Can Thyroid Problems Cause Urinary Problems
Those with urinary problems may need to be checked for Graves, too.
From perspective of an urologist, thyroid disease is an important cause of urological symptoms in men and women.
Graves disease in particular can present early on with urinary symptoms such as frequent urination and slow urine stream,Dr..
The Best Ways To Improve Bladder Health After The Holidays
While taking preventative action before and during the holidays will help you reduce the severity of bladder conditions, most people like to enjoy themselves and indulge a little. Theres nothing wrong with this. To help deal with post-holiday stress and your bladder, getting back to your healthy routines as quickly as possible is essential. Some ways to do this include the following.
Oab/incontinence Symptoms In Oab Patients With Both Anxiety And Depression
Since there was a strong correlation between anxiety and depressive symptoms , we studied the influence of depression on the results. We compared the OAB/incontinence symptoms and quality of life measures among OAB subjects who had both anxiety and depression versus those who had anxiety but no depression . OAB subjects with both anxiety and depression reported higher ICIQ-UI and IIQ-7 scores than those who had anxiety but no depression . However no difference was noted in ICIQ-OAB, UDI-6 or OAB-q.
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How Is Urinary Incontinence Diagnosed
Your health care provider may use many tools to make a diagnosis:
- A medical history, which includes asking about your symptoms. Your provider may ask you to keep a bladder diary for a few days before your appointment. The bladder diary includes how much and when you drink liquids, when and how much you urinate, and whether you leak urine.
- A physical exam, which can include a rectal exam. Women may also get a pelvic exam.
- Urine and/or blood tests
- Imaging tests
What Are The Causes Of Overactive Bladder
In many cases, the cause of OAB is not easily identifiable. OAB symptoms are more common as one gets older, but should not be considered an untreatable consequence of aging. Also, OAB can occur in young women as well. Some women will experience OAB after childbirth or pelvic surgery. Certain neurological conditions can cause OAB symptoms including multiple sclerosis, Parkinsons disease, stroke, and spinal cord injury.
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Bladder Incontinence In Women
Bladder incontinence is more common in women than in men. Other than the possible causes listed above, some things that may increase risk of bladder incontinence in women are:
- Changes to urinary or vaginal tissue from hormone therapy, surgery, chemotherapy, or targeted therapy
- Hormonal changes from menopause
- Pelvic prolapse the bladder, uterus, and or rectum may slip backward or downward into the vaginal canal because of weak pelvic wall muscles
- Pregnancy
- Hysterectomy
Overactive Bladder And Irritable Bowel Syndrome
According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, about one in five U.S. adults have IBS. Symptoms include cramping, bloating, abdominal pain, gas, diarrhea, and constipation. Studies have found that anxiety also contributes to IBS. Over 33% of test subjects with OAB also had IBS . Anxiety and overactive bladder are not uncommon in those with IBS.
Why is this so? Well, it depends on who you ask. Traditional medicine has been unsure of the connection. Some theorize that muscles and nerves in both the urinary tract and colon are dysfunctional.
However, in recent years the medical world has gained an increased understanding of the brain-gut connection. According to Harvard Health Publishing, The gastrointestinal tract is sensitive to emotion. Anger, anxiety, sadness, elation all of these feelings can trigger symptoms in the gut. The gut refers to the digestive tract, and in the context of gut health, typically refers to the stomach, small intestine, and colon.
Your gut and brain send signals back and forth to each other, so when anxiety takes over, your gut knows it and reacts, disrupting digestion and causing intestinal distress.
This means that chronic anxiety can cause or exacerbate both bladder and intestinal problems like IBS at the same time.
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When To See A Doctor
If youve changed your diet or other lifestyle habits but still cant control when you urinate, you may benefit from seeing a doctor.
Its an especially good idea to see a doctor if:
- you avoid going out in public because youre afraid youll have an accident
- you dont spend time with family or friends because youre worried you smell like urine or cant control when you pee or
- youre worried or embarrassed about how often you urinate.
To schedule an appointment with a urogynecologist, call 801-213-2995.
Consider Alternative Treatment Options
In addition to the established treatment options for OAB, a variety of alternative treatments may help reduce symptom-related anxiety and stress.
The results of a 2020 randomized controlled trial involving 27 females revealed that laser acupuncture led to significant improvements in OAB symptoms and quality of life.
Researchers have also investigated electrical stimulation, which sends targeted electrical pulses to the muscles that control and support the bladder, for use in OAB treatment. A found that electrical stimulation, in combination with bladder training and biofeedback, significantly reduced the symptoms of OAB and improved quality of life.
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What Conditions Cause Overactive Bladder
Many medical conditions can cause an overactive bladder. They include the following:
- infections, including UTIs
- lose weight
- stop smoking
- practice pelvic exercises like Kegels
Caffeine: Remember that caffeine is found in many foodsnot just coffee. Sodas, teas, chocolate, and even energy drinks can all have caffeine. Why should you avoid caffeine? Caffeine can cause the muscles in your bladder to contract. This can make you feel like you have to pee more often.
