We spend half our lives dealing with the pain and hassle of a menstrual cycle, and just when that comes to an end — the celebration is cut short thanks to a whole new set of “gotchas.”

One of the worst, and sometimes most embarrassing, is bladder trouble.

You cough, sneeze, laugh or simply try to do something good for your body, like exercise, and your bladder betrays you faster than you can say “depends.”

Or you might be fine one second, but the next you have a sudden, intense urge to ‘go’ — followed by panic because a bathroom is nowhere in sight.

As many as 72% of us between the ages of 40 and 65 have these experiences — thanks to pelvic floor changes, overactive bladders or weak muscle control. We chalk it up to childbirth, aging and going through menopause.

But now, researchers in Finland say they’ve found one of the most surprising contributors to these problems — one that you could turn around with a few simple diet changes…

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The diet that leads to pelvic floor disorders

In researching the health and diet data of over 1,000 women between the ages of 47 and 55, the Finnish scientist found that pelvic floor disorders and poor nutrition go hand-in-hand.

As expected, they saw that rates of pelvic floor disorders increased as women reached menopause due to estrogen deprivation.

However, they found strong evidence that nutrition could have a significant effect on the mechanisms of pelvic floor disorders that lead to bladder leaks.

For example, higher consumption of highly processed ready-made foods and fast food increased the risk for experiencing stress incontinence (like when sneezing) and urge incontinence (that sudden urge to go NOW).

On the other hand, higher consumption of fruits and an overall higher-quality diet decreased the risk for stress incontinence.

Diet habits, like overeating and extreme dieting or alternating between the two behaviors, also seemed to exacerbate pelvic floor problems and carry a higher risk of bladder leaks.

Put simply, if you need help warding off or improving incontinence trouble in middle age, focus on eating a nutritious diet.

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The recipe for a lock-tight bladder

Diet as a tool to improve bladder function isn’t as far-fetched as it may seem…

Native Americans, for example, knew certain foods should be part of their daily diet, not just for nutrition, but as traditional medicine. One such food was pumpkin seed, revered for supporting bladder, kidney and digestive health.

They contain potassium, magnesium and zinc, which help calm and relax bladder muscles, reducing that desperate urgency to urinate. But what does the science say?

A 12-week study found that pumpkin seed oil extract significantly reduced overactive bladder symptoms. Other studies have shown it helps support prostate health and relieves BPH symptoms, like frequent nighttime urination.

In ancient China, healers used soybeans medicinally to support the kidneys and ease the afflictions of aging, such as hormonal changes.

Nowadays, we know how valuable soy is at supporting balanced hormones — and understand the roles of estrogen and testosterone for sustaining the strength of bladder muscles and the pelvic floor.

Soy contains phytoestrogens, plant-based compounds that have similar chemical structures to the hormone estrogen, which can also be found in flaxseeds and whole grains.

In a Korean study reported by the American Pharmacists Association, 120 women aged 35-70 years used a combo of pumpkin seed extract and soy, and reported a statistically significant improvement in daily urination, urgency and incontinence frequency compared with baseline. They also experienced fewer nighttime trips to the bathroom.

So if you need extra help taming your bladder, try to avoid the ultra-processed foods and snacks. Reach for pumpkin seed, flaxseed (great in yogurt) and whole grains. Your bladder will thank you.

Sources:

Disordered eating and certain foods linked to higher risk for urinary incontinence in middle-aged women – ScienceDaily

Prevalence Of Incontinence In Middle Age Women – National Association for Continence

The post How your diet can cause your bladder to leak appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Given that this is a normal physiologic process and not a disease, menopause is supposed to be something women just endure and move beyond. But if you’ve been through it yourself or are in the midst of “the change,” you’ve probably realized that nothing about this process feels even remotely normal!

That is, unless you think hot flashes, night sweats, mood changes, sleep disturbance, vaginal dryness, urinary urgency and incontinence, weight gain, decreased libido, thinning hair and skin, memory and concentration problems, joint and muscle pain — not to mention heart palpitations and out-of-nowhere high LDL — are all normal!

I don’t typically venture outside of conditions that I manage. I’m a cardiologist. I deal with chest pain and EKGs. But I felt compelled to write this blog series because I continue to see so many female patients suffering with many of the symptoms related to menopause while being denied — or fearful of — a proven life-enhancing intervention. All based on faulty data.

I’m talking about hormone replacement therapy (HRT).

You’ve probably heard the warnings: It causes breast cancer. It’s dangerous. It does more harm than good. These statements have become medical dogma. But they are outdated, oversimplified, and in many cases — flat-out wrong.

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Why HRT Deserves a Second Look

If you’re a woman navigating perimenopause or menopause, what you’ve been told about HRT — or what you think you know about HRT — could be standing between you and a dramatically better life.

This blog series is meant to give you the knowledge you need to not only help yourself through this time (and beyond) but also understand a treatment option that is out there. So that you can have a more informed conversation with your care provider.

To be clear — I am NOT advocating that every woman should go on HRT. But every woman should at least be given the opportunity to determine for themselves if it is right for them.

The Whole-Body Impact of Sex Hormones

First, here’s something really important you need to understand: Sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone) don’t just have roles in reproduction and sex drive. Receptors for these hormones exist all over our bodies! Not surprisingly, menopause-related whole-body reductions in sex hormone levels have far-reaching effects.

Hormones and Bladder Health

One organ impacted by those far-reaching effects is the bladder. It happens to be very hormone-sensitive. And not just in terms of maintaining urinary continence. When estrogen levels decline, the microbiome of the bladder and vagina changes, making postmenopausal women far more susceptible to urinary tract infections. Indeed, about 20% of women over age 65 will develop a UTI, with close to 1/3 of these experiencing recurrent infections.

Hormones and Bone Loss

The skeletal system is a major casualty. In the absence of estrogen, women can lose as much as 20% of their bone density in the first 5 years post-menopause, with bone loss slowing down to about 1% per year thereafter. As a result, one in two women over age 50 will experience an osteoporosis-related bone fracture. This is incredibly serious — a hip fracture can be a terminal event. Close to 30% of hip fracture patients will not survive one year. And even if a woman makes it past that, the odds of her getting back to prior levels of activity are low.

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Hormones and Brain Function

Brain? The risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s is significantly higher for women. The role of sex hormones is not fully worked out here, but even in the shorter term, sleep disturbance can become a huge issue affecting mental clarity.  Estrogen and progesterone help drive circadian rhythms, and the wild fluctuations in their levels during perimenopause can do a number on the sleep cycle. Plus, it’s hard to sleep when you’re drenched in sweat.

Hormones and Heart Disease

As a cardiologist, I see this in my practice almost daily. Heart rhythm disturbances become more common around menopause, probably due to a combination of factors — especially sleep disturbance. Fortunately, most of these rhythm issues are benign. But that doesn’t mean they feel good! Cholesterol profiles almost universally get worse as LDL receptors become less active. As a result heart disease risk accelerates rapidly in postmenopausal women, reaching par with men of equal age about 10 years post our hormonal upheaval.

Menopause-Related Impact on Life Quality

Add vaginal dryness and loss of libido and you have a marked decline in quality of life — right around the halfway point in women’s lifespans.

These may all be “natural” consequences of changes in hormone levels, but are we just supposed to sit back and accept all that?

Would MEN accept all that??

This is part one of a five-part series. See:

Menopause and the Big Lie , Part 1

Menopuase and the Big Lie, Part 2

Menopause and the big lie: The facts they left out, Part 3

Menopause and the big lie: The lasting impact, Part 4

The post Menopause and the big lie appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

GSM encompasses a collection of genital, sexual and urinary symptoms and signs associated with decreased estrogen and sex steroid levels. These include vaginal dryness, vulvar atrophy and urinary urgency or incontinence.

The vulva refers to the external female genitalia, while the vagina relates to the internal anatomy. For both parts, menopause can cause itching, burning, pain, decreased lubrication and changes in the skin’s appearance.

Not surprisingly, the end result of GSM is a decrease in the frequency of sexual activity for women between the ages of 40 and 70. I mean, who wants to have sex when it hurts?

There are ways to help combat this pain, one of which is by reversing GSM itself. Since GSM is caused by estrogen deficiency, the standard remedy is vaginal ultra-low-dose estrogen therapy. But the breast cancer link can discourage some women from taking this route.

One team of researchers has hit upon another possible solution that may surprise you….

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Sex can improve genitourinary syndrome of menopause

The researchers undertook a study involving more than 900 Japanese women aged 40 to 79 years to explore the link between regular sexual activity and vulvovaginal-related menopausal symptoms. They defined “regular sexual activity” as engaging in sex in the past three months. Having sex in the past year but not in the past three months was considered “lower sexual activity.”

To no one’s surprise, the researchers confirmed the proportion of women having regular sex decreased significantly with age, aligning with the decrease in Female Sexual Function Index scores for sexual desire, arousal and lubrication. The index consists of 19 questions on female sexual function under six domains.

One interesting note: despite the decrease in sexual desire, arousal and lubrication, orgasm and satisfaction were shown not to decline with age.

The study results showed that while some sexual functions and symptoms change with age, they may be maintained in women who engage in more regular sexual activity. Results also demonstrated a lower prevalence of GSM-related symptoms such as vulvar pain, irritation and dryness in women having regular sex.

What to do if worried about estrogen

Dr. Monica Christmas, associate medical director for The Menopause Society, said the study’s findings emphasize the importance of diagnosing and treating GSM.

“Only 2.9% of the participants reported using hormone therapy,” Christmas says. “Local low-dose vaginal estrogen therapy is safe and highly effective at alleviating bothersome vulvovaginal symptoms contributing to pain and avoidance of intercourse.

She adds that “optimal sexual health is integral to overall well-being” and that it is “imperative to recognize the effect these symptoms can have on women who aren’t sexually active.

“Treatment should be offered to anyone with symptoms, whether engaging in sexual activity or not,” Christmas says. “Normalizing use of local low-dose estrogen therapy should be a thing.”

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So far, according to Johns Hopkins, clinical trials have indicated minimal to no systemic absorption of the type of topical estrogen therapy used to treat GSM, resulting in no increased risk of breast cancer recurrence.

But if you’re a GSM sufferer who’s still wary of estrogen therapy, there are things you can do to make sex more comfortable. One of the primary methods is vaginal lubrication.

There are water-based lubricants that you apply just before having sex to reduce discomfort during intercourse. You want to avoid products that contain glycerin or warming properties because they can irritate that sensitive tissue of the vagina. Also, if you’re using condoms, don’t use petroleum jelly or other petroleum-based products for lubrication because they can break down latex condoms on contact.

If this type of lubrication proves ineffective, you can try vaginal moisturizers to restore some moisture to your vaginal area. External moisturizers help the vulva area, and internal moisturizers are inserted into the vagina. These need to be applied every few days, and their effects generally last longer than those of a lubricant.

You can also try pelvic floor exercises to improve vaginal blood flow and tissue elasticity. A pelvic floor therapist can help if needed. Libido-boosting exercises, like hip thrusts, will increase blood flow to the pelvis, mimicking what happens during intimacy. It’s well known that blood flow improves erections for men, but it’s less known that for women, it enhances our pleasure zones.

