It Could Be A Sign Of An Underlying Condition
Naturally, later in life, people can experience incontinence because of increased production of urine related to aging kidneys. Bladder function is also heavily impacted by changing bladder capacity and chronic medical conditions like diabetes, says Fairchild. Chronic straining, coughing and/or constipation can all put stress on the bladder, she explains.
But leakage can also be sign of a more serious, underlying health condition, according to a 2018 National Poll on Healthy Aging.” For example, poor heart function could be the culprit behind frequent urination while sleeping.
If fluid is pooling in your legs during the day, when you lay down, that fluid redistributes and increases urine production, says Fairchild.
Although bladder leakage is common, discuss your particular symptoms with your doctor.
Causes And Risk Factors
Aging
OAB occurs in both men and women. Its possible to have overactive bladder at any point in your life. But, its especially common in older adults. The prevalence of OAB in people younger than 50 years of age is less than 10 percent. After the age of 60, the prevalence increases to 20 to 30 percent.
The following are some of the other most common underlying causes and risk factors associated with OAB symptoms:
Nerve Damage
A healthy, normal functioning bladder holds urine until it gets full and is prompted to empty by nerve signals. However, when nerve damage occurs in the body, the muscles surrounding the urethra can be too loose. This undesirable looseness can cause someone to become incontinent. What can cause nerve damage that can then lead to bladder leakage? Some possibilities include:
- Back or pelvis surgery
- Stroke
Weak pelvic muscles
When a man or womans pelvic floor muscles are weak, bladder control issues can happen. The pelvic floor muscles are like a sling that holds up the uterus and bladder. For women, a pregnancy and childbirth can often lead to a stretching and weakening of the vital pelvic floor muscles. When pelvic floor muscles are compromised for this reason or another, the bladder can then sag out of place. The opening of the urethra also stretches and urine easily leaks out.
Menopause
Extra weight or obesity
Diuretic medications
Natural Ways To Help Calm An Overactive Bladder
As many as 30 percent of men and 40 percent of women in the U.S. live with symptoms of an overactive bladder.
The often embarrassing condition can cause a sudden urge to urinate. It can interfere with your work life, your social life and especially your sleep.
But there are some natural ways to lessen the symptoms.
About 33 million Americans have an overactive bladder, a condition that causes a sudden or frequent urges to urinate.
Here are a few simple changes: First, cut out alcohol.
Alcohol is not only an irritant to the bladder, as you know, but also a diuretic, meaning that it impacts the kidneys to make more urine, Dr. R. Mark Ellerkmann said.
Other drinks to avoid include caffeinated or carbonated beverages, citrus juices and cranberry juice.
Also, steer clear of spicy foods and acidic foods, like tomatoes, chocolate and artificial sweeteners.
Doctors also recommend keeping track of how much you drink and how often you go.
A 24-hour voiding diary can be very helpful,” Ellerkmann said. “Better yet is a three-day voiding diary that can give us a little more specific information about what is being consumed, especially with respect to bladder irritants. How much is being consumed and how often one is voiding.
But if these natural remedies dont work, see a doctor for other treatment options, which may include medications or certain procedures. They could offer you much-needed relief.
NATURAL WAYS TO HELP OVERACTIVE BLADDER
REPORT #2530
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Home Remedies: Urinary Incontinence Can Be Embarrassing
Urinary incontinence the loss of bladder control is a common and often embarrassing problem. The severity ranges from occasionally leaking urine when you cough or sneeze to having an urge to urinate that’s so sudden and strong you don’t get to a toilet in time.
Though it occurs more often as people get older, urinary incontinence isn’t an inevitable consequence of aging. If urinary incontinence affects your daily activities, don’t hesitate to see your health care provider. For most people, simple lifestyle changes or medical treatment can ease discomfort or stop urinary incontinence.
Symptoms
Many people experience occasional, minor leaks of urine. Others may lose small to moderate amounts of urine more frequently.
Types of urinary incontinence include:
Lifestyle and home remedies
Bladder trainingThis involves learning to delay urination every time you get the urge to go. You may start by trying to hold off for 10 minutes. The goal is to lengthen the time between toilet trips until you’re urinating every two to four hours. Bladder training may also involve double voiding urinating, then waiting a few minutes and trying again to empty your bladder more completely.
Schedule toilet tripsThe idea here is timed urination going to the toilet according to the clock rather then waiting for the need to go. Try to go every two to four hours.
