hold. Your doctor can set up a retraining schedule for you.
- Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy: Working with a physical therapist or health care provider who specializes in the pelvic floor muscles can help you learn to strengthen and control the muscles involved in urination. One type of exercise to strengthen the pelvic floor is called a Kegel.
- Medications: These relieve the frequent urges by blocking the nerve that signals your bladder to contract too soon.
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Overactive Bladder: Causes + 8 Natural Remedies
Have you ever thought about your bladder control or how often you urinate each day? Probably not, unless youve experienced a bladder control problem like overactive bladder. Overactive bladder is a condition in which the bladder cannot hold urine normally. One of the most common symptoms of this health problem is urinary incontinence or leaking urine. Many people suffer in silence, but if you are currently experiencing a bladder-related difficulty you are truly not alone. Its estimated that at least 33 million Americans have overactive bladder. ” rel=”nofollow”> 1)
Sometimes a person experiencing overactive bladder doesnt have any underlying health problem. Other times, an overactive bladder can be the result of medications or other more serious health issues, such as diabetes, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis or Parkinsons disease. OAB can also occur after surgery or childbirth. How much is too much when it comes to urination? People with OAB typically have to urinate more than 8 times per day or more than once at night.
Its crucial to address overactive bladder symptoms right away. Early treatment can reduce, or even completely get rid of, the highly unwanted symptoms. With some time and effort, there are several very doable and natural ways you can overcome an overactive bladder.
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Can Drinking Cranberry Juice Cure A Urinary Tract Infection
Drinking cranberry juice is good for your body. Cranberry juice is a great beverage, with important antioxidants that help reduce your risk of heart disease. Antioxidants also strengthen your immune system, allowing your body to fight off infections. However, according to the Urology Clinic at UAMS, cranberry juice cannot cure a urinary tract infection on its own.
The myth about cranberry juice may have started because the juice helps alleviate some of the discomfort and pain of a urinary tract infection. In addition, studies have shown drinking cranberry juice can help reduce your risk of getting a UTI. However, if you have an infection, your doctor will need to prescribe antibiotics to clear up the condition. Drinking cranberry juice, as well as other liquids, while you have an infection will help flush the bacteria from your system and speed healing.
To learn more about the personalized care provided by our doctors using state-of-the art diagnostic and treatment techniques, please visit our Medical Services section.
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Weight Loss May Reduce Incontinence
Study Shows Losing Weight Can Help Women Who Have Urinary Incontinence
Jan, 27, 2009 — For obese and overweight women, losing weight can dramatically reduce episodes of incontinence, according to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Study participants included 338 women, all overweight or obese, who leaked urine at least 10 times in a week. The women were recruited from Birmingham, Ala., and Providence, R.I.
Participants were randomly divided into two groups. One group was put on an intensive weight loss program that included diet, exercise, and behavior modification. The other group was given educational information about weight loss, healthy eating, and physical activity, but no hands-on support.
All participants received an educational booklet about urinary incontinence, behavioral techniques, and pelvic floor muscle exercises.
At six months, the women in the intensive weight loss program lost an average 8% of their body weight and reduced weekly urinary incontinence episodes by 47%. Women in the information-only group lost an average 1.6% of body weight and had 28% fewer episodes.
Women in the weight loss program reported feeling that incontinence was less of a problem compared to the other group. More were moderately to very satisfied with the change in their incontinence.
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Weight Loss As A Treatment
Being overweight can increase your chances of experiencing urinary incontinence due to the extra weight in the midsection. When you carry excess weight in your belly area, the extra pounds put added pressure on your bladder. The extra pressure makes your bladder more likely to leak.
The type of incontinence that stems from increased pressure on the bladder causing you to leak urine is referred to as stress incontinence. Actions that typically prompt episodes of stress incontinence include laughing, sneezing, coughing, or kneeling.
The good news is losing weight can often reduce its severity. Several studies have shown that if you lose even a small amount of weight you may get some relief from your symptoms. Researchers have found that a weight loss of 5% to 10% may help you to control urinary incontinence.