Weight Loss: You dont have to lose a lot of weight to improve incontinence symptoms. Losing just five to 10 percent of your body weight can cut the number of bathroom accidents down by half.
Obesity can affect how the muscles and nerves inside your genital tract work. So obesity can also cause urinary problems.
Pelvic Exercises & Kegels: If arent noticing much improvement after doing Kegels at home, a physical therapist can teach you how to do Kegels properly .
What Medications Can Irritate The Bladder
In addition to high blood pressure drugs, heart medications, diuretics, muscle relaxants, antihistamines, sedatives, and antidepressants, there are also drugs that may contribute to bladder control problems. It is important to talk to your doctor if you experience difficulty urinating or incontinence while taking these drugs.
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Normal Female Bladder Function
The adult bladder is a hollow organ with a muscular wall. Urine enters the bladder from two ureters which run from the kidney to the bladder. Urine is expelled from the bladder to the exterior via the urethra.
The detrusor muscle of the bladder wall is specifically designed to be able to store urine without increasing bladder pressure. The bladder acts as a reservoir relaxing to receive urine during the filling phase and only contracts to evacuate during the voiding phase.
The urethra acts reciprocally to contract during the filling phase to keep urine in the bladder and relaxing during voiding to allow for micturition. At rest the urethra is closed and the walls coapt against each other to form a seal that acts to keep urine in the bladder. Under situations of increased abdominal pressure contraction of the pelvic floor muscles and muscles around the urethra act to offer increased urethral resistance and maintain continence.
This video explains the pathophysiology of the overactive bladder. Bladder overactivity is a common problem affecting nearly 1 in 7 seven women. The aim of the video is to understand what is happening when the bladder is overactive. When you understand the cause you are more likely to be compliant with the treatments.
How Do U Treat Overactive Bladder Syndrome
How do u treat overactive bladder syndrome? Medications that relax the bladder can be helpful for relieving symptoms of overactive bladder and reducing episodes of urge incontinence. These drugs include: Tolterodine Oxybutynin, which can be taken as a pill or used as a skin patch or gel
How do I get rid of overactive bladder fast? Theres no cure for OAB, but the good news is that there are effective ways to manage it. These include behavioral treatments, lifestyle changes, medications, and sometimes surgery. OAB can happen for several reasons. Sometimes treating the underlying cause of your OAB can help your symptoms.
Can an overactive bladder be cured? Overactive bladder describes a combination of symptoms that can include a frequent urge to urinate and waking up at night to urinate. Causes can include weak muscles, nerve damage, use of medications, alcohol or caffeine, infection, and being overweight. Lifestyle changes may help.
What is the main cause of overactive bladder? Urgency is the key symptom in diagnosing OAB and it is closely associated with frequent daytime desire to urinate, nocturia, and incontinence. Nocturia is reported as the most bothersome symptom .
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What Medications Can I Use For Overactive Bladder
Your doctor may suggest trying behavioral techniques before having you use a medication to treat overactive bladder. However, medications can work very well to return normal function to the bladder. Ask your doctor about the risks and benefits of using the following commonly prescribed medications:
Anticholinergic medications
These medications control muscle spasms in the bladder:
- Oxybutynin , oxybutynin XL , oxybutynin TDDS .
- Tolterodine .
- Mirabegron .
What Is An Overactive Bladder Symptoms To Look For
Overactive bladder is a syndrome, or a set of symptoms, that is believed to be due to sudden contractions of the muscles in the wall of the bladder. When you have overactive bladder syndrome, the muscles controlling bladder function start acting involuntarily. This often leads to urinary incontinence or loss of bladder control. The urine leakage experienced by someone with OAB can be as little as several drops to up to several ounces. Sometimes, incontinence can be a sign of something simple like drinking way too many caffeinated beverages on a daily basis. Other times the underlying cause can be something more serious.
An overactive bladder is said to account for 40 to 70 percent of incontinence. What is incontinence? Incontinence is a lack of voluntary control over urination or defecation. When you have overactive bladder, you can experience urinary incontinence or loss of control over urination.
There are actually two different types of overactive bladder. Dry is when you have a sudden, urgent need to urinate many times during the day. Wet means you have the sudden, urgent need to urinate and you experience bladder leakage, which is also referred to as urge incontinence. Both dry and wet can occur without any underlying health condition. An estimated 60 percent of OAB patients have dry OAB while 40 percent have wet OAB .
OAB symptoms can differ on an individual case basis. Common symptoms of an overactive bladder include:
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Other Ways Our Body Reacts To Anxiety
And besides frequently peeing, there are other ways our bodies react to anxiety.
Demian Brown, a Toronto-based psychotherapist and registered clinical social worker, previously told Global News twitching of your face and body is a common symptom of anxiety.
When youre under stress, physiological things start to happen to the body, Brown said. Your adrenaline and noradrenaline levels increase as if your body is preparing for some kind of danger. That takes more blood away from your extremities, and puts it more in the middle of your body.
