Hello and welcome again to this blog. Let's learn about urinary incontinence.
What is urinary incontinence?
Urinary incontinence means that you can't always control when you urinate. The severity of urinary incontinence ranges from occasionally leaking urine when you cough or sneeze to having sudden, unpredictable episodes of strong urinary urgency. Sometimes, the urgency may be so strong you don't get to a toilet in time and you get wet. About 12 million adults in the United States have urinary incontinence. It's most common in women over 50 years old. But it can also affect younger people, especially women who have just given birth. Be sure to talk to your doctor if you have this problem. If you hide your incontinence, you risk getting rashes, sores, and skin and urinary tract infections. Also, you may find yourself avoiding friends and family because of fear and embarrassment.
Although urinary incontinence affects millions of people, it isn't a normal part of aging or, in women, an inevitable consequence of childbirth or changes after menopause. It's a medical condition with many possible causes, some relatively simple and self-limited and others more complex.
Causes
Urinary incontinence isn't a disease, it's a symptom. It indicates some underlying problem or condition that likely can and should be treated.
Except when you're urinating, your bladder muscle stays relaxed so that it can expand to store urine. The relaxed bladder gets support from increasing contractions of your pelvic floor muscles. Your bladder and pelvic floor muscles communicate with each other to help hold urine in the bladder without leaking.
When your bladder is full, it sends nerve signals to your brain. In response, and at an appropriate time and place, you relax your pelvic floor muscles and your bladder contracts, allowing urine to pass through the urethra and out of your body.
Causes of temporary urinary incontinence
Certain foods, drinks and medications can cause temporary urinary incontinence. A simple change in habits can bring relief.
Alcohol. Beer, wine and spirits are all diuretics. They cause your bladder to fill quickly, triggering an urgent and sometimes uncontrollable need to urinate. In addition, alcohol can temporarily impair your ability to recognize the need to urinate and act on that need in a timely manner.
Over-hydration. Drinking a lot of water or other beverages, particularly in a short period of time, increases the amount of urine your bladder has to deal with and may result in an occasional accident.
Dehydration. If you have urge incontinence, you may try to limit your fluids to reduce the number of trips to the toilet. However, if you don't consume enough liquid to stay hydrated, your urine can occasionally become very concentrated. This collection of concentrated salts can irritate your bladder and worsen your urge incontinence.
Caffeine. Caffeine also is a diuretic. It causes your bladder to fill more quickly and hold less than usual so that you suddenly and perhaps uncontrollably need to urinate.
Bladder irritation. Carbonated drinks, tea and coffee — with or without caffeine — may irritate your bladder and cause episodes of urge incontinence. Citrus fruits and juices and artificial sweeteners also can be sources of aggravation.
Medications. Sedatives, such as sleeping pills, can sometimes interfere with your ability to control bladder function. Other medications — including water pills (diuretics), muscle relaxants and antidepressants — can cause or increase incontinence. Some high blood pressure drugs, heart medications and cold medicines also can affect bladder function. After surgery, some people experience temporary overflow incontinence from the lingering effects of anesthesia.
Easily treatable medical conditions also may be responsible for urinary incontinence.
Urinary tract infection. Infectious agents — usually bacteria — can enter your urethra and bladder and start to multiply. The resulting infection irritates your bladder, causing you to have strong urges to urinate.
Constipation. The rectum is located near the bladder and shares many of the same nerves. Hard, compacted stool in your rectum causes these nerves to be overactive and trigger urine frequency.
Causes of persistent urinary incontinence
Urinary incontinence can also be a persistent condition caused by some underlying physical problem — weakened pelvic floor or bladder muscles, neurological diseases, or an obstruction in your urinary tract. Factors that can lead to chronic incontinence include:
Pregnancy and childbirth. Pregnant women may experience stress incontinence because of hormonal changes and the increased weight of an enlarging uterus. In addition, the stress of a vaginal delivery can weaken the pelvic floor muscles and the ring of muscles that surrounds the urethra (urinary sphincter). The result is often stress incontinence . The changes that occur during childbirth can also damage bladder nerves and supportive tissue and can lead to a dropped (prolapsed) pelvic floor, producing a vaginal bulge. With prolapse, your bladder, uterus, rectum or small bowel can get pushed down from the usual position and protrude into your vagina. Such protrusions can be associated with incontinence. Incontinence related to childbirth may develop right after delivery or, more likely, may not develop until years later.