Percutaneous Tibial Nerve Stimulation
PTNS is a safe, office-based overactive bladder treatment that does not require any anesthesia. A small needle is placed under the skin of your ankle to stimulate the tibial nerve. An electrical impulse is gently sent from the tibial nerve, up your leg to the sacral nerve roots in your pelvis. These nerve roots are responsible for bladder function.
Stimulating these nerve fibers over time can improve bladder function for the better. How cool is that! Treatments are delivered over 12 weeks. Results from a double-blind randomized controlled trial , shows that up to 70% of patients will respond to PTNS.
The good news is that the results to PTNS seem to last beyond the 12 weeks. One study showed that with maintenance stimulation once a month, almost 80% of patients had continued positive results from PTNS for 3 years.
Other than mild discomfort at the needle site, side effects from PTNS are rare. PTNS is an effective overactive bladder treatment for patients not able or willing to have more invasive therapies.
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What Causes An Overactive Bladder
Your kidneys produce urine, and the urine later drains into your bladder. As you urinate, the urine further passes through an opening at the bottom of your bladder and then flows out of your body through the urethra. In women, the urethra is located right above the vagina, whereas, in men, the urethra opens at the tip of the penis.
This entire process of urination is controlled by nerve signals. When your bladder is filled, your brain receives signals to trigger the urge to urinate. As you urinate, your brain again receives signals to relax the muscles of your pelvic floor as well as the urethra to help pass the urine. Simultaneously, your bladder tightens to push the urine out.
In the case of an overactive bladder, the contraction of the bladder occurs involuntarily, even when the volume of urine inside is relatively low. This action causes a sudden urge to pee.
While the exact cause of this occurrence is yet to be found, the following are some factors that could be contributing to the symptoms of an overactive bladder:
Is Bladder Training Safe
low risk . This includes bladder training.
You may feel some discomfort while holding your urine, particularly after starting bladder training or after adjusting the interval between bathroom trips. Distraction techniques can help you to manage this sensation.
If you have any concerns regarding your bladder training, its important to raise them with your doctor.
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Incontinence Treatment For Diabetes & Obesity
Urinary incontinence usually canât be solved overnight, but there are a couple of things women with diabetes or obesity can do today.
There you have it. The connection between obesity, diabetes and incontinence, as well as ways to treat or reduce the symptoms of incontinence. Check out these other related articles for a better understanding of the types of incontinence, common causes of bladder control issues and ways to treat incontinence.
What To Expect From Your Doctor
In terms of an assessment, your nurse or doctor will ask you about your general health and in particular, about your OAB problem. You may be examined orally and internally, and you might be asked to give a urine sample to see if you have any obvious problems.
As part of your treatment programme, you may be asked to keep a bladder diary for roughly 3 days, which typically involves making a record of the time of each time you pass urine and how much urine was passed.
You may also be asked to take a flow test, and in some cases a post-flow ultrasound test. This involves using a special machine which checks whether you completely empty your bladder and also measures how strong your flow is.
Here is a short list of possible questions your doctor may ask and the tests they may ask you to complete:
- An overview of your medical history.
- A physical examination, which could include a rectal exam and a pelvic exam in women.
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Eating To Reduce Constipation
Sometimes constipation can place extra pressure on your bladder. You can prevent constipation by exercising regularly and including more fiber in your diet. Foods high in fiber include beans, whole-wheat breads, fruits, and vegetables.
The Cleveland Clinic recommends eating 2 tablespoons of a mixture of 1 cup of applesauce, 1 cup unprocessed wheat bran, and 3/4 cup of prune juice every morning to promote bowel regularity.
Can Overactive Bladder Be Controlled
Overactive bladder therapy can be challenging to manage. However, many people are very satisfied with the treatment they receive and they often see a dramatic improvement in their quality of life. Your doctor will guide you to the best steps to begin with and give you options for any additional treatments you may need over time.
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What Works Best To Help Men With Overactive Bladder
HealthDay Reporter
TUESDAY, Jan. 14, 2020 Learning how to control the urge to urinate may be all the therapy men need to treat an overactive bladder, a new study suggests.
