Top Ten Bladder Health Tips You May Not Know
Feel like you are spending all your time on the toilet? Do you ever wonder if some of your bladder issues may be caused by certain habits that seem to be ingrained in your brain? Like maybe it’s a little bit your fault that you are feeling the need to RUN to the bathroom? That’s probably because there are a few things you CAN do to help optimize your bladder health and function. Often, we don’t have any idea that our habits around going to the bathroom aren’t normal and can be affecting our continence! Here are some bladder health tips that can help with that urgency and/or leakage you may be experiencing.
Top 10 Bladder Health Tips:
Pay attention to the frequency of your trips to the bathroom. Try to get to the bathroom every 2-4 hours. Ideally, you shouldn’t have to go more than every 2 hours, and if you are waiting too long you may not be drinking enough fluids and you may be setting yourself up for failure.
Avoid going “just in case”. You know what I am talking about! You are about to leave the house to go to Target and you head to the bathroom before you leave because “what if I have to go while I’m out”? So you go to the bathroom without the urge to go just in case. Just in case what?!? In case Target doesn’t have a bathroom? If you have just recently been to the bathroom (less than 2 hours since last trip there) and you don’t have the urge to go, this habit is just setting you up for an altered brain-bladder connection and increased urges when your bladder isn’t full. I promise Target has a bathroom!
This same tip applies when you are waking up at night to pee. Your bladder makes less urine at night and if you are going when you don’t REALLY have to go, you are setting yourself up for the same failure as going before you leave the house. Just because you may be up feeding the baby or to quiet your spouse’s snoring doesn’t mean you automatically should go to the bathroom.
Count in your head. Count to 8 Mississippi’s while you are peeing. If you aren’t going for at least 8 seconds, you likely didn’t have to go as badly as you thought, or you aren’t drinking enough water!
Sit down! Seriously, SIT DOWN on the toilet. Line the seat with toilet paper, or bring your own special cover if you must, but please sit. Your pelvic floor muscles have a part in helping to stabilize your pelvis, so when you are squatting over the toilet, it is hard for your pelvic floor muscles to RELAX which is what you need them to do in order to pee (or poop)!
Avoiding straining. There really should be no need to push to pee. Pushing can cause a whole host of other issues, so try to breathe and relax your pelvic floor (SIT DOWN). If you feel like you need more help, reach out to a pelvic floor PT near you! If you need help finding one, let me know!
Avoid constipation. An overfull bowel can press on the bladder causing you to feel more urgency to go. It can also affect how your pelvic floor muscles function due to possible straining and weakening of the pelvic floor.
Drink water - FLAT water. I usually advise people to aim for about half their body weight in ounces of water every day. If you are starting much lower, I wouldn’t recommend trying to jump right up to that number. Gradually increase your water intake over time so as not to overwhelm your bladder. The amount of water you need may be impacted by your activity level, if you are pregnant or nursing, or if the weather is more hot and humid. Feel free to infuse your water with your favorite flavors, but be careful if you find that your bladder is sensitive to citrus fruits or other foods you may be using in your water.
Also, contrary to popular belief, limiting your water intake doesn’t help with your bladder urgency or frequency as much as you think. Highly concentrated urine, the kind you get when you don’t drink enough water, irritates the lining of your bladder and can increase your urgency/frequency. Dehydration can also cause constipation (#6).
Avoid bladder irritants as much as possible. Avoiding certain foods and fluids that can irritate the bladder may be helpful as well. These include coffee and tea (decaf or caffeinated), alcohol, carbonated beverages, caffeine, citrus fruits/juices, tomatoes and tomato products, spicy foods, sweets, chocolate, milk/milk products, and artificial sweeteners. Everybody is different, so you may need to do some testing to see what foods/fluids may be making your bladder symptoms worse.
Avoid pads - or use the CORRECT one. Pads, in general, can irritate the skin around the genitals which may, in turn, affect your bladder, but also, menstrual and urinary pads are meant to catch different types of liquids and the wrong pad can cause more skin irritation and worsen your problems.
Do your Kegels! It’s important to try to keep the function of the pelvic floor muscles strong and coordinated for urinary continence. A Kegel is a squeeze of all the muscles between your sit bones, your tailbone and your pubic bone. It’s like lifting up a red marble with your vagina or trying to stop your flow of urine. I suggest about 60 Kegels per day: 10 quick ones to focus on the quick-twitch muscle fibers and 10 holding ones (5-10 seconds) to focus on the slow-twitch fibers. Do this 3x/day and you are all set! Practice while brushing your teeth, washing dishes or at stoplights in the car.
AND BONUS TIP! My absolute favorite bladder health tip to share is that daily orgasms are good for your bladder health! Make sure you pee before and after sex (the only time I forgive going to the bathroom without the urge to go)
Hopefully, some of these tips opened your eyes to the things you have control over which can help improve your bladder health! Comment below with the one that you are going to try to do differently from now on!
For more tips and tricks as well as 70 pages of information on the pelvic floor and postpartum health, check out The New Mom’s Revival Guide here.