Changes with aging. Aging of the bladder muscle affects both men and women, leading to a decrease in the bladder's capacity to store urine and an increase in overactive bladder symptoms. Risk of overactive bladder increases if you have blood vessel disease, so maintaining good overall health — including stopping smoking, treating high blood pressure and keeping your weight within a healthy range — can help curb symptoms of overactive bladder.
Women produce less of the hormone estrogen after menopause, a decrease that can contribute to incontinence. Estrogen helps keep the lining of the bladder and urethra healthy. With less estrogen, your urethra can't hold back urine as easily as before.
Interstitial cystitis. This rare, chronic condition can be associated with an inflammation of the bladder wall. It occasionally causes urinary incontinence, as well as painful and frequent urination. Interstitial cystitis affects women more often than men, and its cause isn't clear.
Prostatitis. Loss of bladder control isn't a typical sign of prostatitis, or inflammation of the prostate gland . Even so, urinary incontinence sometimes occurs with this extremely common condition. The prostate actually surrounds the urethra, so inflammation of the prostate occasionally swells and constricts the urethra, blocking normal urine flow and leading to urinary urgency and frequency. Rarely, this also causes incontinence.
Enlarged prostate and prostate cancer. In older men, incontinence often stems from enlargement of the prostate gland, a condition also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). For some men, this problem results in urge or overflow incontinence. Prostate cancer behaves the same way, and further incontinence can develop as a consequence of surgery or radiation to treat it.
Bladder cancer or bladder stones. Incontinence, urinary urgency and burning with urination can be signs and symptoms of bladder cancer and also of bladder stones. Other signs and symptoms include blood in the urine and pelvic pain.
Neurological disorders. Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, stroke, a brain tumor or a spinal injury can interfere with nerve signals involved in bladder control, causing urinary incontinence.
Obstruction. A tumor anywhere along your urinary tract can obstruct the normal flow of urine and cause incontinence, usually overflow incontinence. Urinary stones — hard, stone-like masses that can form in the bladder — may be to blame for urine leakage. Urinary obstruction can also occur after overcorrection during a surgical procedure to correct urinary incontinence, leading to more urine leakage.
Types of Urinary Incontinence
Stress incontinence. Stress incontinence is when urine leaks because of sudden pressure on your lower stomach muscles, such as when you cough, laugh, lift something or exercise. Stress incontinence usually occurs when the pelvic muscles are weakened, for example by childbirth or surgery. Stress incontinence is common in women.
Urge incontinence. This occurs when the need to urinate comes on too fast -- before you can get to a toilet. Your body may only give you a warning of a few seconds to minutes before you urinate. Urge incontinence is most common in the elderly and may be a sign of an infection in the kidneys or bladder.
Overflow incontinence. This type of incontinence is a constant dripping of urine. It's caused by an overfilled bladder. You may feel like you can't empty your bladder all the way and you may strain when urinating. This often occurs in men and can be caused by something blocking the urinary flow, such as an enlarged prostate gland or tumor. Diabetes or certain medicines may also cause the problem.
Functional incontinence. This type occurs when you have normal urine control but have trouble getting to the bathroom in time. You may not be able to get to the bathroom because of arthritis or other diseases that make it hard to move around.
Why is discussing urinary incontinence with your doctor important?
1. Urinary incontinence may indicate a more serious underlying condition, especially if it's associated with blood in your urine.
2. Urinary incontinence may be causing you to restrict your activities and limit your social interactions to avoid embarrassment.
3. Urinary incontinence may increase the risk of falls in older adults as they rush to make it to the toilet.
A few isolated incidents of incontinence don't necessarily require medical attention. But if incontinence is frequent or affecting your quality of life, talk to your doctor.
Prevention
Incontinence is not always preventable. However, you may be able to decrease your risk of urinary incontinence with these steps:
A. Maintain a healthy weight. By taking good care of yourself and keeping or getting your weight under control, you may be able to decrease your risk of urinary incontinence.
B. Don't smoke. Get help in quitting if you do smoke.
C. Kegel exercises. Because pregnancy and childbirth can weaken the urinary sphincter and pelvic floor muscles, doctors may advise pregnant women to do Kegel exercises during pregnancy as a preventive measure.
D. Avoid bladder irritants. Avoiding or limiting certain foods and drinks may help prevent or limit urinary incontinence. For example, if you know that drinking more than two cups of coffee makes you have to urinate uncontrollably, cutting back to one cup of coffee or forgoing caffeine may be all that you need to do.