A combination of drugs and behavioral therapy seems to work better than drugs alone, but behavioral therapy alone also worked better than drugs, the researchers found.
The trial of 204 men with overactive bladder suggests behavioral therapy may be a good way to start treatment, the study authors said.
The study provides good evidence that for the group of men with overactive bladder, symptoms without obstruction from an enlarged prostate can be successfully managed with behavioral therapy alone, said Dr. Manish Vira, who was not involved with the study, but reviewed the findings. Hes vice chairman of urologic research at Northwell Healths Arthur Smith Institute for Urology in Lake Success, N.Y.
Many medications typically prescribed for overactive bladder have significant side effects, especially in older men using multiple medications, Vira added.
For the trial, Kathryn Burgio, associate director of research at the Birmingham VA Medical Center in Alabama, and colleagues randomly assigned men to six weeks of behavioral therapy alone, drug therapy alone, or combined drug and behavioral therapy. After the initial six weeks, all of the men received combination therapy for another six weeks.
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Smoking May Increase The Urge To Urinate
Smoking irritates the lining of the bladder, and also makes you cough, both of which are unhelpful if you have an overactive bladder.
It is a good decision for both general health reasons and overactive bladder reasons to stop smoking. Work with your health care provider to start a formal “Quit Smoking” program, which may involve smoking cessation medications and group support for the most successful outcome.
Learn more: Our Quit Smoking center also has some helpful advice.
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How Can Nerve Stimulation Help Overactive Bladder
There are several treatments that involve stimulating your nerves to help improve overactive bladder. Your nerves help communicate the message that your bladder needs to be emptied to your brain. By treating the nerves, your healthcare provider can improve your bladder control. Nerve stimulation is a reversible treatment that is considered when conservative treatments have not worked or have not been tolerated. Conservative treatments include behavioral therapies and medications.
There are several types of nerve stimulation treatments. These can include:
What Is An Overactive Bladder Symptoms To Look For
Overactive bladder is a syndrome, or a set of symptoms, that is believed to be due to sudden contractions of the muscles in the wall of the bladder. When you have overactive bladder syndrome, the muscles controlling bladder function start acting involuntarily. This often leads to urinary incontinence or loss of bladder control. The urine leakage experienced by someone with OAB can be as little as several drops to up to several ounces. Sometimes, incontinence can be a sign of something simple like drinking way too many caffeinated beverages on a daily basis. Other times the underlying cause can be something more serious.
An overactive bladder is said to account for 40 to 70 percent of incontinence. What is incontinence? Incontinence is a lack of voluntary control over urination or defecation. When you have overactive bladder, you can experience urinary incontinence or loss of control over urination.
There are actually two different types of overactive bladder. Dry is when you have a sudden, urgent need to urinate many times during the day. Wet means you have the sudden, urgent need to urinate and you experience bladder leakage, which is also referred to as urge incontinence. Both dry and wet can occur without any underlying health condition. An estimated 60 percent of OAB patients have dry OAB while 40 percent have wet OAB .
OAB symptoms can differ on an individual case basis. Common symptoms of an overactive bladder include:
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Vitamins That Irritate The Bladder
While some vitamins can help with bladder health, its important to know that others can worsen your symptoms if you have bladder troubles.Nonetheless, some vitamins you may wish to avoid are:
- Vitamin C many patients with interstitial cystitis report that taking a Vitamin C supplement causes bladder flares and trigger a need to go in women. However, Vitamin C found naturally in food doesnt appear to cause issues
- Iron supplements excess iron can cause constipation, which puts pressure on the bladder, causing leaks and discomfort1
- -cryptoxanthin this is a vitamin found in food such as tangerines, red peppers and pumpkin.2 In a 2016 study, it was found to worsen voiding symptoms in individuals with lower urinary tract symptoms3
- Any vitamin buffered with aspartame may increase urinary frequency and urgency4
iD would recommend you speak to a doctor before making changes to your diet or taking supplements.