Problems with urine leakage may require you to take extra care to prevent skin irritation:
When to see a health care provider
Incontinence Affects Millions Of People Here In The Uk And Although Attitudes Are Changing It Is Still Considered To Be An Embarrassing Ailment
The good news is that for many people, incontinence is a temporary hiccup and can, be reversed, giving you full control of your bladder once again. However, it is important to seek help for urinary or bowel incontinence, especially if its impact on your life means it prevents you from enjoying life to the full.There are various treatments options available, including medication in some cases. Urinary incontinence is a fixable problem in many cases but it takes patience, advice, exercise and some lifestyle changes. However, they all combine to help you regain control of your bladder. With a range of incontinence products to help you manage it in the interim, these six natural remedies can be successful in helping your control accidental leaking of urine, giving you peace of mind and confidence once again.
Recommended Reading: Vitamin D And Bladder Problems
Pelvic Floor Muscle Exercises
Also known as Kegel exercises, these exercises are especially effective for stress incontinence but may also help urge incontinence. To do pelvic floor muscle exercises, imagine that youre trying to stop your urine flow. Then:
- Tighten the muscles you would use to stop urinating and hold for five seconds, and then relax for five seconds.
- Work up to holding the contractions for 10 seconds at a time.
- Aim for at least three sets of 10 repetitions each day.
Drink Plenty Of Water
Drink 6 to 8 glasses of fluid a day unless your doctor advises you otherwise.
Many people with urinary incontinence avoid drinking fluids, as they feel it causes more problems. However, limiting your fluid intake makes incontinence worse, because it reduces your bladder’s capacity.
Not drinking enough fluid can also cause constipation or make it worse.
Find out which are the healthiest drinks.
Don’t Miss: How Can I Stop My Bladder From Leaking
Stress Urge & Overflow Incontinence
Different kinds of incontinence are caused by different things:
- Stress incontinence. This is caused by pressure against your bladder and may follow prostate surgery. The cause of the pressure might be a hardy laugh, a cough, a sneeze, or an attempt to lift a heavy weight.
- Urge incontinence. This comes from an urge to relieve your bladder so overwhelming that you fail to reach the toilet in time. Men with diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and dementia are more likely to develop urge incontinence.
- Overflow incontinence. A man with an enlarged prostate may have difficulty fully eliminating urine. This can lead to small amounts of urine overflowing from a constantly full bladder.
- Prostate gland problems are the most common causes of incontinence in men.
Altering The Bladder With Bladder Augmentation Surgery
When all other approaches to strengthen and retrain the bladder have failed, you may need to alter the bladder itself. This surgery is typically used as a last resort and in only the most severe cases of an overactive bladder.
Bladder augmentation involves enlarging the bladder with a section of your large intestine, so theres more physical space to store urine in and less pressure to urinate frequently. The surgery is the most invasive and complicated procedure for solving overactive bladder problems, and includes a long recovery time and possible lasting consequences. Once you have bladder augmentation surgery, you will cease to be able to urinate naturally you will have to use a catheter or stoma.
The good news is that many, if not most cases of an overactive bladder can be very well controlled with healthy lifestyle changes, and natural and traditional medical treatments. Its important to remember that not all of the listed treatment options may work for everyone.
Remember to discuss the above overactive bladder treatment options with your doctor before beginning them.
Also Check: How To Keep Bladder Infections Away
Help My Dog Is Incontinent
Finding natural incontinent dog solutions can be tough. Whendealing with dog urinary incontinence, natural remedies are not the first thingmost vets will suggest.
Most vets will advise using Phenylpropanolamine , adrug that helps strengthen the urinary sphincter muscle or diethylstilbestrol, a hormone replacement therapy. Both of these drugs, however, carry therisk of significant side effects.
These side effects are what made me pause and do someresearch when my dog Rose started leaking urine. For Rose, it happened when shewas sleeping, or when she got up from her bed. Other dogs drip urine as theymove around.
What Rose was experiencing is not uncommon: dog incontinence while sleeping or moving around is a common scenario. Many times, incontinence has a sudden onset: people notice their dog leaking urine out of the blue and have no idea what is causing it.
I read everything I could find online, both about the causes and the treatments. The more I read about the conventional drug treatments side effects, the more I wanted to try to find a natural solution that targeted the cause and not just the symptoms.
This article combines what I have learned researching dog incontinence solutions to give you a comprehensive overview of the causes and natural treatment options.
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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Your Bladder Control Programme
There are many things you can do in your everyday life to improve your bladder control, and reduce light bladder leakage, most of them are quick and easy and can be integrated into your day with no problems. Follow a schedule for going to the toilet as directed by your doctor. The overall aim is to gradually increase the time between visits by holding out a little longer each time.
- Reduce or cut out caffeine , very sweet drinks and alcohol
- Avoid constipation by eating plenty of fibre from fruit, vegies and whole grains. Dont use laxatives!
