What Could Cause A Weak Bladder

Can Seasonal Allergies Cause Bladder Weakness

Urinary incontinence – causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology

In short, no – they cant cause it, however, seasonal allergies can aggravate the symptoms of bladder weakness.

If you experience leaks when you laugh, cough, sneeze or exercise, then there is a high likelihood that you are suffering from Stress Urinary Incontinence . SUI is very common and more than 1 in 3 women experience daily leaks.

If you are experiencing stress incontinence already, then pairing this with having allergies that cause excess coughing or sneezing could mean that during the allergy season you experience leaks much more frequently.

Using a non-invasive treatment, such as INNOVO, could help you to stop leaks during allergy season and beyond – by targeting the root cause of the issue – weak pelvic floor muscles.

Natural Treatment For Overactive Bladder

Bladder training and pelvic floor exercises are just two natural treatments for overactive bladder. Research suggests that these nondrug remedies can be very effective for many women, and they have almost no side effects.

But before starting any OAB treatment, itâs important to understand bladder function and what things may cause overactive bladder.

Another way to strengthen pelvic floor muscles is electrical stimulation, which sends a small electrical pulse to the area via electrodes placed in the or rectum.

Until you get your overactive bladder under control, wearing absorbent pads can help hide any leakage.

Other lifestyle tips for preventing incontinence include:

What Are The Complications Of Urinary Retention

Urinary Tract Infection

Urine is normally sterile, and the normal flow of urine usually prevents bacteria from growing in the urinary tract. When urine stays in the bladder, however, bacteria have a chance to grow and infect the urinary tract.

Bladder Damage

If the bladder becomes stretched too far or for long periods, the muscle may be permanently damaged and lose its ability to contract.

Chronic Kidney Disease

If urine backs up into the kidneys, permanent kidney damage can lead to reduced kidney function and chronic kidney disease. If you lose too much of your kidney function, you will need dialysis or a kidney transplant to stay alive.

What Are Some Of The Different Types Of Urinary Incontinence

The following are some of the different types of urinary incontinence:

Urgency incontinence: This is the inability to hold urine long enough to reach a restroom. It can be associated with having to urinate often and feeling a strong, sudden urge to urinate. It can be a separate condition, but it may also be an indication of other diseases or conditions that would also warrant medical attention.
Stress incontinence: This is the leakage of urine during exercise, coughing, sneezing, laughing, lifting heavy objects or performing other body movements that put pressure on the bladder.
Functional incontinence: This is urine leakage due to a difficulty reaching a restroom in time because of physical conditions, such as arthritis, injury or other disabilities.
Overflow incontinence. Leakage occurs when the quantity of urine produced exceeds the bladders capacity to hold it.

How Is Urinary Incontinence Treated

You and your doctor or nurse will work together to create a treatment plan. You may start with steps you can take at home. If these steps do not improve your symptoms, your doctor or nurse may recommend other treatments depending on whether you have stress incontinence or urge incontinence or both.

Be patient as you work with your doctor or nurse on a treatment plan. It may take a month or longer for different treatments to begin working.

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.

What Are The Normal Conditions

Average urine flow is based on the age and sex of a person. Typically, urine flow runs from 10 ml to 21 ml per second. Among women, the normal range is closer to 15 ml to 18 ml per person. A low or low flow of urinating rate could suggest there is an obstruction at the bladder neck or in the urethra, a weak bladder, or an enlarged prostate.

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Keeping A Bathroom Journal

You may be asked to keep a bathroom journal before or after your appointment. In your journal, youll log all your bathroom trips and bladder leakage or issues. It can also be helpful to record what you eat and drink in your bladder journal. This record will help your doctor get a more accurate idea of your symptoms and how often they occur. Keeping a journal can also determine what triggers your need to pee or any accidents.

When Should I See A Healthcare Provider

Urinary Incontinence (Stress, Urge, Overflow & Functional) | Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment

See a healthcare provider if you experience any symptoms of an overactive bladder.

