How many times a day do your empty your bladder?
Is it 5, 10 maybe you have no idea If you're suffering from OAB you know all
about bladder urgency and emptying your bladder frequently . Unfortunately emptying your bladder
too often will actually make bladder urgency worse and increase the likelihood of bladder
leakage too.
Hi I'm Michelle and today I'm guiding you through home treatment for bladder urgency.
You may remember I recently showed you how to start a bladder diary and I started my
own diary too {indicate above to link}
Today I'm going to show you: 1.
My bladder diary results (which show I have some work to do)
2.
What normal bladder emptying looks like and then we'll go through
3.
3 Key bladder training steps - for you to start using today
So what IS Normal bladder control?
Normal Bladder Control for healthy individuals looks like this
Emptying 300-400 mls or 10-13.5 oz every time you empty ie 1.25- 1.75 cups or this much
Having the ability to hold on for 2 hour intervals or longer every time you empty
Bladder emptying 5-6 times/day and emptying your bladder around 5-6 times/day
If you've filled in your diary, how does your daily emptying compare to these figures?
Are you emptying your bladder more than 5-6 times/day?
Is the amount you normally empty less than 1 1/4 cups?
Let me know in the comments below
Emptying your bladder too often with small amounts is a big problem.
Here's why 1.
Healthy bladder filling and emptying looks like this (demo on whiteboard)
Here's a drawing of your bladder.
The outside walls of your bladder are made up of muscle which contracts or squeezes down
when it needs to empty.
You have tiny stretch receptors which are tiny sensors in the wall of your bladder When
your bladder fills with urine, the walls of your bladder stretch.
When the bladder walls reach a certain amount of stretch, this triggers your sensors that
the bladder is full and needs to empty.
the bladder muscle contracts and that is what you feel when you feel urgency, your bladder
muscle contracting.
When you empty too soon with small amounts of urine - the stretch sensors aren't fully
stretched and as a result the bladder comes to sense that it's full when really it isn't.
As a result the bladder learns to contract with progressively smaller amounts of urine
and the bladder muscle squeezes down when it's not full.
Some people get to the stage where the bladder can only hold a very small amount before it
starts to contract (show balloon filled with 30 mls).
So you can see how prompting your kids to empty their bladder before going out or getting
into the car isn't helpful for their long term bladder control!
https://www.pexels.com/video/baby-boy-asking-his-mother-to-carry-him-4087106/ voice over
Now here's how to train your bladder to store more urine to help you get from this back
to this ?
Make sure to check with your doctor before starting bladder training to make sure there
are no major health problems causing your bladder symptoms.
And on the flip side, If your bladder volumes are really large or if you have trouble emptying
your bladder this training isn't appropriate for you.
Here are the 3 main steps to start with: The first step is to hold off emptying your
bladder to allow it to fill more when your urge isn't appropriate for example if it's
less than 2 hours since you last emptied.
Hold off emptying your bladder for as long as you can comfortably manage to do so, everyone's
different - some of us will be able to hold off for 6-10 seconds, while others can hold
off for 2-5 minutes.
The main thing is to gradually increase the length of time you delay emptying so your
bladder starts to feel more comfortable when it's a little fuller.
A common mistake when starting out is trying to hold off emptying the bladder for too long.
Doing this will upset your bladder and make your urgency worse.
Bladder control training is a gradual.
Try to be patient and give your body time to adjust.
Along the lines of step 1, If you don't need to empty your bladder, then try not to empty
it just in case.
Typical examples of emptying just in case are emptying just before going out or before
getting into the shower.
Start out with small challenges at home where it feels safe to avoid emptying and ask yourself
if you really need to empty your bladder before doing so.
If you don't really need to empty then try not to.
3.
Drink more water This seems counter intuitive doesn't it.
Many people stop drinking to reduce bladder urgency however doing this actually makes
urgency worse.
Most of us know that healthy adults should drink around 6-8 glasses of fluids daily but
how many of us actually do this?.
If you're not drinking enough caffeine free fluid, gradually start to drink more though
out the day rather than all at once and water or caffeine free fluids are usually the best
drinks to consume.
I'm a little surprised to learn from my diary that some days I only drink a few cups of
water so today I've started filling up this drink bottle and I'm keeping it with me on
my desk and in my car.
I'm hoping this motivates and reminds me to drink more water.
And finally just in case you're wondering here are my first bladder diary results:
My maximum void 480 ml or 16 oz (2 cups) at 5.30 am
My Average void 220 ml or 7.4 oz (<1 cup) too low
Daily frequency was 10 voids (too high goal is 5-6) and I woke twice to empty my bladder
which is too often
I should be able to improve on these results upon by drinking more water throughout the
day and gradually holding off emptying which you'll probably agree is often easier said
than done.
Next time I'm going to show you what to do when you feel urgency and how to get rid of
it fast without taking medication
Let me know if you have any questions from today's video.
If you've found this information helpful I'd really appreciate you giving this video the
thumbs up below.
I'll see you next time with our urge control strategies, until then bye for now.