Be the Boss of Your Bladder
Urinary dysfunction is a term that covers multiple urinary-related issues; incontinence, frequent urination, incomplete emptying, painful urination, and frequent urinary tract infections are a few of them. Pelvic floor physical therapy, in conjunction with other medical intervention depending on symptoms, can help alleviate symptoms experienced with all of them.
How can physical therapy help?
Depending on what your symptoms are, how they originated, how strong they are and whether they have been getting better or worse all factor into the treatment plan. Treatment will most likely include manual release of core, hip and pelvic floor muscles to ensure proper mobility and excursion. Instruction on how to properly contract and relax the pelvic floor muscles for full utilization of the muscles. Visceral mobilization to ensure that the organs of the abdomen have space and mobility to function properly. Education on what is going on and prescription of a home exercise plan to ensure progress continues even when you are not in the PT office.
Want to know more?
Below you can read about the three types of urinary incontinence and various reasons why people may be experiencing these dysfunctions.
Stress urinary incontinence (SUI): the unintentional loss of urine due to a physical movement or activity such as coughing, sneezing, jumping rope, running, laughing, jumping or heavy lifting. SUI is due to weakness of the pelvic floor muscles but there are many reasons why the muscles may be weak.
Weakness may be due to overly tight muscles and not having enough excursion to properly strengthen. For example, if you can only straighten your elbow 50% of the way due to a tight bicep muscle, then you can also only strengthen the bicep muscle within that 50% range of motion and you are mission out on the other 50% of strength. In this case, stretching of the pelvic floor muscles needs to happen first and then strengthening can occur.
Weakness may be due incorrectly performing pelvic floor muscle contractions. Many people think they are doing a pelvic floor contraction (more commonly known as a “kegel”) but when examined, they are bearing down or not performing any movement of the pelvic floor muscles. In this case, the patient needs to be instructed on how to perform a proper pelvic floor contraction with various hold times and strengths.
Weakness can also be due to surgery. Our muscles loose strength quickly when immobilized and not used or when there is pain in the area. Post-surgical patients most likely need a period of low activity for recovery, however, once they have recovered they need to “re-train” their muscles to perform correctly. Especially with abdominal or pelvic surgery, the core and pelvic floor muscles will atrophy and our bodies will “forget” about them. We need to “remind” our brains that these muscles are there and useful by re-training them.
Urge Urinary Incontinence (UI): the sudden and strong need to urinate with a possible loss of urine due to bladder spasm.
UI can be psychologically linked. The bladder is a muscle and can be controlled or it can control you. If every time you arrive home you immediately go to the restroom, your bladder will “learn” to start contracting (which causes the urge to urinate) when you get home whether you need to empty your bladder or not. With the help of a pelvic floor physical therapist who understands dietary adjustments and appropriate lifestyle modifications, you can “train” your bladder to reduce the amount of UI you experience.
Many people experience a mild form of UI with warm water running over their hand or hearing running water from a faucet or a stream.
In some cases, UI is occurring due to nerve damage from diseases such as Parkinson’s, Diabetes, MS or a person has suffered a stroke, traumatic brain injury or spinal cord injury.
In other cases, UI may be occurring because the bladder is irritated due to infection or ingesting too much of a bladder irritant such as caffeine, alcohol, carbonated drinks, spicy foods or citrus acid fruits
Mixed Urinary Incontinence: when you experience the signs and symptoms of SUI and UI.
Please contact Verity Physical Therapy & Wellness for more information on urinary dysfunctions and to find out how pelvic floor physical therapy can equip you with the proper tools to help reduce and possibly fully eliminate your urinary dysfunction.