E. Eat more fiber. Including more fiber in your diet or taking fiber supplements can help prevent constipation, a risk factor for urinary incontinence. Your doctor may recommend that you drink more or less water as a preventive measure, depending on your bladder problem.
F. Be active. Physical activity reduces your risk of developing incontinence. Results from the Nurses' Health Study show that women in that study who participated in moderate amounts of low-impact physical activity were less likely to experience urinary incontinence.
Treatment
1. Exercises
One of the most common treatment recommendations includes exercising the muscles of the pelvis.
Kegel exercises may strengthen a portion of the affected area. According to many industry specialists, the pelvic floor is actually a group of muscles and connective tissues running side-to-side and front to back along the bony ridges of the pelvis. Visualize the pelvic floor as a “hammock” or “bowl”. For everything to be working properly, this hammock should be worked out like every other muscle in the body.
Kegel exercises to strengthen or retrain pelvic floor muscles and sphincter muscles can reduce stress leakage. Patients younger than 60 years old benefit the most. The patient should do at least 24 daily contractions for at least 6 weeks.
Increasingly there is evidence of the effectiveness of pelvic floor muscle exercise (PFME) to improve bladder control. For example, urinary incontinence following childbirth can be improved by performing PFME.
2. Vaginal cone therapy
A more recently developed exercise technique suitable only for women involves the use of a set of five small vaginal cones of increasing weight. For this exercise, the patient simply places the small plastic cone within her vagina, where it is held in by a mild reflex contraction of the pelvic floor muscles. Because it is a reflex contraction, little effort is required on the part of the patient. This exercise is done twice a day for fifteen to twenty minutes, while standing or walking around, for example doing daily household tasks. As the pelvic floor muscles get stronger, cones of increasing weight can be used, thereby strengthening the muscles gradually. The advantage of this method is that the correct muscles are automatically exercised by holding in the cone, and the method is effective after a much shorter time. Clinical trials with vaginal cones have shown that the pelvic floor muscles start to become stronger within two to three weeks, and light to medium stress incontinence can resolve after eight to twelve weeks of use.
3. Electrical stimulation
Brief doses of electrical stimulation can strengthen muscles in the lower pelvis in a way similar to exercising the muscles. Electrodes are temporarily placed in the vagina or rectum to stimulate nearby muscles. This can stabilize overactive muscles and stimulate contraction of urethral muscles. Electrical stimulation can be used to reduce both stress incontinence and urge incontinence.
4. Biofeedback
Biofeedback uses measuring devices to help the patient become aware of his or her body's functioning. By using electronic devices or diaries to track when the bladder and urethral muscles contract, the patient can gain control over these muscles. Biofeedback can be used with pelvic muscle exercises and electrical stimulation to relieve stress and urge incontinence.
5. Timed voiding or bladder training
Timed voiding (urinating) and bladder training are techniques that use biofeedback. In timed voiding, the patient fills in a chart of voiding and leaking. From the patterns that appear in the chart, the patient can plan to empty his or her bladder before he or she would otherwise leak. Biofeedback and muscle conditioning--known as bladder training--can alter the bladder's schedule for storing and emptying urine. These techniques are effective for urge and overflow incontinence.
6. Medications
Medications can reduce many types of leakage. Some drugs inhibit contractions of an overactive bladder, others relax muscles, leading to more complete bladder emptying during urination, and yet others tighten muscles at the bladder neck and urethra, preventing leakage. Some hormones, such as estrogen, are believed to cause muscles involved in urination to function normally.
Pharmacological treatments of urinary incontinence include:
topical or vaginal estrogens - used in cases of vaginal atrophy
tolterodine (Detrol)
oxybutynin
propantheline
darifenacin (Enablex)
solifenacin (Vesicare)
trospium - used in urge incontinence
imipramin - used in mixed and stress urinary incontinence
pseudoephedrine
duloxetine (Cymbalta) - used but not FDA approved in stress urinary incontinence
Some of these medications can produce harmful side effects if used for long periods. In particular, estrogen therapy has been associated with an increased risk of cancers of the breast and endometrium (lining of the uterus). A patient should talk to a doctor about the risks and benefits of long-term use of medications.
7. Pessaries
A pessary is a medical device that is inserted into the vagina. The most common kind is ring shaped, and is typically recommended to correct vaginal prolapse. The pessary compresses the urethra against the symphysis pubis and elevates the bladder neck. For some women this may reduce stress leakage. If a pessary is used, vaginal and urinary tract infections may occur and regular monitoring by a doctor is recommended.