In addition, make sure you’re managing your stress levels. The stress hormone cortisol decreases testosterone, which significantly impacts sex drive in women. It also negatively affects the body’s production of DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), a hormone precursor that the body uses to produce estrogen and testosterone.

Sources:

The pleasure prescription: Why more sex means less menopause pain — ScienceDaily

Cross-sectional study of the association between regular sexual activity and sexual function and genitourinary syndrome of menopause–related symptoms — Menopause

Genitourinary Syndrome of Menopause — Johns Hopkins Medicine

Vaginal atrophy — Mayo Clinic

Experiencing Vaginal Dryness? Here’s What You Need to Know — The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists

The post The surprising benefits of regular sex in menopause appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, 12% of men will be affected by a UTI — a problem that can become chronic.

And some men are more susceptible than others, leaving them open to the extreme pain, bleeding and sepsis these infections can cause.

Here are the six most common causes behind this increased susceptibility…

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6 ways men get UTIs

#1 – BPH

Benign prostatic hypertrophy, or BPH, is one of the leading causes of UTIs in men.

That’s because when the prostate enlarges, it compresses the urethra, blocking the flow of urine. This can increase the chances of bacteria building up and lead to a UTI.

#2 – Kidney stones

As with BPH, kidney stones can cause a blockage in the urinary tract that leads to a buildup of urine in the bladder. When this happens, bacteria can multiply and take over, resulting in a UTI.

Additionally, as kidney stones pass through the tiny tubes of the urinary tract, they scrape and irritate the sides, leaving a pathway open for those bad bacteria.

#3 – Diabetes

Because diabetes can negatively affect your immune system, it can leave you open to a wide variety of infections, including UTIs.

Research has also revealed that the high blood glucose levels associated with diabetes result in a decrease in psoriasin, an important natural antibiotic that protects against urinary tract infections.

#4 – Age

Like with many medical conditions, UTIs become more common in men with age. In fact, while younger men rarely experience a UTI, men older than 50 tend to get more infections.

This can be due to the increased likelihood of prostate enlargement, which prevents full emptying of the bladder. Other issues that are more likely to be seen with age that can cause problems with bladder emptying may include nerve damage from stroke or injury to the spine.

#5 – Medical procedures/catheter use

Surgeries or exams of the urinary tract can also increase a man’s chances of suffering a UTI.

Catheters, which are thin tubes inserted into the urethra to reach the bladder to assist emptying it in people who can’t urinate on their own, are another known UTI risk.

#6 – Anatomical abnormalities

Structural deformities of the urinary tract, including abnormal narrowing, can prevent urine from leaving the body normally and lead to bacterial growth.

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6 steps to avoid UTIs

The good news is that while these six issues can make men more likely to end up with a painful UTI, there are easy steps that can be taken to prevent these bacterial takeovers.

The first is to empty the bladder often. After all, as urine builds up, so can bacteria.

Next, be sure to drink plenty of liquids, especially water.

It’s also wise to avoid bladder irritants when possible, like sugary foods and carbonated or caffeinated drinks.

I also recommend taking D-mannose and probiotics regularly to keep UTIs at bay.

D-mannose is a natural fruit sugar that helps prevent certain bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract. And it’s been shown to be effective at keeping recurrent UTIs at bay.

And of course, probiotics are beneficial bacteria that help keep your body’s microbiome in balance to prevent bad bacteria from taking over your urinary tract.

Finally, don’t throw out the old wisdom for the new…

Cranberries are still a great, natural option for UTI prevention and are now research-backed.

Studies have shown that cranberry products (like juices and supplements) are linked to a lower risk of recurring UTIs. And they’ve proven that the polyphenols in cranberries work by keeping E. coli (the bacteria behind most UTIs) from sticking to the urinary tract lining.

Sources:

Urinary tract infections in men: Here are 10 things to know — CNN

All you need to know about UTIs in men — MedicalNewsToday

How Does a Male Get a UTI? Causes of UTIs in Men — MedicineNet

UTIs in Men: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment — WebMD

Why people with diabetes have more UTIs and how to prevent infections — MedicalNewsToday

3 steps to avoid recurrent urinary tract infections — Easy Health Options

The post 6 conditions that increase UTIs in men appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

That brings us to the subject of urinary incontinence — or the involuntary leakage of urine, AKA bladder leaks — a common symptom that affects 50% of adult women and increases with age.

In fact, up to 75% of women over 65 report urine leakage. It’s certainly annoying, but is it dangerous?

Researchers aren’t exactly sure how yet, but it may increase your risk of several cardiovascular disease (CVD) factors…

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An odd association that defies explanation — for now

That’s what a study led by Dr. Lisa Van Wiel and a team of researchers at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse aimed to find out…

They analyzed medical records from more than 20,000 female patients in the Hartford Healthcare system in Connecticut over two years.

Health data was gathered and lifestyle habits were also taken into account. Of the women, 5.4% reported on a questionnaire that they had urinary incontinence.

Because of the challenges of being incontinent, the researchers fully expected to find that the women reporting urinary incontinence had reduced levels of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA).

But they did not. The women with urinary incontinence did not report that they engaged in less physical activity than women who did not have the condition.

However, the women with urinary incontinence did have increased CVD risk factors or events, such as dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes and stroke.

Considering that previous research has shown physical activity to have a positive effect on lowering CVD factors, the researchers could only assume that there is a yet-to-be-explained association between incontinence and cardiovascular disease risk, and that “Women should be screened for incontinence regularly as it may contribute to CVD risk, and women with CVD risk factors should be screened for undiagnosed incontinence.”

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An extra ounce of prevention for women

Though the researchers can not yet pinpoint the cause of the association, the research highlighted an increased risk of inactivity-related CVD risk factors and cardiometabolic comorbid conditions among patients with urinary incontinence — despite no changes in moderate to vigorous activity levels.

They feel that warrants recommending that women with urinary incontinence, particularly those 50 and older, be screened routinely for CVD.

The authors state that “future studies should investigate potential mechanisms of this association, including incontinence severity, activity intensity and chronic inflammation.”

In other words, these factors may help explain the connection between incontinence and CVD.

So, if you’re a woman over 50 with bladder leaks, let your doctor know — and not just your gynecologist. Ask about screenings for CVD risk, as well as for diabetes and stroke risk that may be available to you.

Sources:

Researchers report association between urinary incontinence, cardiovascular disease — Science Daily

Associations of urinary incontinence, physical activity and cardiovascular disease risk among women in the United States — Science Direct

Urinary incontinence linked to higher cardiovascular disease risk — Contemporary OB/GYN

Is urine incontinence normal for women? — Mayo Clinic

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But for men, changes in the prostate gland can have them feeling the pressure, urgency and need to empty the old bladder numerous times a day — not to mention the frequent nighttime trips to the toilet.

The good news is that understanding these age-related prostate issues can help men find relief…

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A ‘growing’ problem

The prostate gland is located at the base of the bladder and is usually about the size of a walnut (about 4.8 grams in weight).

However, for reasons doctors still don’t understand, when men hit their 30s, the gland hits a second growth spurt. By the time a man is in his 70s, the gland is a whopping 40 grams on average — nearly 10 times its normal weight.

This growth puts pressure on the urethra, the tube that carries urine from the bladder through the penis and out of the body, which is why many men experience urinary changes as they age.

Other issues can spur the growth of the prostate, worsening urinary symptoms. These include inflammation, which is also known as benign prostatitis and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), also known as enlarged prostate, which is a blockage of the tubes due to non-cancerous enlargement of the prostate.

Bathroom and bedroom problems linked to a growing prostate

Numerous urinary symptoms can result from an enlarged prostate that are not only troubling but negatively impact a man’s quality of life, including:

• Trouble beginning to urinate
• Lack of force in urination (making it difficult to direct the urine stream)
• Dribbling after urination
• Feeling like you haven’t fully emptied your bladder
• Needing to urinate frequently (both during the day and at night)
• Urinary urgency (this can include urgency so sudden you can’t make it to the toilet in time)
• Feeling like you have to go soon after urinating

Next, two things happen that a man hopes he’ll never experience…

First, most men can reach this point without experiencing a bladder infection. But an enlarged prostate makes it difficult to empty the bladder fully. And when urine collects and stews, it’s ripe for bacteria and infection.

Secondly, prostatitis or BPH can put the brakes on a man’s sex life. Indirectly, these conditions lead to ED because they reduce both sex drive and satisfaction and create problems with ejaculation.

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Supporting prostate health

Luckily, an enlarged prostate gland doesn’t always cause urinary problems. And even if you have troublesome urinary symptoms, they’re rarely a sign of something serious. Of course, you should always let your doctor know about any problems you experience or changes, just to be sure.

But there’s no reason a man should silently suffer and stop doing the things he enjoys for fear of a bladder leak.

Over time, several natural remedies for prostate and urinary support have proven their worth and are available as individual supplements and in special formulations. Those always at the top of the list include:

1. Saw Palmetto appears to reduce levels of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), a hormone which, at elevated levels, causes the prostate to become enlarged.
2. Beta-Sitosterol. Studies show that beta-sitosterol can help improve urinary flow rates, reducing the amount of urine left in the bladder after urination and improving overall quality of life.
3. Lycopene is a prostate-reducing compound found in tomatoes and is considered the “ultimate male antioxidant” to help combat free radicals that can cause cell damage.
4. Selenium is an essential mineral for encouraging the natural death of old, damaged cells.
5. Red Clover Extract. Isoflavones from red clover may inhibit smooth muscle contractions in the prostate, which could be beneficial in BPH treatment and help relieve unwanted prostate symptoms.
6. Pygeum Bark Extract. Although pygeum has been studied for a variety of ailments, it has demonstrated the most promise for the management of an enlarged prostate, including calming the frequent urge to go.
7. Pumpkin Seed. Double-blind scientific studies have shown that pumpkin seed extract helps urinary flow, voiding time, and reduces leftover urine volume in men with prostate concerns.
8. Nettle Leaf Extract. Several studies have found stinging nettle root to be effective at promoting normal prostate size and relieving the urinary symptoms associated with an enlarged and aging prostate.
9. Zinc. The prostate gland contains a high concentration of this mineral, and nature didn’t put it there for nothing. It has an impact on testosterone levels, which are important to maintain as you age.
10. D-mannose can prevent certain bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract. It’s been shown to be more effective than antibiotics at getting rid of recurrent urinary tract infections.

Sources:

Prostate gland and urinary problems – Better Health Channel

Walnut Weights & Calories (Including Calculator & Charts) – Weight School

The post How to handle that ‘growing’ prostate problem appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In this condition, the muscles and connective tissues of the pelvic floor weaken and allow the organs they usually hold in place — like the bladder and uterus — to shift downward and press against the vaginal wall.

POP is usually a result of pregnancy, childbirth or menopause and typically results in pelvic pressure and the feeling of tissue bulging from the vagina.

If that weren’t “uncomfortable” enough, POP presents a double whammy when it comes to urinary tract infection…

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UTI and POP: A problem before and after

During prolapse, pressure on the bladder can keep it from emptying completely, causing urine stagnation and bacterial growth (this is similar to what happens in men with an enlarged prostate). This is why women experiencing prolapse are known to get frequent urinary tract infections (UTIs).

If a woman’s quality of life is impacted enough by pain and bowel and bladder problems, surgery may be required to put pelvic organs back in place. More than 12 percent of American women will have POP surgery in their lifetime.

