Weak Bladder Problems, Things We Don’t talk About Because Its Too Embarrassing.
Control Your Bladder Before It Controls You.
As we get older things happen to our bodies that sometimes are very embarrassing to talk about, especially to our friends and our families. It is not always about ones age that can cause us to have weak bladders it could be a number of things and half the female population will experience urinary incontinence at some point in their lives. Stastistics have shown that women are 5 times more likelier to develop bladder problems than men and 1 if 5 women will seek help and go to their GP’s. The age range is about 6% of women between 15 to 44 experience incontinence issues whilst the statistics show 10% of men over 65 to have urinary incontinence to some degree. Studies have shown that in the UK “major faecal incontinence” affects 1.4% of the general population over 40 years old.
However experiencing public humiliation can be avoided if you train your bladder. Have you been in a situation you have coughed or laughed and trickled (now you know where the term comes from “I nearly peed myself laughing” comes from).
Or have had to make a mad dash to the toilet rugby tackling people along the way. What ever the scenario, there are things that you can do to make your life a little less embarrassing without leaving tell tale wet patches around.
We can mock all we want but it is no laughing matter especially when it happens to the best of us. We are human after all.
The causes of embarrasiing problems include weak bladder which I will focus on today but there are other symptoms to do with mental health that people have a hard time talking about, which I will address in another post.
Weak bladder can be caused by the following:
- Drinking too much alcohol or caffeine (tea/coffee) or energy drinks. (I am guilty of this).
- Not drinking enough fluids such as water – this can cause strong, concentrated urine to collect in your bladder, which can irritate the bladder and cause symptoms of overactivity and cystisis.
- If you are not going regularly for a No2 and you find your are constipated.
- Infections and underling conditions affecting the lower urinary tract (urethra and bladder) – such as urinary tract infections (UTIs) or tumours in the bladder.
- Neurological conditions such as Multiple Sclerosis or Parkinsons Disease.
- Natural Childbith where your pelvic floor may be weak.
- Certain medicines such as angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, diuretic, antidepressants, hormone replacement therapy (HRT), sedatives. (My medications can also be a factor of me having a weak bladder)
- Increased pressure on your tummy – for example, being heavily pregnant or over weight. (I am definitely overweight as working from home limits how much excersise I do which at the moment is virtually non existent, plus the fact I am social distancing myself from everyone because of my OCD beliefs and cross contamination).
- Damage to the bladder or nearby area during surgery – such as the removal of the womb (hysterectomy), or removal of the prostate gland.
- Connective tissue disorders such as Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.
- Having a poor diet eating, spicy or acidic foods.
- Smoking.
The best way to combat incontinence is to change our lifestyles and take better care of our bodies, starting with perlvic floor exercises and changing our diets. But that means discipline as nothing happens overnight.
We can also do some jogging either out and about or on a tread mill and aerobics, with strengthening exercise, such as pilates. There are plenty YouTube Videos you can find and adapt. Also avoid lifting heavy things as this will effect your pelvic floor and add further uneccessary strain.
There are non surgical aids one can use to counteract a weak bladder from incontinece pads to supplements.
Absorbent products, such as pants, pads or pany liners can save you from some embarrassing moments when you simply cannot control your bladder long enough to get to the bathroom or handheld urinals, which are not ideal especially if you are caught out and about, like where can you discretly have a pee, you can’t?, unless you are maybe in you car or out on some country road where you could always take advantage of the bushes.
My brother said he once was caught short on the motorway in non moving traffic and was forced to pee in a coke bottle. Not so easy for women though. My mother had to make service pit stops at every junction when she used to go on longer journeys. For me my bladder gives me no warning at all and I have to do my wriggle dance long enough to run to the toilet which happens to be like clockwork every two hours hence I never get a full eight hours beauty sleep. Its not as if I can time it one minute im ok and the next minute I am desperate.
More Information about Urinary Incontinence please visit: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/urinary-incontinence/causes/
I have recommended some incontinence supplements and aids below:
Final Thoughts.
Regardless of your age you should never be too embarrassed to say that you have a bladder problem and if you cannot manage it yourself you may need to get some medical advice and see what options are available for you.