Age-related OAB may develop gradually and slowly worsen over time. If your symptoms develop suddenly and you have heavy leakage, your OAB may be a symptom of another condition, such as an infection or a neurological issue. Its best to have a provider check these symptoms sooner rather than later.

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How Is Neurogenic Bladder Treated

Bladder training: A non-surgical approach helps patients learn the skills and exercises needed to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles. Some patients might be asked to keep a diary recording the time of urination and amount passed, so the patient can establish a more manageable pattern for urination.
Catheterization: In this treatment, patients are taught how to self-insert a small catheter tube in order to empty the bladder at regular intervals.
Sacral Neuromodulation: In this relatively new approach, small electrodes and a stimulator are inserted near nerves related to bladder function. The stimulator delivers the electrical impulses that the body would normally receive if the nerves were undamaged.

Causes And Treatments For A Dogs Weak Bladder

Causes

1) Your beloved pet is consuming more water than is normal. This often leads to a weak bladder and the need to urinate often. This is often a sign the dog may have medical issues such as diabetes, kidney failure, or hyperthyroidism.

2) If the dog has had recent urinary tract infections, this can cause the bladder to weaken. This may be a temporary problem once the infection is cured, especially in younger dogs.

3) In female dogs a decrease in hormones such as estrogen can result in a weak bladder sphincter causing the dog to urinate more than normal.

4) If your dog has suffered an injury or been diagnosed with a disease to the spinal cord this is possibly the cause. Also any injury to the lumbar area is another possible cause for the incontinence.

Treatments

1) If you suspect your dog might be suffering from one of these problems, there is a relatively easy procedure your local vet can perform as a way to pin down what the cause is. Have your vet do a urinalysis or urine culture at their office. In most cases this will be all that is needed to diagnose the problem properly. If this does not yield the results for correcting the problem, the vet can then do a radiograph and blood panel test to further narrow down the issue of why your dog in fact has a weak bladder.

3) There are several drugs that can be given if there is no specific cause found. According to an article on the Medi-Vet.com website:

Medications That Can Cause Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence, or the loss of bladder control, can be caused by various health conditions and physical changes, such as childbirth, changes in diet, infection, prostate issues, menopause, and neurological disorders. But there are also a number of medications can cause urinary incontinence in both men and women in a variety of different ways.

Medication

From Better Bladder and Bowel Control, Harvard Health Publishing

Image: Thinkstock

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Other Causes Of Urinary Hesitancy

Both women and men are susceptible to urinary hesitancy resulting from:

Dysfunction of bladder muscles
Surgery and surgical anesthetics
Psychological influences, including shy bladder syndrome

Women can also suffer nerve damage resulting from pregnancy that causes urinary problems, including a weak urine stream.

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:

How Bad Is It

Your doctor may ask you questions to help figure out how much OAB is affecting your life. For example, you could rate on a scale of 1 to 5 how much you’ve been bothered by things like accidental leaks, lots of daytime bathroom breaks, and waking up at night to go. Your doctor might also ask you to keep a voiding diary of your bathroom trips.

How Do You Fix A Weak Bladder

Here are 18 tips to help fix your weak bladder.

1. Get your bladder stronger through exercise

The best way to improve the strength of your bladder is with Kegel exercises. A weak bladder can cause problems like urinary incontinence. If you want to learn how to fix a weak bladder, then do some kegel exercises! These are supposed to be done by clenching the muscles in your pelvic floor. Keep doing these until you feel them getting stronger!

2. Add fiber to your diet

Fiber is important for a healthy digestive tract, but it can also help strengthen your bladder too. If you want to fix a weak bladder then add more fiber into your diet. You can eat high-fiber foods like oatmeal, flaxseed, popcorn, and nuts.

3. Use the bathroom at certain times

If you wait until its too late to go to the bathroom then your bladder will be weaker than it would have been if you went beforehand! Avoid drinking lots of liquids before bedtime so that you can wake up in the morning with a full bladder.