But for some, even if other symptoms are alleviated by surgery, post-surgical UTIs and other complications can persist…

Researchers at Mayo Clinic looking to head off these post-surgical complications analyzed vaginal microbiome samples from postmenopausal women undergoing a vaginal hysterectomy with pelvic reconstruction.

The samples were collected at five stages, including before surgery, immediately after and during recovery. They then used advanced sequencing techniques to map the genetic material of the microbes and identify changes in the microbial communities.

They made some fascinating discoveries…

Key bacteria involved in disruption

Women with lower levels of the protective bacterial species Lactobacillus in the vaginal microbiome were more likely to develop a UTI post-POP surgery.

In addition, higher levels of the bacteria types Prevotella and Gardnerella — both linked to inflammation and infection — were associated with a greater risk of postoperative UTI.

Then, samples taken after surgery showed lower microbial diversity in both the vaginal and urinary microbiomes. It’s a known fact that the diversity of bacterial strains is essential for healthy microbiomes. The researchers suggest that preoperative antibiotics (which can contribute to dysbiosis) and vaginal cleansing before surgery, and the surgery itself, could be to blame for the imbalanced microbiomes.

By identifying these patterns, the researchers hope they have found a way to potentially predict who will develop a post-surgical UTI before surgery even begins.

“Our ability to detect these microbiome patterns provides a potential opportunity to personalize treatment strategies and improve outcomes,” says Dr. Marina Walther-Antonio, a microbiome researcher at the Mayo Clinic.

“Understanding the microbiome’s role in post-surgical infections gives us a unique opportunity to possibly prevent these complications altogether,” says Dr. John Occhino, a Mayo Clinic urogynecologic surgeon.

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It’s all about diversity

UTIs can be especially challenging for women, with or without POP. Staying ahead of the game by supporting your microbiomes with probiotics is a simple and effective way to reduce your risk of these annoying infections.

Probiotic suppositories that can be vaginally inserted are on the market, though the research has not quite caught up with how effective they are. However, I did come across a study where women who took oral Lactobacillus saw a significant increase in the numbers of their vaginal lactobacilli.

You might be excited to learn that previous research shows probiotics in the Lactobacillus family are particularly effective when it comes to weight loss.

But most importantly, taking a probiotic could not only help build up a healthy microbiome before surgery, but it may also prevent the disruption to the microbiome that the researcher saw occur from surgery.

Here are more supplements known to help reduce the risk of UTI…

• D-mannose: This glucose-related sugar can prevent certain bacteria from sticking to the walls of the urinary tract. In at least one study, it has been found to be more effective than antibiotics at getting rid of recurrent UTIs.
• Cranberry extract: Research has shown that consuming cranberry products in juice, tablet or capsule form was strongly associated with reduced risk of UTI in women with recurrent infections. Other studies indicate that proanthocyanidins (a type of polyphenol) could keep E. coli, the bacteria behind most UTIs, from sticking to the urinary tract lining.

If you plan to undergo POP, you may want to talk to your doctor leading up to surgery for best practices to avoid post-surgical UTI, and be sure he is aware of any supplements you’re taking in case he wants you to stop for a brief period before surgery.

Sources:

Vaginal microbiome may predict post-surgery urinary tract infections — Mayo Clinic

Preoperative vaginal microbiome as a predictor of postoperative urinary tract infection — Scientific Reports

Pelvic organ prolapse — Mayo Clinic

Demystifying pelvic organ prolapse — UChicagoMedicine

Are My Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections Caused by Prolapse? — Austin Urogynecology

Vaginal microbiome following orally administered probiotic — Journal of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

The post What women should know about pelvic organ prolapse and UTI appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

First of all, Kegel exercises are not just for women.

They are probably the easiest and most convenient exercises men can do to help improve urinary, prostate and sexual health, and you can do them without putting on athletic shoes or breaking a sweat.

In fact, no one will even know you are doing these exercises, even if you’re in a crowd or waiting in line at the bank.

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What are Kegel exercises?

For the uninitiated, Kegel exercises (sometimes called pelvic floor exercises) involve tightening your pubococcygeus (PC) muscle, the muscle in your pelvic area that stretches from the pubic bone to the tailbone.

The PC muscle is critical because it supports your pelvic organs and plays an important role in regulating the flow of urine and the passing of gas.

Have I got your attention yet? Obviously, the PC muscle is one you want to keep in tip-top shape. Fortunately, doing so is not hard, as long as you practice regularly.

How to do Kegel exercises

Kegel exercises for men don’t require any special shoes, clothing or accessories. All you need to do is concentrate.

To clench your PC muscle, think about how you try to stop the flow of urine. That involves your PC muscle. You can practice clenching or squeezing your PC muscle the next time you urinate: Try to stop the flow of urine, then let it start again, then stop it. This is the gist of doing Kegel exercises.

After you have practiced squeezing your PC muscle, you’re ready to do Kegel exercises. Here’s how:

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• Contract the PC muscle and hold it for five seconds, then release it. This is one repetition.
• Focus solely on your PC muscle. Do not tighten your abdominal, thigh or buttock muscles when you do these exercises.
• Repeat the repetitions 20 times, twice a day, for about a week, and then gradually increase to 40 repetitions twice a day, then 60.

You can do Kegel exercises anywhere, at any time. Stuck in traffic? Do Kegels. Waiting in line at the supermarket? Ditto. So you don’t forget to do your Kegels, put an alarm on your cellphone to remind you.

Benefits of Kegel exercises

If you’re wondering how effective Kegel exercises can be, here are a few examples.

• One study looked at 55 men who had experienced erectile dysfunction for at least six months. When the men practiced Kegel exercises daily for three to six months, 40 percent of them were able to regain erectile function, 35.5 percent said erection rigidity improved, and 25.5 percent reported no difference. The study’s authors concluded that men should “exercise their pelvic floor muscles to maintain normal pelvic floor function.”
• In a subsequent review, experts evaluated randomized controlled trials in which men with urinary and fecal incontinence and erectile dysfunction had practiced Kegel exercises. The researchers found that practicing Kegel exercises significantly improved erectile function and urinary incontinence. It would be “prudent for all men” to practice Kegel exercises regularly to maintain normal pelvic floor function.
• Among men who undergo prostatectomy, erectile dysfunction is a common side effect, but Kegel exercises may help. A study of 63 men who had a prostatectomy looked at two groups: 35 practiced pelvic floor muscle exercises after surgery, while 27 did not until the third month after surgery. The researchers reported a significant beneficial difference among men who started Kegel exercises immediately after prostatectomy compared with the control group.

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Kegel exercises for all men

Kegel exercises can benefit men who are experiencing problems with erectile dysfunction and urinary tract issues. Still, they are also helpful for any man, because they strengthen a muscle that is critical for overall health.

In addition, Kegel exercises can help men who are experiencing problems with prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate gland) as well as men who are facing the challenge of premature ejaculation or who have undergone prostatectomy and need to restore pelvic muscle strength.

Men who practice Kegel exercises daily can expect to notice results in about four to six weeks. If you are planning to undergo any type of prostate or urinary tract surgery, you can benefit from beginning your Kegel exercises before the procedure.

That way, you will build up the PC muscle to weather the procedure better and bounce back post-surgery. After surgery, however, talk to your healthcare provider before you restart your Kegel exercises to be sure you are ready for them.

Sources

1. Randomised controlled trial of pelvic floor muscle exercises and manometric biofeedback for erectile dysfunction — British Journal of General Practice
2. Restoring pelvic floor function in men: review of RTCs — The British Journal of Nursing
3. Effects of early pelvic-floor muscle exercise for sexual dysfunction in radical prostatectomy recipients — Cancer Nursing

The post Kegel exercises for men: Do they work? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Urinary incontinence affects more than half of middle-aged women and up to 80 percent of women by the time they reach their senior years.

Not only is it an embarrassing and socially isolating condition, but it can present unexpected dangers…

An overactive bladder is among the biggest risk factors for falls and fractures among senior women. A broken hip is the last thing anyone needs.

Of course, doctors can dole out anticholinergic drugs for bladder control. But unless you’re an avid reader of medical journals like me, you may be unaware that these drugs are associated with a high risk of cognitive decline.

Anticholinergics trick nerve impulses that signal muscles involved in actions like urination, coughing and sneezing by blocking the neurotransmitter acetylcholine. But acetylcholine is also critical for memory function — and there’s scientific speculation that tricking it has devastating effects on the brain and could lead to cognitive decline.

The good news is that prescription drugs aren’t the only way to regain control of your bladder.

You could do it just by picking up a healthy habit at home — and don’t worry, I’m not suggesting those confounding Kegel exercises that are so difficult to master…

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An easier way to master your bladder

A Stanford study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine included women ages 45 to 90 who suffered from urinary incontinence issues an average of 3.4 times a day.

All the participants tried either a hatha yoga program, intended to strengthen the pelvic floor or a low-impact activity that included stretching and strengthening exercises that did not intentionally engage the pelvic floor.

All women exercised for 90 minutes, two times a week, along with an additional shorter, one-hour session. And the results were phenomenal…

Both groups — whether doing yoga for pelvic floor strengthening or simple low-impact exercises — experienced about 65 percent fewer incontinence episodes in just 12 weeks!

According to the researchers, these benefits are on par with the effects of those medications used to address incontinence — but with only good side effects, like stronger muscles and a healthier body.

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Safe support for a stronger bladder

Not only is low-impact yoga or exercise good for a stronger bladder, but numerous studies have shown a connection to a stronger, plump brain that scores better on cognitive tests. In my book, that makes it a better choice than questionable drugs.

Even better, you don’t have to be a yoga master to master your bladder…

Certain nutrients available in common foods can target your weak detrusor muscle — a collection of smooth muscle fibers in the walls of your bladder — and strengthen your ability to control urine elimination. They’ve been shown to work for both men and women!

I’m talking about pumpkin seed extract and soy germ isoflavones…

• Native Americans used pumpkin seeds as an age-old remedy for bladder, kidney and digestive problems. In fact, pumpkin seeds and their oil have been used in traditional medicine for centuries. They contain potassium, magnesium and zinc which help calm and relax bladder muscles, reducing that desperate urgency to urinate.
• Soy isoflavones are natural plant estrogens called phytoestrogens. They naturally support balanced hormones — an important key to healthy bladder function. Balanced testosterone and estrogen help sustain the strength of the bladder muscles and pelvic floor.

Avoid the adult diaper aisle at the drugstore. Just add a little exercise to your day and some delicious pumpkin seeds and other phytoestrogen-rich foods including berries, grapes, almonds, tofu, miso soup or broccoli.

You can also seek out a bladder formula that might fit the bill and help you cut that invisible leash that keeps you from getting too far from the nearest restroom.

Sources:

Anticholinergic drugs and incident dementia, mild cognitive impairment and cognitive decline: a meta-analysis – NIH

Low-impact yoga and exercise found to help older women manage urinary incontinence – Science Daily

Pumpkin Seed Oil Extracted From Cucurbita maxima Improves Urinary Disorder in Human Overactive Bladder — Journal of Traditional and Complimentary Medicine

Dietary soy isoflavone replacement improves detrusor overactivity of ovariectomized rats with altered connexin-43 expression in the urinary bladder — BJU International

The post The bladder exercise better than confounding Kegels appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s one that if caught early carries a 93 percent chance of surviving five years — but when caught late, the outlook dwindles to a 90 percent chance of dying within those five years.