- Drink the recommended amount of water per day
- Maintain a healthy weight
- Do pelvic floor exercises. A strong and fit pelvic floor boosts your chances of beating incontinence
Getting control begins with you keeping a bladder diary to get baseline information about your bladder function and habits. When youve kept your diary for a week, take it to your doctor or physiotherapist to discuss your bladder training program.
Some tricks and tips for hanging on
Your Lifestyle Choices Matter
Hormones may be the root cause but our lifestyle choices and overall health can influence our health outcome.
Yes, the choices you make do affect your health in the long run, even if you didnt see the effect of your choices while you were making them.
What kind of lifestyle choices and overall health? If youre on medication, if youre obese, if youre a smoker, or if you have other medical issues all can lead to urinary incontinence.
But, as you can see, at least some of these are the result of decisions YOU make!
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How To Prevent And Heal A Leaky Bladder
As a long time physician, I have always lived by the rule that doctors should have their patients use natural healing methods prior to invasive measures.
I’ve had so many stories of patients who come to me thinking they need surgery for an organ prolapse or incontinence. However, once I put them on natural hormones for a few weeks as a part of a pre-surgery preparation they noticed that they no longer need the surgery!
As I always say: DO THE NATURAL STUFF FIRST!
Below are some common treatments used to treat menopausal symptoms including urinary leakage:
Absorbency Products Can Help
No matter how fast you can run, sometimes that bathroom is just a little bit too far in the distance. Dont let yourself get caught in an embarrassing situation There is a wide range of products available that are discreet and comfortable.
Incontinence products excel in their absorbency and wont leak or become lumpy when they get wet. They help control odor and minimize contact between urine and your skin, preventing the development of a rash or other irritation.
Many incontinence products are available, from discrete pads with little bulk that can be slipped into underwear, to disposable adult-sized underwear with in-built absorbency and easy-tear sides. Gender-specific products account for the different requirements of men and women, and there are many reusable and washable options available.
Common brands include Attends, Because, Tena, Tranquility, Depend, Prevail and Poise.
Read Also: Can Soda Cause Bladder Infection
Easing Off On Liquids: Is It A Good Idea
Easing off on liquids a few hours before bed works for some guys. They may also space out their drinks throughout the day.
If you try to control your water intake though, be careful not to overdo it. Dehydration can sometimes lead to problems that make your leakage worse. You may even be asked by your medical team to drink more water.
The American Urological Association recommends drinking about two liters of water a dayabout 6 to 8 glassesspread evenly throughout the day to prevent future episodes. It also notes that you won’t do any good by drinking even more than you need. During hot summer days, make sure you are drinking enough water to stay hydrated when you are thirsty.
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.
Recommended Reading: How Long Should A Bladder Infection Last
Home Remedies For Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence can be described as the inability to control urination, leading to urine leakage or involuntary loss of urine.
It is a very common, and at times debilitating, urological disorder. According to the National Association for Continence , it affects about 25 million Americans.
Urinary incontinence can be divided into three main types:
- Urge incontinence occurs when an overactive or hyperactive bladder causes a sudden and intense urge to urinate causing involuntary loss of urine
- Stress incontinence occurs when physical activities like vigorous exercise, jumping, coughing, sneezing or even laughing put pressure on the bladder and it releases urine
- Overflow incontinence inability to completely empty the bladder, leading to frequent or constant dribbling of urine
Incontinence can be caused by a number of factors like age , weakened pelvic floor muscles due to surgery or childbirth, enlarged prostate, menopause, an overactive bladder, nerve damage, urinary stones, urinary tract infections and constipation.
Plus, certain foods, drinks and medications may stimulate your bladder and cause temporary incontinence.
It not only can cause discomfort and embarrassment, but can also be harmful if urine is left in the bladder creating a breeding ground for bacteria. Incontinence is not a disease in itself, but a symptom of an underlying condition or disorder.
Here are the top 10 home remedies for urinary incontinence.
Fluid Charts: Keeping Track
To better manage your symptoms, your doctor might ask you to keep a fluid chart or bladder diary. Using this journal, you carefully track all the liquids you take in, as well as how often you drink them and how frequently you visit the bathroom. This information can help your doctor choose the right treatment.
Read Also: What Is The Treatment For Low Grade Bladder Cancer
Getting The Best Results With Herbs
Getting the best results with herbal medicine involves taking the right herb for your individual needs. Work with a Naturopath or Herbalist who can take a detailed case history and give you the most appropriate prescription. This is especially important if you are pregnant, breastfeeding or are taking medication. Not all the herbs mentioned above will be suitable for you.