4. Avoid lifting heavy objects

A weak bladder can sometimes be caused by straining when you lift heavy items. If the pelvic floor feels the strain and its not strong enough, then your bladder might let go. You can easily prevent this by making sure that you lift objects in a healthy way!

5. Lose excess weight

This might seem obvious, but if your weight is over the line then it could cause problems with your bladder. If you are overweight, then losing excess pounds will make your bladder stronger!

Questions To Ask Your Health Care Provider

How to Cure Urinary Incontinence with Kegel Exercises

What causes neurogenic bladder?
Can neurogenic bladder be prevented?
Can you help me or do I need to see a specialist in neurourology? If so, how can I find the right one for me?
Will I need to have tests to find out what is causing my neurogenic bladder?
Would you explain each test and why you are recommending them?
What types of treatment are available for neurogenic bladder?
Are there side effects of treatment?
What are the pros and cons of each type of treatment?
What treatment do you recommend for me and why?
What happens if the first treatment doesn’t help?
Are there any lifestyle changes I can make that could help my symptoms?

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How Can I Manage Incontinence At Home

Incontinence can be uncomfortable and disruptive. It can cause sleeping problems, make you feel ashamed or angry, or affect your daily life in other ways. In addition to working with your health care team to find the best treatment, there are things you can do at home to help make incontinence better or more comfortable.

Limit how much you drink, especially coffee and alcohol. Avoid foods that can irritate the bladder, including dairy products, citrus fruits, sugar, chocolate, soda, tea, and vinegar.
Go to the bathroom right before bedtime and any vigorous activity.
Wear an absorbent pad inside your underwear or disposable incontinence underwear.
Maintain a healthy weight. Extra weight can put pressure on the bladder and muscles that support it.
Go to the bathroom regularly each day. Do not wait too long or put off going.
Quit smoking. Nicotine can irritate the bladder. It can also make you cough and leak urine.
Do Kegel exercises. Ask your health care team about doing Kegel exercises at home. They can make your bladder stronger. To do Kegel exercises, first tighten the muscles you use to stop the flow of urine. Then, relax those muscles. Repeat the exercise several times. During this exercise, relax the muscles in your belly, buttocks, and thigh.

Finally, it can help to find support. Talk with your health care team or join a support group for people with bladder problems. It can help you feel better to know that other people are also dealing with incontinence.

Overactive Bladder Treatment Options

Research indicates that most people believe the symptoms of an overactive bladder are an inevitable and normal part of growing older, rather than a treatable medical problem. This couldnt be further from the truth.

In fact, fewer than half of individuals with incontinence actually consult a healthcare provider about their problem. This is unfortunate, since there are many treatments available to combat symptoms of OAB.

Even though it may feel embarrassing to talk about your condition, its important to talk to your doctor about your incontinence symptoms. Watch our short film below about the importance of speaking up about bladder leakage.

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 Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis
certain connective tissue disorders such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome
certain medicines

What Causes Bladder Leaks

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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.

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What Else Causes Bladder Control Problems In Women

Certain life events and health problems can lead to stress incontinence in women by weakening the pelvic floor muscles

pregnancy and childbirth

Weak pelvic floor muscles can make it hard for your bladder to hold urine in during stress incontinence. Stress incontinence occurs when an actioncoughing, sneezing, laughing, or physical activityputs pressure on your bladder and causes urine to leak. A weak pelvic floor can also cause fecal incontinence, or bowel control problems.

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Can Urinary Incontinence Be Reversed

The term urinary incontinence describes when a person cannot control their urination, to the point that they wet themselves. It can also cause frequent dribbling throughout the day and night. Although urinary incontinence is a common problem, it can be frustrating and embarrassing for those who suffer from it.

If your doctor has recently informed you that you have a form of urinary incontinence or you just suspect it, you may be wondering if the problem will ever go away. The good news about this issue is that you may be able to fully reverse it or at least reduce your symptoms. We describe some of the most common treatment methods for urinary incontinence below.

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