The disease is ovarian cancer.

And according to research published in the International Journal of Gynecological Cancer, these are the three symptoms that should trigger immediate testing, so that women can get the early treatment they need to increase their survival chances.

The importance of symptom-triggered testing

The researchers specifically recommend what’s known as ‘symptom-triggered’ testing.

That means that if you have the symptoms, your doctor should order testing right away — not tell you it’s probably nothing or sit around waiting to see if things get better, while cancer could be growing.

And they say that the symptoms to watch for when it comes to ovarian cancer are:

• Pain
• Abdominal bloating/swelling
• Feeling full soon after starting to eat

Their research of over 1,700 women showed that testing triggered by these symptoms can pick up early-stage aggressive ovarian cancer in one in four of those affected. And complete surgical removal of the cancerous tissue was possible in 60 percent of those diagnosed in this way.

In other words, symptom-based testing can help ensure that the most common type of ovarian cancer is caught early when chances of treatment and even complete removal are best.

It’s important to note there are additional symptoms women should bring up to their doctors that should also trigger testing, like changes in bowel or bladder habits and nausea or vomiting.

What should happen if you have these symptoms?

According to the American Cancer Society, about half of women diagnosed with ovarian cancer are 63 or older. So whether you’re younger or on the mature side, regular gynecological visits are also very important, but every woman should see their doctor if they have any of these symptoms.

Two tests are used most often for screening, in addition to a complete pelvic exam. They are transvaginal ultrasound and the CA-125 blood test.

So if your doctor doesn’t pay as much attention to your symptoms as you’d like, remember you can always get a second opinion to pursue testing.

Reducing your risks of ovarian cancer

Additionally, there are lifestyle factors that can help to cut down on your risk of this and other cancers. These include:

• Quitting tobacco
• Reducing alcohol intake
• Increasing exercise (research has shown even concerning a genetic cancer predisposition, high-intensity training enhances how the body fights cancer at its earliest stages)
• Eating healthy foods (especially ones that fight cancer)
• Lowering your body mass index (an increased BMI is associated with a greater risk for ovarian cancer with worse overall survival)

All of these help cut down on the amount of inflammation in your body, which is associated with developing cancer.

Finally, if your symptom-triggered testing does show ovarian cancer, you might consider harnessing the power of hemp, in addition to traditional medical care, to help your body fight back.

That’s because hemp extract has been shown to slow down metastasis of ovarian cancer cells and reduce the secretion of a compound known as interleukin IL-1 beta.

That’s important because interleukins produce inflammation that’s been linked to cancer development and progression. In other words by preventing interleukin secretion, the hemp could protect against the development of ovarian cancer or slow it down if you’ve already been diagnosed.

Sources:

‘Symptom triggered’ testing can pick up early stage aggressive ovarian cancer in 1 in 4 of those affected — EurekAlert!

Key Statistics for Ovarian Cancer — American Cancer Society

How to reduce your risk of ovarian cancer — Indiana University Health

The post 3 symptoms of ovarian cancer you shouldn’t ignore appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Men get them, too. But a whopping 60% of women will experience the discomfort and pain of a UTI at some point in their life.

And if you’re one of the really unfortunate women out there, UTIs can become a chronic problem. You go from one infection to the next, and if things get bad enough, your doctor will put you on long-term antibiotics just to head off the next one.

But antibiotic resistance is fueled by just such constant use of these drugs.

In fact, the World Health Organization found that one of the antibiotics most widely used to treat UTIs already has a 50% resistance rate— which means this antibiotic is now ineffective for half of all people who try it.

Fortunately, there are natural alternatives to antibiotics (more about that in a minute).

And now, a discovery about where the bacteria that cause UTIs actually live promises to reduce the need to overuse the antibiotics that treat these infections.

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Treat the bladder AND the vagina to end the loop

Until lately, it’s been widely assumed that these infection-causing bacteria live only in a woman’s bladder — in fact, UTIs are also associated with bladder infections. But a recent study has proven otherwise…

A team led by Dr. Takanori Sekito of Okayama University’s Graduate School of Medicine analyzed samples taken from both the bladder and the vagina of infected women. They found that the bacteria in both places were genetically identical.

And, as the bacteria get passed back and forth between the vagina and the bladder, they create infections that are almost impossible to treat.

As Dr. Sekito explains, “The vagina can serve as a reservoir of enteric bacteria, including E. coli, and cystitis can become intractable.” In other words, with the bacteria causing infection in both places, it becomes a recurring loop of agony for many women.

This discovery opens the door to more effective treatment and prevention that doesn’t involve antibiotics.

I’ll let Dr. Sekito explain:

“We are developing Lactobacillus vaginal suppositories, as a means of prevention and treatment of recurrent cystitis. This new ‘non-antimicrobial’ prevention will reduce the unnecessary administration of antimicrobials and the consequent emergence of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. The Lactobacillus suppositories will effectively regulate the vaginal environment and reduce the virulence of E. coli.”

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Cutting down on UTIs

A vaginal suppository that could short-circuit the cycle of recurring UTIs would be a game-changer for women.

But until those suppositories are on the market, there’s no need to suffer. There is a lot of science behind other natural ways to attack these nasty infections, including traditional sources or probiotics…

Probiotics. Strains of lactobacillus, the bacterial family found in probiotic foods such as sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt, and probiotic supplements, have been found to cling to the vaginal walls and to be active against the main pathogens responsible for UTIs. Probiotics specifically branded for women to support urinary health are already on the market and feature Lactobacillus strains.

But you must also feed those good bacteria prebiotics to sustain the balance of good bacteria. That’s easy enough — prebiotics are found in bananas, oats, asparagus, flax seeds, apples and of course supplements.

Cranberries. It’s been anecdotal for decades, but research has finally shown that cranberries can keep UTIs away.The proanthocyanidins (a type of polyphenol) they contain keep E. coli from sticking to the urinary tract lining.

Manuka honey. Produced by bees that pollinate the Manuka tree, native to New Zealand, Manuka honey can stop the growth of urinary tract-causing bacteria and prevent them from forming biofilms (a thin layer of bacteria that adhere to your bladder and cause chronic or recurring bladder infections). Antibiotics typically can’t touch these biofilms because the bacteria in them are notoriously antibiotic-resistant.

In addition, wearing loose-fitting clothing, drinking plenty of water, fully emptying your bladder when you urinate and taking vitamin C can help.

Sources:

A tale of two “niches”: The microbial connection between urinary bladder and vagina — Eureka Alert

Are probiotics good for vaginal health? — Cleveland Clinic

Homology of Escherichia coli isolated from urine and vagina and their antimicrobial susceptibility in postmenopausal women with recurrent cystitis — Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy

The post Stopping ‘recurring loop of infection’ can end chronic UTI appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Additionally, half of all men between the ages of 51 and 60 will experience benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) or enlarged prostate. This number increases to 70 percent for men aged 60 to 69 and reaches 90 percent for men over 85.

And while many men stay silent about their prostate problems, ignoring this widespread health issue won’t make it disappear.

Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH, Enlarged prostate)

The prostate, a walnut-sized gland, helps produce semen, the fluid that carries sperm. It surrounds the urethra, the tube that carries urine out from the bladder. As the prostate grows, it can squeeze the urethra.

As men get older, the prostate often enlarges such that the gland can double or even triple in size — imagine a walnut growing to the size of a lime. The resultant squeezing of the urethra can make urination difficult and prevent the bladder from emptying fully. Those affected may need to urinate more often, especially at night, experience extreme urgency to urinate or may even experience involuntary urination.

What causes an enlarged prostate?

There isn’t enough confirmed scientific evidence about the precise blend of genetic, environmental, dietary, and other influences that lead to prostate issues as men grow older. This uncertainty means there’s no simple way to avoid these problems.

Growing older appears to be the biggest factor in developing an enlarged prostate.

However, research has also shown that men who are overweight, or who have risk factors for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, may be more likely to have an enlarged prostate. So improving cardiometabolic health could potentially have a significant – and seemingly unrelated – side benefit in men.

In the extreme, an enlarged prostate can have serious consequences such as recurrent urinary tract infections or kidney malfunction, but for most men, symptoms are more about quality of life, and treatments aim to ease urinary difficulties. Cutting down on fluids in the evenings and limiting diuretics like caffeine and alcohol can help. For more significant relief, medications can relax or shrink the prostate, and surgical options can reduce its size.

Prostate cancer and at-risk groups

Men who live long enough are likely to develop prostate cancer; 70 percent of those over 70 have some cancerous cells in their prostate. Indeed, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men. In the U.S. and U.K., prostate cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among men, following lung cancer. The average age at diagnosis is 67, with cases rare in men under 40.

Genetic mutations play a role, with family history increasing risk significantly. Men with two or more close male relatives with prostate cancer are 5-10 times more likely to be diagnosed. Additionally, Black men face a 70 percent higher risk of getting and dying from prostate cancer for reasons not yet fully understood.

When it comes to prostate cancer, the best offense is a good defense. Meaning – getting screened and catching it early. According to the American Cancer Society, starting screening is appropriate at:

• Age 50 for men who are at average risk of prostate cancer
• Age 45 for men at higher risk of developing prostate cancer. This includes African American men and men who have a first-degree relative (father or brother) diagnosed with prostate cancer at an early age (younger than age 65).
• Age 40 for men at even higher risk (those with more than one first-degree relative who had prostate cancer at an early age)

Prostate gland enlargement does not mean you have prostate cancer or that you will develop it. Prostate cancer and BPH are different conditions.

Treatment for enlarged prostate

Beta-sitosterol, a specific plant sterol, has been shown to improve urinary symptoms and even reduce the risk of prostate cancer. While the data on plant sterols and prostate health isn’t as strong as that for heart health, the benefits are promising.

The actual way plant sterols do this is unclear, but multiple potential mechanisms have been documented. For example, beta-sitosterol has been shown to induce apoptosis (programmed cell death) in the cells involved in the genesis/growth of prostate cancer. In terms of BPH, multiple studies have also shown that beta-sitosterol can significantly improve urinary tract symptoms, but as effectively as pharmaceuticals (though without side effects).

Most plant sterol supplements used for BPH symptoms deliver between 300 and 400 mg of beta-sitosterol. That means if you’re a man and you’re eating even one serving of Step One Foods per day, you’re getting plenty of beta-sitosterol for supporting prostate health as well! One serving of Step One Foods delivers 750 milligrams of beta-sitosterol. Each product contains at least 1000 mg of plant sterols, with around 75 percent being beta-sitosterol.

Beyond prostate support, Step One products offer extra health benefits, including improved heart health — the leading cause of death for men and women. Prostate cancer is clearly a scary prospect. But so is a heart attack or stroke.

The post Prostate problems: Too common to ignore appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

As we age, the elastic tissue of the bladder can become tough and less stretchy, leading to a bladder that doesn’t hold as much urine as before. That means we’re running to the bathroom more often than we used to.

Also, the bladder wall and pelvic floor muscles often begin to weaken, making it harder to fully empty your bladder — or worse, causing urinary incontinence (UI).

