Managing Bladder Control Problems At Home
What can I do on my own to manage bladder control problems?
Often decreasing fluid intake can be very effective. People who drink high volumes of water are likely to leek more often than people who drink lower volumes of water. I'm not recommending becoming dehydrated and, if someone exercises, I definitely recommend hydration. I think it's important for people to try to use the thirst mechanism they were born with. People have really forgotten that. In addition to restricting fluids, pelvic floor exercises or the Kagel exercises, can be quite effective.
Can diet help me solve bladder control problems?
There are fluids that we recommend staying away from, particularly diuretics. Alcohol, caffeine can become a diuretic, coffee and other caffeinated beverages not only act in a diuretic fashion, meaning increasing urine output but also can be irritants to the bladder. There is some data on avoiding certain foods but those are usually recommended for patients with bladder pain type syndromes. That data is not well substantiated so I don't typically restrict patients from certain food groups.
Can I 'train' my bladder?
Some people run to the toilet because of urinary frequency, but it's mostly because of a discomfort in the bladder. Those patients do well with training their bladder. But before training the bladder has begun, I recommend they see a physician because it's necessary for the physician to asses how big that patient's bladder is. I often doing that with a voiding diary; I have patients record the time and amount of every time they pee, for two days. And then, I look at their diary and see what the biggest volume is that their bladder holds. And if they can hold a big amount, then I know they don't need to be going to the bathroom every ten minutes for small amounts. So those patients are the patients who can best be trained. Patients with overactive bladder, who leak, they will leak if they hold it in too long, so it's not useful to recommend holding it in for patients with overactive bladder. Also, patients with stress incontinence, if they get too full, they're likely to leak more readily with the coughing episode. So many patients with stress incontinence empty their bladder more frequently in order to avoid leakage.
Will weight loss help restore bladder control?
Obesity can make someone who normally will be dry leak with complexities so losing weight can be definitely prevent or help stops complexities leakage .it snot easy to loose weight. In often patience who will obese can benefit surgical treatment as well .their husbands some association of obesity with other symptoms such us urging Connors but those are some wife's supported as the relationships between stress and Connors and obesity.
Do I have to wear diapers, or are there other products I could use?
The largest costs, financial costs of incontinence are diapers and pads. Diapers are usually used later once incontinence is quite severe. Younger people with cough laugh sneeze leakage tend to use pads. Are there other products? Not really. That's when in order to stop of decrease the usage of products, that's when we start talking about medical treatment. Medical or surgical treatement.
Can people tell that I'm wearing diapers or pads?
Not usually. I think it's more obvious the tighter the pants. But patients with incontenence tend to adapt, they change the type of pads, often will wear black. Patients who don't want to resort to pads, often you see them wearing black or if they are at the gym, they wear black so it's not as noticible. Usually, if you're not wearing tight clothes, pads and diapers aren't usually noticed.
