Healthy Bladder Habits

Are you having difficulty holding your pee?

Do you get frequent urges to pee and it is disrupting your day to day routine?

Do you find yourself almost not making it to the bathroom in time?

Read below for some tips to keep your bladder healthy

The bladder is one of the most trainable organs. Often times behavior modifications can make a big difference in reducing or eliminating symptoms such as urinary urgency and an overactive bladder.

Make sure you are drinking enough water. It may seem counterintuitive if you are urinating frequently, but when we don't drink enough fluid, our urine can become more concentrated and irritate the bladder more, causing unwanted symptoms. Also, keep in mind that exercise and breast-feeding can dehydrate.

TRY THIS:

Explore drinking 6-8 fluid ounces of liquid a day (1/2 of which is ideally water). *if you have kidney issues or other medical conditions, check with your provider first.
Limit bladder irritants. These can include caffeine, alcohol, teas and citrus juices, sodas, chocolates, among other things. Limiting does not mean cutting them out completely. Start off by being mindful of what you are taking in.
Use the bathroom every 2-4 hours, or about 5-8 times within a 24 hour period. Each urine stream should last for 8 seconds. Notice if you urinate more or less frequently. This will keep your bladder trained so it doesn't become too over or under active.
Bladder is meant to be a storage unit, meaning it should be emptied only when full (*it is a myth that you get UTIs if you don’t empty it before it’s full )
Make sure you are completely emptying the bladder when peeing. In order to do this, do not strain to start or stop the flow of urine. Make sure you are sitting supported on the toilet (not squatting over the toilet) so your pelvic floor muscles can relax. Explore diaphragmatic breathing to help relax your pelvic floor muscles. If you don't know how to relax those muscles, some additional training can help.
If you get frequent urges to pee but find your urine stream lasts less than 8 seconds, then your bladder wasn't at the optimal full point to go. To avoid going so often you can explore:
- cutting out the "just in case peeing"
- try urge suppression techniques when feeling the urge to go. These can include relaxing the muscles of the pelvis, doing quick gentle pelvic floor contractions, identifying if there are triggers that causes the urge to happen more frequently (like water running)
Wearing cotton underwear or loose fitting clothes
Avoid constipation - a look at what you eat and your exercise habits can be a good start to help with this.

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