This type of leakage isn’t an uncommon problem, especially for older women. While roughly 17 percent of American women ages 20 and older suffer from UI, that number skyrockets to 38 percent of women ages 60 and up, or a little over 1 in 3 women.

While there’s nothing you can do about getting older, there are some steps you can take to try to preserve as much of your bladder health as possible…

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Tips for a healthy bladder

1. Don’t wait to go. Trying to hold urine in for too long can weaken your bladder muscles and lead to a urinary infection. Make sure you urinate at least once every 3 to 4 hours.
2. Relax and take your time. If you rush when you urinate, you may not fully empty your bladder, a situation that can lead to infection. You may even want to try what is known as double voiding, where you stand up after urinating, and then sit down again to completely empty your bladder. And women, you need to sit on the toilet seat, since hovering over it may make it hard to relax the muscles around the bladder, which you need to do to fully empty it.
3. Wipe front to back. This step is most important after a bowel movement, but regardless, women should always wipe from front to back to keep gut bacteria from getting into the urethra (urinary tract) and causing infection.
4. Urinate shortly after sex. This goes for women and men since sexual activity can move bacteria from the bowel or vagina to the opening of the urethra.
5. Do Kegel exercises. These pelvic floor muscle exercises can help with bladder help in several ways. They can help hold urine in the bladder, keeping you from leaking urine. And by strengthening the muscles that help empty the bladder, they can help you avoid infection. And guess what? Kegels help men too in numerous ways!
6. Wear cotton underwear and loose-fitting clothes. Wearing loose, cotton clothing helps keep the area around the urethra dry, while wearing tight-fitting pants and nylon underwear can trap moisture and help bacteria grow.
7. Maintain a healthy weight. Overweight people have a higher risk of UI.
8. Exercise regularly. Physical activity can help prevent bladder problems as well as support healthy weight management.
9. Watch what you eat and drink. Some foods and drinks, including sodas, alcohol, artificial sweeteners, spicy foods, citrus fruits and juices and tomato-based foods, can make bladder problems worse. Caffeinated drinks like coffee and tea can also irritate the bladder and increase the frequent or urgent need to urinate.
10. Drink enough fluids (especially water). How much water you need varies based on your size, activity level, health conditions and the climate you live in. A good rule of thumb is to drink enough fluids so you need to urinate every few hours. However, it’s best to discuss your fluid needs with your doctor if you have a pre-existing health condition like kidney failure or heart disease. Remember cranberry juice is great for hydration and for helping keep UTIs away.
11. Avoid constipation. Allowing too much stool to build up in the colon puts pressure on the bladder and keeps it from expanding. You can help prevent constipation by eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking enough water and staying physically active. If you still need help, try natural helpers to make “going” easier.
12. If you smoke, quit. Bladder problems are more common in smokers, and smoking also increases the risk of bladder cancer.
13. Check your medications. Some medications could make bladder leakage more likely, such as medications that help you sleep or relax.

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Supplements to try

If you’re already experiencing mild bladder issues, you may want to try adding these natural supplements to your daily routine:

• Pumpkin seed extract. Research has shown pumpkin seed extract can have a positive effect on bladder symptoms, with one study showing decreased daytime and nighttime frequency and decreased urgency.
• Kohki tea. This sweet tea has high levels of antioxidants and has demonstrated a protective effect on bladder function.
• Phytoestrogens. Some studies have found this natural estrogen compound found in foods like soy, sesame seeds, lentils, oats and berries to be connected with improved pelvic floor muscles.

Source:

15 Tips To Keep Your Bladder Healthy — National Institute on Aging

The post 13 tips to keep you from fretting about wetting appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Men are also subject to urinary incontinence, but it plagues women much more often. About 30 to 50 percent of women have incontinence issues.

But incontinence isn’t just annoying, embarrassing and inconvenient. It can be downright disabling…

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Types of incontinence and why it matters

Before you go about trying to solve this problem, you’ll want to know what’s causing it. And it’s not the same in every case.

If your problem is stress incontinence, there is mechanical pressure from your belly when you sneeze or cough that overwhelms the sphincter and causes you to leak.

On the other hand, urge incontinence is more of a mind game. You may feel an uncontrollable urge to urinate in certain circumstances, particularly if you are close to a bathroom.

Often, the urge may be from an overactive bladder.

Mixed urinary incontinence is a combination of stress and urge incontinence.

It’s important to know which type of incontinence you’re experiencing. If you don’t, then your efforts to alleviate it may only make it worse.

For example, tight muscles causing too much tension in the pelvic floor can cause urge incontinence. Working on making those muscles tighter, for example with Kegel exercises, will be counterproductive.

“In a case of tight muscles, a woman may try to tighten the muscles further with more exercise, not knowing that it may make the incontinence worse,” says Dr. Sheila Dugan, chair of the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at RUSH.

“Pelvic floor muscles support pelvic organs and organ problems can lead to muscle problems or vice versa. One patient may have incontinence due to hip arthritis, another from a difficult delivery, or it can be caused by cancer treatment, for example, radiation in the pelvic area.”

But regardless of the type of incontinence, studies are showing that embarrassment and inconvenience are the least of your worries…

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Incontinence and disability are linked

According to data drawn from almost 2000 women, having more frequent urinary incontinence and leakage amounts is associated with higher odds of disability.

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, along with colleagues from UMass Chan Medical School and the Universities of California and Michigan, examined data from a large clinical trial called SWAN (the Study of Women Across the Nation).

SWAN was started in 1994 at seven sites across the country. Its purpose was to identify changes that occur during menopause and how they affect later health and risk for age-related diseases.

In looking at the data, researchers considered both the amount of leakage and frequency of incontinence and whether the participant had stress incontinence, urge incontinence, or both.

They measured disability outcomes associated with incontinence by using the World Health Organization’s disability assessment scale.

Their findings pointed to a clear association between incontinence and later disability. Mixed incontinence and frequency and amount of leakage had an especially strong association with later disability.

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Support your bladder, support your future

According to Dr. Dugan, “Often symptoms from urinary incontinence are ignored until they become bothersome or limit physical or social activities.” 

And though she and her team say more research is needed, it’s well-known that physical inactivity is a leading cause of disability.

It’s hard to exercise if doing a simple jumping jack means an embarrassing leak, or you have to give up daily walks for fear of getting far from a restroom.

But there are things you can do NOW to head off worsening urinary incontinence — and the important thing is not to ignore the issue until it’s too late.

Specialists like urogynecologists, urologists and gynecologists can help rule out any conditions that could contribute to incontinence.

Supplements may help as well. According to the National Association for Continence:

• Vitamin D deficiency is associated with a higher risk of pelvic floor disorders. In one study of older women, the risk of developing urinary incontinence was 45 percent lower among those with normal vitamin D levels.
• Magnesium ensures muscles and nerves function as they are meant to. Some experts believe that it may help improve incontinence symptoms by reducing bladder muscle spasms and allowing the bladder to empty.
• Vitamin C — but from food sources — is associated with decreased urinary urgency. The opposite was found to be the case in more than 2,000 women who took high-dose vitamin C and calcium.

Pumpkin seed extract has had a reputation for bladder health for years. A 2014 study found it reduced the degree of overactive bladder in participants who were followed for 12 weeks.

It’s also important to support your bladder health and avoid irritants.

There are quite a few adjustments you can make to your lifestyle that will increase the chances of having a healthy functioning bladder for life.

Sources:

Incontinence could point to future disability — Science Daily

The association of urinary incontinence and disability among a diverse sample of midlife Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation women — Menopause

Urinary incontinence fact sheet — U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services/Office of Women’s Health

3 vitamins that help with bladder control — National Association for Continence

Pumpkin Seed Oil Extracted From Cucurbita maxima Improves Urinary Disorder in Human Overactive Bladder — Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine

The post How incontinence increases your odds of disability appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

That’s what Dr. Gabrielle Williams had to say about recent findings regarding the effectiveness of cranberry juice to avoid urinary tract infections (UTIs) in people who are susceptible to them, and who suffer from repeated episodes of these painful infections.

Centuries ago, Native Americans valued cranberries for bladder problems. And like me, you probably grew up with a mom who suggested drinking cranberry juice to avoid this painful condition.

But science has often scoffed at this anecdotal evidence, chalking it up to an old wives’ tale. That is, until now…

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Proof cranberry products prevent UTIs

Dr. Gabrielle Williams, a clinical researcher and epidemiologist at the University of Sydney, led a research review that looked for evidence to back up the apparent effectiveness of cranberry juice in preventing UTIs.

Even though cranberry juice and supplements with cranberry have long been promoted as good prevention against UTIs — and even though lots of women swear by that — the most recent review of 24 clinical trials in 2012 said otherwise.

Thankfully, scientists from Flinders University and The Children’s Hospital at Westmead sought to update these findings…

After adding 26 new studies to the 2012 review, bringing the total number of studies to 50 with 8,857 participants — they analyzed results from trials of cranberry products compared with placebos, with antibiotics or probiotics and with no treatment at all.

Results showed that consuming cranberry products (in juice, tablet, or capsule form) was strongly associated with reduced risk of UTIs in women with recurrent infections.

There was a significant protective benefit noted among children, and among people at risk of UTIs due to interventions such as bladder radiotherapy. No significant benefit was noted for elderly subjects in particular.

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Why does it work?

It’s estimated that about 90 percent of UTIs are caused by the bacterium E. coli.

Earlier research has shown that it could be the proanthocyanidins (a type of polyphenol) in cranberries that do the job, by keeping E. coli bacteria from sticking to the urinary tract lining. Cranberries, along with blueberries and chokeberries (Aronia berries) are among the few sources of this powerful polyphenol compound.

Preventing UTIs means less reliance on antibiotics

Antibiotics have their place. If a UTI goes untreated it can move to the kidneys and cause complications, including sepsis in very severe cases. But for women with recurrent infections, antibiotics can pose other problems…

E. coli is becoming resistant to our best antibiotic treatments. That’s one very important reason why prevention is so important.

There are a few other tips to help cut down on UTI risk…

First, get in the habit of urinating when you have the urge, rather than holding it in (yes, even at night). Studies have found that holding your urine in for a long time allows bacteria to multiply in your urinary tract, resulting in a urinary tract infection.

Next, wear loose-fitting, dry clothing. Loose-fitting clothes and underwear allow airflow that can help keep unnecessary moisture away to keep the urethra dry.

Sources:

A myth no more: Cranberry products can prevent urinary tract infections for women — Eureka Alert

It’s Official: Cranberries Can Reduce Risk of UTI by 50% in Certain People — Science Alert

Is cranberry juice really effective against urinary tract infections? — Medical News Today

Cranberries for preventing urinary tract infections — Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews

Cranberry products can prevent urinary tract infections — Flinders University

Cranberry Products Inhibit Adherence of P-Fimbriated Escherichia Coli to Primary Cultured Bladder and Vaginal Epithelial Cells — The Journal of Urology

The post It’s official: Cranberries keep urinary tract infections away appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And then there’s the food — hearty, comforting and warmly scented with spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. The fall and winter months are the best times to enjoy a wide variety of squashes, including the one for which the holiday season is best known: pumpkin.

We’ve talked a lot about the many benefits of pumpkin seeds. But the flesh of the pumpkin packs its own health punch. Here are some ways consuming pumpkin can help maintain your well-being….