Brown added this type of response increases your muscle tone and prepares your body for what is perceived to come in its way.
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For some, anxiety or stress can also cause diarrhea. According to Verywell Health, when were stressed, diarrhea is our bodys response to handling it.
When you come across something that you perceive as threatening, your body reacts with a variety of physical changes: heart rate and respiration increase, your muscles tense up, blood is directed toward your extremities, and most relevant to the current discussion, your colon contractions speed up. In some cases, this increase in colon activity can result in the symptom of diarrhea, the site noted.
Folk added anxiety or stress can even shut the digestive system down, and some people can feel constipated as well.
Another common response is tightness in the throat.
Model Of Social Stress
Social stress , usually mimicking bullyingchildhood violence, has been shown to induce distinct voiding dysfunction in rodents. In the common social stress paradigm, the subordination of one male by another larger and more aggressive male could increase the risk of anxiety and depression . Male mice are the most frequently employed mice to explore this stress-related LUTD. This could be exemplified by Chang et al.s study, in which a single submissive FVB mouse was repeatedly exposed to an aggressive male C57BL/6 mouse for 1 h a day followed by 23 h of barrier separation . Several other investigators conducted similar paradigms to induce social stress . Alternatively, the duration of social stress in the study Mann et al. was reduced to 2 weeks, and the direct daily exposure of male mice to aggressive ones was reduced to 10 min. In Wests study, pairs of male C57BL/6 mice were exposed to an aggressor for 1 h/day for 10 days . Instead of mice, Wood et al. exposed a male SD rat to a larger Long-Evans resident for a 30-min session with direct or indirect contact on 7 consecutive days.
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Stress Incontinence Vs Overactive Bladder: Whats The Difference
Both can cause a need to pee, but theyre very different conditions.
Your bladder is c-r-a-n-k-y. That you know for sure. At the most inconvenient timesduring an important business meeting, when youre in line at the checkout counter, or even when youre having sexyour bladder will just decide without warning or care that it needs to pee. Frankly, its awful.
You may assume your urges are symptoms of an overactive bladder, because hey, thats what Google said it sounded like. The thing is, however, there are different conditions that can cause a high-maintenance bladder. If youre not sure which one youre dealing with, you may not get the right treatment to make it happy again.
Its very difficult to get the results youre looking for with self-diagnosis and self-treatment, says Lauri Romanzi, MD, a urogynecologist in New York City. Misdiagnosing yourself with a certain kind of incontinence or bladder problem may cause frustration and anxiety, especially if youre trying to treat yourself and what youre doing doesnt seem to be working. And, no surprise, the anxiety makes everything worse, particularly the overactive bladder, says Dr. Romanzi.
1. Stress incontinence
Stress incontinence is the most common type of incontinence in younger women, with the highest incidence occurring in women ages 45 to 49 years. Women whove been pregnant and had a vaginal delivery, or who have pelvic prolapse are also at increased risk for stress incontinence.
What Are Some Of The Most Common Reasons Why A Woman May Develop Incontinence
Its common for women to develop incontinence after childbirth and as they age after menopause.
During childbirth, the muscles can become weakened and injured. In particular, experiencing an operative vaginal delivery like a vacuum or forceps assisted delivery, can lead to muscle damage. This weakening can make it harder to contract the urethra and stop the flow of urine.
With menopause, its common for women to experience vaginal atrophy, or a thinning and weakening of the vaginal tissue, due to fluctuating hormone levels. A drop in estrogen can cause a shortening of the vaginal canal, a shortening of the urethra, and a weakening of the pelvic floor muscles, making loss of bladder control more common.
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Get To Know Overactive Bladder
Overactive bladder causes a frequent and sudden urge to urinate that may be difficult to control. The definite causes of overactive bladder remain unknown. Overactive bladder occurs when the muscles of the bladder start to contract involuntarily even though the volume of urine in the bladder is low. These involuntary muscle contractions produce an urgent need to urinate. Symptoms include a frequent urge to urinate and waking up at night to urinate regardless of the amount of water intake. As a result, overactive bladder significantly impairs self-confidence, increases risk of depression and other psychological effects as well as induces sleep disturbance, leading to decreased quality of life. Overactive bladder has been commonly found in women than men, aged 30-40. In fact, the prevalence of overactive bladder collectively increases with age where the highest prevalence is found in people aged over 50. Several conditions may contribute to signs and symptoms of overactive bladder, including neurological disorders such as stroke, diabetes, hormonal changes during menopause in women, abnormalities in the bladder, such as tumors or bladder stones and factors that obstruct bladder outflow. Other possible risk factors may include certain medications, excessive consumption of caffeine and alcohol and declining cognitive function.
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Can Overactive Bladder Be Prevented Or Avoided
Overactive bladder cannot be prevented. However, you can reduce the risk of overactive bladder by treating those diseases and conditions that cause it. For example, following your doctors treatment advice for diabetes will reduce nerve damage. If you are pregnant, talk to your doctor about the potential for bladder damage if you have a vaginal delivery.
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