The inability to make it to the bathroom in time after feeling the sudden need to urinate is one of the symptoms of an overactive bladder. Find out what causes an overactive bladder and how you may get your bladder under control.
If you really need to use the restroom, you should go. A stretched bladder makes it more difficult to “hold it” until it’s empty. The problem is that there is such a thing as going too often. It’s common for people to use the restroom seven times a day.
An overactive bladder is one in which pee is unexpectedly released from the urinary storage organ. An overactive bladder causes a frequent need to urinate because of abnormal muscle contractions in the bladder. Urgency incontinence develops when one has a sudden and intense need to urinate but is unable to get to a restroom in time.
You may have an overactive bladder if you have two or more of the following symptoms.
- Have the sudden, intense need to urinate promptly
- Urinate eight or more times a day or two or more times at night.
- Spit up urine after experiencing an urgent need to urinate
However, bladder training can be helpful. Here’s how.
You Should Be Careful With Your Drinks
If you have an overactive bladder, drinking 10 to 12 glasses of water a day (80 to 96 ounces) may make you have to use the restroom too frequently, every hour or two. Women should drink when thirsty, but no more than 70 ounces per day.
Additionally, stay away from alcohol and coffee due to their diuretic effects, which encourage the excretion of water and salt from the body and increase the frequency of urination.
Log Use of the Restroom
Keeping a voiding journal is the first step in bladder training.
Keep track of how much you drink and how often you urinate for a few days. You can use this data as a starting point in your efforts to cut down on car rides.
Keeping a voiding diary while you’re training your bladder is a great way to track your progress and keep yourself encouraged.
Time Voiding
Using the data from your urination log, establish a regular schedule for going to the restroom. Then, during your awake hours, use a stopwatch or interval timer to ensure you stick to your routine.
It’s called “timed voiding” when this happens. Even if you aren’t in urgent need to go to the bathroom, you should still go ahead and empty your bladder when the timer goes off. When you first open your eyes in the morning, you should also go to the bathroom and urinate. Only get up in the middle of the night if you absolutely have to use the restroom.
Lengthen the Intervals Between Visits
After you’ve established a regular urination routine, you can add 15 minutes to the amount of time you wait between visits. Example: if you urinate every hour and 15 minutes, try holding it for an hour and a half for a week.
You have an hour and 45 minutes from the time you’re ready to start shooting until you need to stop. The goal is to urinate around every three hours, but the exact schedule is flexible.
Five Minutes Please
Try to resist the temptation to leave five minutes early.
You can control your urge to urinate by using methods such as Kegel exercises and deep breathing. If you are able to “mind over bladder,” then continue with your routine; otherwise, you should use the restroom and start over.
Keep Waiting
Bladder training can take up to three months, and you may experience a few setbacks along the way. Patients may expect to see consistent improvement within six weeks, with some experiencing results within a week.
Perform Kegel Exercises
The effectiveness of bladder training can be considerably enhanced by performing Kegel exercises, which entail clenching the muscles around the vagina in a way that mimics “raising” your pelvic floor.
About half of the women complete the Kegel exercises improperly, so its recommends having a healthcare expert watch you as you do them. Starting with 10 fast contractions and then 10 “reps” held for five to ten seconds each is what usually recommended. Try to complete two or three sets daily.
Count on Biofeedback as an Option
A lot of people struggle to learn the proper form when performing Kegel exercises. Biofeedback is a useful technique that can be applied.
A sensor-equipped device is surgically implanted in the patient in order to track the contractions of the pelvic floor muscles. Sensors worn on the anus are used for therapy, or a little tampon-like device is implanted in the vagina.
If you’re doing Kegels correctly, and if your contractions are strong enough, you’ll receive visual or aural feedback as you exercise.
To try vaginal weights
By targeting the correct muscles, vaginal weights can be an effective tool in the fight against bladder leakage during Kegel exercises. You may have heard of devices that claim to improve pelvic muscles when placed in the vagina; they are often weighted cones or balls.
They are hardly a miracle cure, though. Using weights is not more helpful than doing Kegels by themselves or using electrostimulation.
Don’t go ordering them from the catalog without first consulting with your doctor. It may be a waste of money and a very disheartening experience.
Seek Help
While self-training is possible, having a professional’s guidance is invaluable.
It’s human nature to slack off on exercise, Encouragement, and comments can help you stay on track.
If you need help with bladder control, your doctor can recommend you to a physical therapist who specializes in the area, or some of the best incontinence pads for the time being or to a nurse practitioner who specializes in continence.
So don’t hesitate to ask for help.