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A healthy dose of beta carotene

Orange vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes and pumpkins are loaded with beta carotene, an antioxidant your body converts into vitamin A. A one-cup serving of pumpkin can provide 200 percent of your recommended daily vitamin A intake.

Vitamin A is key to protecting your vision and helping you to see more clearly, especially in low-light conditions. The nutrient plays a role in maintaining the health of the heart, lungs, kidneys and reproductive system. And it stimulates production and activity of white blood cells, helps with bone remodeling and supports the health of the endothelial cells lining the body’s interior surfaces.

Carotenes are also believed to have the potential to check atherosclerosis. In fact, studies found the greater the concentration of carotenes in the blood, the lesser the atherosclerotic burden, particularly in women

Beta carotene also helps to fight the impact of aging on your skin. It also can alleviate inflammation, which benefits both the skin and the body.

In addition to beta carotene, pumpkins contain vitamin C, vitamin E, iron and folate. All of these nutrients can boost the ability of your immune system to fend off germs and speed up wound healing.

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Potassium for good heart health

The essential mineral potassium is sometimes referred to as an electrolyte because it carries a small electrical charge that activates many cell and nerve functions. Potassium helps to maintain normal cell fluid levels as well as muscle function and blood pressure.

While there isn’t enough evidence to establish a recommended dietary allowance for potassium, the National Academy of Medicine has established an adequate intake for the mineral. For adults, the adequate intake is 3,400 mg for men and 2,600 mg for women.

Pumpkin can help keep those potassium levels up. One cup of pumpkin contains about 394 mg of potassium, just shy of the 420 mg found in one banana. Eating pumpkin regularly can help maintain healthy blood pressure levels as well as lower your risk of stroke, kidney stones and type 2 diabetes. The potassium in pumpkin can also help increase bone mineral density.

Plenty of fiber to help manage weight

One cup of pumpkin only contains 30 calories, making it a great food to include in a healthy diet (as long as it’s not in pumpkin pie form). Plus, pumpkins contain a lot of fiber, which can help you feel full and keep you from overeating. In addition to helping curb appetite, fiber also promotes good digestive health, balances blood sugar and lowers your odds of contracting heart disease.

At 7 grams a cup, a daily dose of pumpkin can help boost your fiber intake. It’s recommended that men get 30 to 38 grams of fiber daily, while women should try to eat a least 21 to 25 grams of fiber a day.

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Healthy ways to eat pumpkin

Say the word “pumpkin” and most of us think of that old holiday standby, pumpkin pie. But there are much healthier ways to consume this tasty squash.

For instance, try adding cubes of pumpkin to a mix of roasted vegetables or a vegetable casserole. Or whip up a tasty (and healthy!) pumpkin soup. You can even combine pumpkin with chickpeas to make delicious hummus. Surprisingly, pumpkin puree is a tasty addition to rich, thick and nutritious smoothies.

And when you carve your pumpkin, for Halloween or for a special recipe, be sure to keep and roast the seeds. They are rich in antioxidants, iron, zinc, magnesium and many other nutrients.

Native Americans used pumpkin seeds as an age-old remedy for bladder, kidney and digestive problems. Research has also shown pumpkin seeds to be effective in reducing prostate symptoms without side effects. 

Sources:

Health Benefits of Pumpkin — Nourish by WebMD

Vitamin A — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Pumpkin — Eat This Much

Potassium — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Where to find potassium, other than bananas — Sharp Health News

Fiber — Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

9 reasons to add pumpkin to your diet — OSF Healthcare

The post 3+ ways pumpkin can boost your wellness appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

If you’re an older man, this scenario may be all too familiar. You’re experiencing what’s known as lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) such as weak stream and frequent nighttime urination, or nocturia.

LUTS is usually associated with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), a condition in which the prostate becomes enlarged and makes it difficult to urinate or completely empty the bladder. However, age-related bladder changes, metabolic syndrome and vascular disease also can contribute to LUTS.

Moderate to severe LUTS has been linked to an increased risk of death in previous studies. But it was unclear whether improving these symptoms had any impact on that higher death risk — until now….

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The danger of lower urinary tract symptoms

Researchers analyzed data on 3,046 men aged 50 or older with moderate to severe LUTS from the Medical Treatment of Prostate Symptoms trial. The participants were randomly assigned to receive active treatment with LUTS medications or an inactive placebo. Medications used in the study were the alpha-1 blocker doxazosin, the 5-alpha reductase inhibitor finasteride or a combination of the two.

During the two-year follow-up period, the researchers used the AUA Symptom Score to rate the impact of LUTS symptoms on a scale of 0 to 35. Follow-up data were used to determine the connection between reduction in urinary symptoms and death risk after an average of six years.

Results showed that for each one-point reduction in symptom score, the risk for death decreased by 4 percent. The more symptoms were reduced, the greater the reduction in death risk, with a 10-point reduction in LUTS symptoms correlating with a 35 percent decrease in death risk.

While the men assigned to all three active treatment groups showed significant reductions in mortality risk, the placebo group did not.

The researchers note that urinary symptoms are typically regarded as a “benign condition” that’s only treated when it becomes a problem for the patient.

“The findings suggest that we may need to view urinary symptoms differently, possibly with an emphasis on earlier treatment,” says lead author Dr. Blayne Welk of Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute in Canada.

The researchers stress that the study cannot determine a causal relationship between improved LUTS symptoms and subsequent death risk and that further study is needed. They also observe that the study did not evaluate the impact of other treatment options, including newer types of selective alpha blockers.

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Natural ways to keep your prostate healthy

If you decide to ask your doctor about medication for LUTS or BPH, you should know that studies have linked 5-alpha reductase inhibitors like finasteride with an elevated risk of diabetes. Your doctor will want to consider your health history before choosing that path.

There are other medications but they too have side effects to be weighed. For those reasons, some men choose a natural approach.

For instance, diet can influence prostate health. Some foods should be avoided, while other foods may help shrink the prostate.  Research shows that a diet rich in whole fruits, vegetables and healthy fats (sounds like the Mediterranean diet!) can improve prostate health and BPH.

Several supplements have a reputation for relieving LUTS as well, most notably saw palmetto. Studies have confirmed the effectiveness of saw palmetto in promoting prostate health, relieving the excessive need to urinate (especially at night) and enhancing urinary flow. Others include pygeum, stinging nettle and beta-sitosterol.

Consider drinking green and black tea regularly (but avoid drinking anything close to bedtime). A study conducted by researchers at Winthrop University Hospital in Garden City, New York, evaluated the impact of green and black tea on a small group of men (46) with LUTS. The men who had taken the tea mixture showed an improvement in LUTS (including improved urinary flow and reduced inflammation) and quality of life in as little as six weeks when compared with placebo.

And last but not least, regular exercise is also important for keeping your prostate healthy. The more active you are, the lower your risk of BPH or prostate problems.

Sources:                                                                                                        For older men, treating urinary symptoms may lead to lower mortality risk — EurekAlert!

The Reduction of Male Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms Is Associated With a Decreased Risk of Death — The Journal of Urology

The post Ignoring these bathroom symptoms can cut your life short appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

This remedy has ancient roots and has long been valued for its ability to manage bladder disorders, but scientific studies have shown it also has lots of potential for prostate health.

Here are some reasons why you may want to consider pygeum to support your prostate…

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What Is Pygeum?

Pygeum supplements are made from the bark of the Prunus africanum tree, although both the tree and the extract are often referred to simply as pygeum. The active ingredients in the extract include phytosterols, the most common of which is beta-sitosterol. Other components in pygeum include triterpenes and compounds called ferulic acids.

You may recognize beta-sitosterol as another natural supplement that is beneficial for the prostate. It is found in stinging nettle and saw palmetto, two other herbal remedies shown to support prostate health. Phytosterols can inhibit the production of dihydrotestosterone (DHT), the hormone that plays a major role in the development of an enlarged prostate (also known as benign prostatic hyperplasia, or BPH) and in hair loss.

Although pygeum has been studied for a variety of ailments, it has demonstrated the most promise for the management of an enlarged prostate.

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Pygeum And Enlarged Prostate

An enlarged prostate is a common condition caused by the noncancerous growth of the prostate gland as men age. Enlargement of the prostate can constrict the urethra, the tube that transports urine out of the body. Therefore, men who have an enlarged prostate often, but not always, experience urinary tract symptoms such as urinary urgency, painful urination, dribbling, the need to urinate often during the night and urinary frequency.

A number of studies have indicated that pygeum has properties that can help relieve symptoms of an enlarged prostate.

A few of the findings and reports on pygeum and BPH:

• A total of 263 men who had an enlarged prostate were given either 50 mg of pygeum extract or a placebo twice daily for 60 days. At the end of the study, the men who had taken pygeum extract had a “marked clinical improvement” in urinary tract symptoms. In fact, there was a 66 percent improvement in urinary symptoms in the pygeum group compared with 31 percent in the placebo group.
• A meta-analysis involving 18 trials evaluated a total of 1,562 men who had an enlarged prostate. Overall, the reviewers concluded that compared with placebo, pygeum offered men a “moderately large improvement” in urinary tract symptoms. Men who took pygeum were more than twice as likely to experience an improvement than men in placebo groups.
• In a comparison of pygeum with saw palmetto, another herbal remedy shown to be helpful in supporting prostate health and coping with an enlarged prostate, investigators reported on two studies: In one, 70 men with an enlarged prostate were given either 320 mg of saw palmetto for 30 days or 100 mg of pygeum plus 320 mg of saw palmetto for 30 days. In both studies, men experienced an improvement of about 50 percent in frequent urination and painful urination.
• In a review article in American Family Physician, the author noted that “limited evidence shows that the herbal agents saw palmetto extract, rye grass pollen extract, and pygeum relieve symptoms” of an enlarged prostate.

Taking Pygeum Supplements

If you are considering pygeum supplements, there are two options. One is to take the herbal remedy alone. The other is to take a supplement that contains pygeum along with other natural remedies for prostate health. In either case, the suggested dose of pygeum (standardized to contain 13 percent total sterols) is 75 to 200 mg daily as a single dose or divided into two equal doses.

Sources:

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to determine the effectiveness of botanically derived inhibitors of 5-alpha-reductase in the treatment of androgenetic alopecia. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12006122

Efficacy of Pygeum africanum extract in the treatment of micturational disorders due to benign prostatic hyperplasia. Evaluation of objective and subjective parameters. A multicenter, randomized, double-blind trial. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1702916

Pygeum africanum for benign prostatic hyperplasia. Cochrane Databases of Systematic Reviews 2002; (1)CD001044. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11869585

Serenoa repens in benign prostatic hypertrophy: analysis of 2 Italian studies. Minerva Urol Nefrol 2010 Dec; 62(4): 335-40. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20944533

Edwards: Diagnosis and management of benign prostatic hyperplasia. http://www.aafp.org/afp/2008/0515/p1403.html

NBBS isolated from Pygeum africanum bark exhibits androgen antagonistic activity, inhibits AR nuclear translocation and prostate cancer cell growth.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19771394

Papaioannou M et al. The natural compound atraric acid is an antagonist of the human androgen receptor inhibiting cellular invasiveness and prostate cancer cell growth.  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18627423

The post Pygeum: Natural prostate support that stacks up appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

And right now, the only solution your doctor can offer you is antibiotics. But there’s a big problem with antibiotics you’ve probably heard about…

People are becoming resistant to them. Especially the antibiotics used to treat bladder infections because they’ve been prescribed so frequently for so long.