8. Surgery
Doctors usually suggest surgery to alleviate incontinence only after other treatments have been tried. Many surgical options have high rates of success. Urodynamic testing seems to confirm that surgical restoration of vault prolapse can cure motor urge incontinence. Used as a last resource treatment.
Some of the more common procedures include:
Artificial urinary sphincter. Shaped like a doughnut, the device is implanted around the neck of your bladder. The fluid-filled ring keeps your urinary sphincter shut tight until you're ready to urinate. To urinate, you press a valve implanted under your skin that causes the ring to deflate and allows urine from your bladder to be released. This surgery is the most effective procedure for male incontinence.
Bulking material injections. Some women and men with stress incontinence benefit from urethral injections of bulking agents. This procedure involves injecting bulking materials — which may be cow-derived collagen, carbon particle beads or synthetic sugars — into the tissue surrounding the urethra or the skin next to the urinary sphincter. The injection tightens the seal of the sphincter by bulking up the surrounding tissue. The procedure is done with minimal anesthesia and typically takes about two to three minutes. It usually needs to be repeated after several months, because the effect can be lost over time.
Sacral nerve stimulator. This small device acts on nerves that control bladder and pelvic floor contractions. The device, which resembles a pacemaker, is implanted under the skin in your abdomen. A wire from the device is connected to a sacral nerve — an important nerve in bladder control that runs from your lower spinal cord to your bladder. Through the wire, the device emits electrical pulses that stimulate the nerve and help control the bladder. The pulse doesn't cause pain and provides relief from heavy leaking in many cases.
Sling procedure. The most popular and common surgery for women with stress incontinence is the sling procedure. During this procedure, a surgeon removes a strip of abdominal tissue and places it under the urethra. Or the surgeon may use a strip of synthetic mesh material or a strip of tissue from a donor (xenograft) or cadaver. The strip acts like a hammock, compressing the urethra to prevent leaks that occur with the activities of daily living. Sling procedures improve or cure incontinence in most cases.
Bladder neck suspension. In this procedure, your surgeon makes a 3- to 5-inch incision in your lower abdomen. Through this incision, he or she places stitches (sutures) in the tissue near the bladder neck and secures the stitches to a ligament near your pubic bone (Burch procedure) or in the cartilage of the pubic bone itself (Marshall-Marchetti-Krantz, or MMK, procedure). This has the effect of bolstering your urethra and bladder neck so that they don't sag. The downside of this procedure is that it involves major abdominal surgery.
9. Other measures such as the use of protective pads and catheters can alleviate the symptoms of urinary incontinence.
Alternative Medicine
Cranberry juice is acidic and is known to be beneficial to the bladder, so add it to your diet.
Limit your fluid intake to 4 glasses of water a day.
Empty your bladder regularly, at least six to eight times a day to avoid "accidents".
In women, lower estrogen levels during menopause can cause urethral tissue to become thinner, less resilient, and less elastic, leading to reduced sphincter control. The addition of phytoestrogens (plant estrogens) to the diet can be helpful for women who experience menopause-related tissue atrophy. Phytoestrogens are compounds found in plants that produce an estrogen-like effect in the body.
In most cases, adding phytoestrogens to the diet is safe and easy and the following items may be suggested roasted soy nuts, soy milk, soy protein powder, tempeh, textured soy protein and tofu. Soy isoflavones, which are the components of soy with the strongest estrogenic properties, are available in capsule form in health food stores and supermarket nutrition sections. A typical dose is 50–150 mg daily.
Nutritional-wise eliminate food sensitivities which may cause chronic inflammatory conditions. Eat whole, fresh, unrefined, and unprocessed foods. Include fruits, vegetables, whole grains, soy, beans, seeds, nuts, olive oil, and cold-water fish (salmon, tuna, sardines, halibut, and mackerel).
Avoid sugar, dairy products, refined foods, fried foods, junk foods, and caffeine.
Homeopathy treatments include
Causticum 3 pellets of 30C every 4 hours until symptoms resolve– Indicated for stress incontinence associated with difficulty urinating.
Natrum muriaticum 3 pellets of 30C every 4 hours until symptoms resolve– Indicated for stress incontinence associated with the menopausal symptoms of vaginal dryness, painful intercourse, and a history of emotional grief.
Pareira 3 pellets of 30C every 4 hours until symptoms resolve – Indicated for difficulty urinating due to prostate.
Other compounds can be also tried such as Aloe, Argentum Nitricum, Belladona, etc.