In fact, it’s been determined that one of the antibiotics most commonly used to treat UTIs already has a 50 percent resistance rate. That means this antibiotic doesn’t do anything for half the people who need it.

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A powerful option when antibiotics let us down

With antibiotic resistance on the rise, more and more people are turning to natural remedies to prevent and get rid of urinary tract infections. And there are a lot of natural remedies to choose from — cranberry products, D-mannose, probiotics, vitamin C and goldenseal.

But if honey is not on your list of infection-fighting natural remedies — it should be. A study published in the Journal of Clinical Pathology found that Manuka honey can help treat chronic and recurring UTIs.

In their study, researchers found that Manuka honey, which is produced by bees that pollinate the Manuka tree, native to New Zealand, can stop the growth of urinary tract-causing bacteria and prevent them from forming biofilms. Biofilms are thin layers of bacteria that adhere to your bladder and cause chronic or reoccurring bladder infections. Antibiotics typically can’t touch these biofilms because the bacteria in them are notoriously antibiotic-resistant.

I’ve put Manuka honey to the test myself plenty of times.

Last year I fell and ended up with a nasty cut on my forehead — and I promptly slathered it with Manuka honey — the best antibacterial treatment you can keep at home, I believe.

Manuka honey is renowned for its potent antibacterial properties. It’s also antiviral and antifungal. That’s because its low pH level and high sugar content create a unique effect that obstructs the growth of microbes. Manuka honey is also well-known for its effectiveness against deadly infections like MRSA that are resistant to antibiotics.

Not only did I heal quickly but I have no scar — despite my husband’s insistence that I probably would.

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Manuka Honey for bladder health

If you want to see firsthand how honey can improve your bladder health, here’s one way to try it…

Combine one to two tablespoons of Manuka honey with two tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, a dash of lemon juice and warm water. You’ll end up with a tart and tasty tonic that can attack your bladder problems from three angles… because not only does Manuka honey have antibacterial abilities, but apple cider vinegar and lemon do too.

Even if you’re not prone to urinary or bladder infections, it’s not a bad idea to partake of this sweet tonic to ward off infection and boost your body’s natural healing potential.

Sources:

1. Emineke, et al. “Diluted honey inhibits biofilm formation: potential application in urinary catheter management?” — Journal of Clinical Pathology, 2016.
2. M. Soto. “Importance of Biofilms in Urinary Tract Infections: New Therapeutic Approaches.” — Advances in Biology, 2014.
3. D. Mandal, S. Mandal. “Honey: its medicinal property and antibacterial activity.” — Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Biomedicine, 2011 Apr; 1(2): 154–160.

The post Manuka honey for chronic bladder infections appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It’s just human nature to assume the worst. And now that anytime any of us has a symptom we’re worried about, we become internet doctors.

Googling “men, frequent urination” tells you that it’s caused by “diseases that affect the urinary tract at any level.” In addition to enlarged prostate and kidney stones, it throws diabetes into the mix.

What it won’t tell you is that for one in seven men, the reason they trot from bedroom to bathroom going all night or give up their golf game for fear of bladder leakage, is a non-threatening, albeit annoying, slightly embarrassing condition known simply as overactive bladder.

It’s annoying but not scary

First things first. Every man should get annual prostate screenings after the age of 45 or 50. Because your prostate is in close proximity to your bladder, if it’s enlarged, for reasons benign or not (which your doctor can help determine) it can put pressure on your bladder.

So if you’ve all checked out in that department and you’re still going all night, it’s a good bet you simply have an overactive bladder.

Overactive bladder is a kind of incontinence. You may think you have control of your bladder, but the truth is it’s calling the shots.

There are different kinds of urinary incontinence, including stress incontinence (like when lifting or coughing puts pressure on your bladder); urge incontinence is when you feel an overwhelming urge to urinate; overflow incontinence is when your bladder isn’t completely emptying; and mixed incontinence is a combo of stress and urge incontinence.

If you haven’t already guessed, urge incontinence is the type most associated with overactive bladder, and is behind that compelling need to get to a bathroom pronto at any time of day or night. Though to be honest, they can all come into play to make your bladder overactive.

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What causes overactive bladder

In case you’re feeling self-conscious about your overactive bladder, you should know that more than 80 percent of people in their 60s deal with excessive nighttime urination — including women.

Sometimes the contributing factors to the condition may differ between the sexes, but basically, a bladder is a bladder — and if the muscles that control how it operates become weak, it doesn’t discriminate.

For men, once an obvious condition like enlarged prostate is ruled out, it’s hard to pin down an exact reason your bladder muscles weakened. But it’s not rocket science to realize that muscle in general weakens with age.

Have you suddenly started hitting the gym? Your glutes may not be the only muscles feeling the strain.

Are you still drinking eight glasses of water a day, even though your activity level has tapered off?

Are sodas, juice, coffee, tea or other acidic drinks (including alcohol) and foods a big part of your diet? They’re triggers to irritating your overactive bladder.

Calming your overactive bladder

Start with your answers to the questions I just posed…

If you’re working out but ignoring your pelvic muscles, your setting yourself up for trouble. Add in Kegel exercises. This may sound crass, but the muscles you’ll want to focus on are the same muscles you’d use to stop yourself from passing gas. Yep, those. Just tense, hold and release.

Next, cut down on water or any other liquid, especially the trigger ones, several hours before bedtime.

Now, there are medications your doctor can prescribe for your overactive bladder. But they can be concerning…

Anticholinergics are a commonly prescribed group of medications also called antispasmodics. They block the neurotransmitter acetylcholine from binding to receptors on nerve cells, essentially relaxing the bladder. But acetylcholine is critical for memory function. That’s why using anticholinergics can put people at higher risk for developing mild cognitive impairment, which is considered a precursor to dementia.

No worries, Mother Nature is armed and ready to help you take on your overactive bladder…

• Research has shown pumpkin seed extract can have a positive effect on these annoying symptoms. One such study of 45 men and women who took the extract daily for 12 weeks experienced decreased daytime and nighttime frequency along with decreased urgency.
• Soy germ isoflavones help men (and women) maintain testosterone levels. Testosterone helps to regulate your sex drive, brain function, bone mass, muscle mass and strength — including the strength of the pelvic floor — and that’s why testosterone levels for men and women need to remain strong.

These “bladder supporters” have decades of credibility behind their effects on bladder health.

Just imagine the restful sleep you’ll enjoy when you’re not forced to get up multiple times during the night to pee. No one’s got time for that.

Sources:

The Burden of Overactive Bladder on US Public Health — Curr Bladder Dysfunction Rep

The post The other reason some men ‘go’ all night appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Not having control over your bladder is a problem that can come to dominate your life.

Urinary incontinence in women is generally attributed to problems with muscles and nerves in the bladder. For men, the culprit is often prostate-related.

But did you know that the medication you’re taking for a completely unrelated condition could be causing your leaky bladder?

Three types of incontinence

In order to discuss medication-induced incontinence, it’s important to first understand the three basic types of incontinence. They are:

• Stress. This is when urine leaks due to increased abdominal pressure, often brought on by laughing, coughing, sneezing or other physical activity. Stress incontinence occurs mostly in women.
• Urge. The urge to urinate comes on suddenly and strongly, and urine leaks if a bathroom isn’t immediately available. This affects both men and women.
• Overflow. This mainly affects men. It’s caused by an inability to expel urine, resulting in bladder overflow and urine leakage.

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Medications that cause incontinence

There are seven classes of commonly prescribed medication that are associated with urinary incontinence

Alpha-adrenergic antagonists are used to treat benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), high blood pressure and blood circulation problems. They affect smooth muscle and therefore can weaken the bladder.

Alpha-adrenergic agonists may contract the bladder neck and thus cause overflow incontinence. Clonidine, a drug for hypertension, is a common example of this class of drug.

Antipsychotics that contain phenothiazine inhibit the action of dopamine, disrupting the communication between the brain and the bladder and causing urge incontinence. These drugs are also used to treat anxiety disorders.

Antidepressants. All antidepressants cause urinary retention and overflow incontinence.

Diuretics, also called “water pills,” are a common treatment for high blood pressure. They increase the formation of urine in the kidneys in order to rid the body of salt and water. The need to urinate can be frequent and intense, causing urge incontinence.

Calcium channel blockers lower blood pressure by making the bladder muscle less able to contract, leading to overflow incontinence.

ACE inhibitors are blood pressure meds that tell the kidneys not to hang on to extra fluid. This can cause stress incontinence when the bladder is not able to hold urine during physical movement.

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How to improve your urinary health

If you’re using any of these medications that cause incontinence, you can start by talking with the doctor who prescribed it to you, to see whether there are other alternatives, or whether the medication is still really necessary.

And if medication doesn’t seem to be the cause of your incontinence, or if you’re just experiencing the beginnings of increased urge and more frequent nighttime bathroom trips, there are things you can do to improve the health and function of your bladder.

I would suggest you strongly consider these alternative options to any medications your doctor would prescribe for an overactive bladder. That’s because bladder medications come with a list of their own problems, including an increased risk for dementia.

To start with, exercise can help — no side effects, either. Kegel exercise was designed to strengthen your pelvic floor. But that’s not your only option…

These yoga poses can also help get that bladder under control!

A number of natural supplements can also help calm an overactive bladder. Pumpkin seed extract has been tested often in men and phytoestrogens from plants have shown beneficial in both men and women.

There are a variety of probiotics on the market that were designed specifically with urinary tract health in mind, so, if you suffer from incontinence, those may be worth a try.

Sources:

Drug-Induced Urinary Incontinence — U.S. Pharmacist

The post 7 medications that make your bladder work overtime appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

An estimated 50 percent of adult women experience urinary incontinence. And it only increases with age. In fact, up to 75 percent of women over 65 report bladder leaks.

Of the two types of urinary incontinence, stress urinary incontinence is more prevalent. Stress incontinence is triggered by physical activities such as coughing, laughing, sneezing, jumping or even walking. Women with stress incontinence often give up doing things they enjoy, like exercising, playing their favorite sport or even dancing, just to avoid triggering a bladder leak.

In the case of stress incontinence, women are often referred to pelvic floor physical therapists to learn how to perform Kegel exercises to tighten and strengthen the muscles which support the bladder. And studies show Kegels help 50 to 75 percent of patients with incontinence.

But what about the remaining 25 to 50 percent? Investigators have found that adding a second exercise regimen may increase their odds of relief…

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Kegels and resistance training: a potent combo

A study compared two groups of incontinent women: those who had done Kegels before the study and those who had not. Both groups then started resistance training. This regimen includes exercises using free weights and machines where an individual uses their muscles to push against the weighted resistance. This resistance increases muscular strength over time.

Researchers recorded the participants’ incontinence severity, pelvic floor muscle strength and body composition measurements before and after exercising. The body composition measurements included body mass index, fat and muscle mass.

The results show that the stronger the pelvic floor muscles got, the less stress urinary incontinence was experienced. Also, participants in the group that did Kegel exercises before their resistance training had a significant increase in muscle mass and a corresponding reduction in fat mass.

“Physically active women tend to have stronger pelvic floors, and this is thought to contribute to a successful continence mechanism when there is an increase in their intra-abdominal pressure,” says Donelle Cross of Flinders University in Australia.

A previous study found more than eight percent of incontinent women no longer experienced urinary leakage during their daily life after doing resistance training.

Both studies suggest that resistance training has a positive impact on pelvic floor strength and helps women activate their pelvic floor muscles in a timely and effective way. And the new research showed doing Kegels before initiating resistance training provides the most effective results in reducing stress urinary incontinence.

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Activating the pelvic floor is key

One thing that contributed to the study’s successful results is that participants were frequently reminded to activate their pelvic floor muscles when engaging their core during the resistance training.

If you can strengthen your pelvic floor that means you won’t have to rely on medications to relieve bladder urgency. That matters because those medications are anticholinergics. They block the brain chemical acetylcholine, which does two important things — promotes muscle contractions and participates in the brain’s learning and memory.

So while popping a pill could prevent the urgency you feel from muscle contractions in your bladder, it can also mess with your memory and cognitive abilities.

Now — before you start a Kegel and resistance training regimen, you may want to know exactly how to activate your pelvic floor muscles…

The first step is to identify them. The pelvic floor is located between the tailbone and the pubic bone and supports the bladder, bowels, vagina and uterus. They’re the muscles you use to stop urinating.

Next, to do a proper Kegel, concentrate on squeezing those muscles. If you feel a pulling-up sensation, you’re doing it right. Don’t tighten your whole body, and definitely don’t clench your butt muscles at the same time, or you’ll add unnecessary tension to your pelvic floor. Try to target only the pelvic floor.

It’s tempting to hold your breath when you contract the pelvic floor muscles. Make sure you keep breathing so you can keep oxygen flowing to those muscles.

Sources:

Kegel exercise solution for women — Flinders University

Does a Kegel Exercise Program Prior to Resistance Training Reduce the Risk of Stress Urinary Incontinence? — Environmental Research and Public Health

Is urine incontinence normal for women? — Mayo Clinic Health System

When Kegels aren’t enough — Allina Health

What Trainers *Actually* Mean When They Tell You To ‘Activate Your Pelvic Floor’ — Well + Good

The post How to make Kegels work better for bladder leaks appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I’m talking about bladder leakage caused by overactive bladder (OAB) and urinary incontinence (UI).

In the United States, roughly 17 percent of women ages 20 and older suffer from UI. While that doesn’t seem like a lot, the number skyrockets as women age.

In fact, the prevalence of UI is 38 percent in American women ages 60 and up. That’s a little over 1 in 3 women!

Many women also suffer from stress urinary incontinence (SUI). If you’ve ever experienced bladder leakage while jumping, dancing or exercising, this is SUI — an involuntary loss of urine due to physical exertion.

OAB, by contrast, is characterized by the urgent need to urinate. It’s usually paired with increased daytime frequency and/or nocturia, a condition that causes you to wake up in the night because you have to urinate. While OAB doesn’t necessarily involve bladder leakage, it can be a symptom.

Helping women understand what type they’re likely to have may help them hone in on relief…

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Women in midlife more likely to develop OAB

A study of more than 12,000 women in Japan indicates that postmenopausal women between the ages of 45 and 54 years are more likely to have OAB syndrome.

The study also showed that SUI symptoms can become less frequent after menopause — except in women who are considered obese and who had experience multiple births.

These findings are surprising. Multiple studies have been conducted on these urinary issues, and most of them indicate that as a woman grows older, her odds of developing bladder problems increase.

The goal of the Japanese study was to investigate prevalence and factors linked with urinary symptoms. Other factors reviewed included smoking status as well as a history of diabetes, hysterectomy and the use of hormone therapy.

“This study underscores how common urinary incontinence is in women, with nearly one in five Japanese women reporting urinary incontinence related to OAB or SUI in the last month,” says Dr. Stephanie Faubion, medical director of The North American Menopause Society.

“Midlife women were particularly affected by SUI (18.2% in women aged 50 to 54 years),” Faubion adds. “Given the significant negative effect on quality of life and the presence of effective strategies for management of these burdensome symptoms, clinicians should routinely ask women about urinary incontinence.”

Researchers suggest additional studies that consider the connection between a woman’s time since menopause and OAB symptoms in the perimenopause period.

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What can be done?

There are now a variety of treatment options available. The first thing to do, however, is to discuss your OAB or UI with your doctor. They’ll need to rule out a serious condition that could be causing the bladder leakage.

Once your doctor has determined your bladder leakage is caused by pregnancy, childbirth and menopause taking a toll on your pelvic floor, you can consider which of the options you want to use to address it — starting with non-invasive solutions…

These include:

• Eating more fiber to reduce constipation (which can put pressure on the bladder) and reducing artificial sweeteners and caffeine (that can aggravate the bladder).

• Decreasing the amount you drink three hours before bedtime to improve nocturia. And double voiding, a technique that helps you empty your bladder completely when you use the bathroom.

• Regularly performing Kegel exercises. They’re great for strengthening your pelvic floor, especially when you initially do the exercises with a physical therapist who can show you how to perform them correctly. If you need a refresher, here is a guide to performing Kegel exercises the proper way. Or you can purchase a Kegel exercising device that’s been designed to help make it easier to perform Kegel exercises by targeting the right muscles and even reminding you to do them.

• Losing weight. As the Japanese study has shown, SUI improves for many women after menopause — except for those who are overweight.

• Trying natural remedies like pumpkin seed extract. In a 12-week study, it was shown to significantly reduce symptoms of overactive bladder. Kohki tea and phytoestrogens may also reduce symptoms of OAB by strengthening the pelvic floor.

• Lastly, have a backup: Products are now available, including streamlined pads, discreet disposable incontinence underwear, and even washable, reusable underwear that can absorb leaks and neutralize their odor. These would be especially helpful for women who suffer from SUI — and could help avoid embarrassing scenarios like leakage during aerobics class.

If your bladder leakage has become serious, you may need a more invasive treatment, like Botox injections or a sling procedure. Because Botox injections are usually not covered by insurance and the sling procedure requires surgery, these are usually not considered until all other remedies have failed.

Electrical stimulation also has helped many women improve their bladder leakage symptoms. While many forms of electrical stimulation do involve stimulating pelvic floor muscles by administering a small electrical current from within the vagina, they’re not nearly as invasive as Botox or sling procedures.

Sources:

Overactive Bladder and Urinary Incontinence Worsen With Age — The North American Menopause Society

Prevalence and factors associated with overactive bladder and stress urinary incontinence in the Japan Nurses’ Health Study — Menopause

Urinary incontinence in the young woman: treatment plans and options available — Women’s Health (London, England)

Nocturia — Cleveland Clinic

Effect of oral Kohki tea on bladder dysfunction induced by severe partial outlet obstruction — The Journal of Urology

The post Why bladder problems increase with age for some women appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Elmiron (pentosan polysulfate sodium) is one of the drugs that led consumers to make that inquiry. A possible answer is that the pharmaceutical industry seems to be so dependent on marketing that it tries to squeeze every last dollar out of each drug, disregarding the dangers of patient safety and lawsuits. That is, of course, until filings increase and the FDA awakens from its slumber, requiring manufacturers to fix their labels.

The case of the drug Elmiron fits into this scenario. After multiple research studies, an FDA Citizen’s Petition, lawsuits and injury claims from people adversely affected by Elmiron’s side effects, Janssen finally revised the Elmiron drug label to include its risk of eye disease.

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History of Elmiron

Elmiron, the only oral medication available on the market specifically for treating interstitial cystitis (IC) — a condition that can cause severe bladder pain, urinary frequency, or inflammation — was approved by the FDA in 1996. Teva Branded Pharmaceuticals developed Elmiron, and Janssen Pharmaceuticals — a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson — licensed the rights to produce and distribute it in the U.S.

But the manufacturers never warned consumers that the drug could damage their vision; the drug label stated only “Warnings: None.” So it wasn’t until 2018 that alarm bells were sounded by the American Academy of Ophthalmology (AAO), linking Elmiron use to serious side effects of eye disease. After AAO released these findings, the academy also published a study showing that nearly 25% of patients suffered vision problems after taking Elmiron over a long period.

In 2020, researchers at Emory Eye Center at the Emory School of Medicine and the Interstitial Cystitis Network also began to pay closer attention to cases of retinal damage in IC patients using Elmiron.

Also, based on the manufacturers not honestly describing how dangerous the drug is, they started being held accountable in numerous lawsuits for failure to warn — also known as a marketing defect — of the risks associated with Elmiron.

Former users of the bladder medication — who have already filed at least 234 Elmiron cases across different federal district courts — claim to have suffered permanent vision problems after using the drug and ask for compensation for medical bills and other losses.  In some lawsuits, Janssen Pharmaceutical is accused of purposely withholding information and refusing to pull Elmiron from the market.

As a result, in 2020 — 24 years since its approval and under the pressure of consumer lawsuits — FDA approved the safety-related labeling changes for Elmiron. First, the FDA required a label change: The “Warnings and Precautions” and the “Adverse Reactions” sections were updated to include retinal pigmentary changes as potential adverse reactions.

Second, these Elmiron label changes were followed and reiterated in 2021 in a Medication Guide mandated by the FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER). The guide expands the amount of information available to the public on possible changes in the eye’s retina. However, the FDA has not yet requested a recall of the drug.

FDA Approval Process

The FDA decides if a drug receives approval based on its known risks and benefits, as revealed through premarket studies conducted by the drug manufacturers themselves. In general, the FDA approval of a drug does not guarantee safety and balances it against its efficacy. However, to properly assess whether a drug’s risks outweigh its benefits, the public must be made aware of potential side effects. Unfortunately, Elmiron did not meet that requirement.

Furthermore, the drug label must describe any known side effects. And Janssen only specified that Elmiron is indicated to relieve bladder pain associated with IC and did not warn against the potential side effect resulting from that use.

Therefore, consumers used the drug as intended and suffered the unexpected harm of macular degeneration and permanent vision loss.

Failure to Warn of a Drug’s Risks

Even in cases when a manufacturer was unaware of the risks, it still cannot escape liability for a failure to warn. Manufacturers are under a duty to stay knowledgeable about the drugs they produce and distribute. If manufacturers could have discovered the risks through proper research, testing, and investigation, they can be held liable for failure to warn.

So who is the consumer injured by Elmiron? The typical plaintiffs in Elmiron lawsuits are women between the ages of 30 to 60 who used the drug for at least one year at a dosage of at least 100 mg. The injuries they suffered take the form of vision-related side effects, such as:

• Pigmentation macular degeneration
• Wither pigmentation maculopathy
• Retinal maculopathy
• Pigmentation maculitis
• Dry macular degeneration

With up to 8 million women in the U.S. possibly suffering from IC and some of them probably using Elmiron, many more claims are expected to materialize.

As studies have warned that the macular degeneration caused by Elmiron can look like AMD or Stargardt disease and lead to misdiagnosis, a patient that uses Elmiron may need help in determining if they can file a claim.

The best way for a patient to confirm whether they may have been misdiagnosed is to consult with an ophthalmology expert to trace symptoms of any visual impairment linked to Elmiron use.

Elmiron usage timeline is also essential in these cases. The research shows that patients experience vision issues after using the drug for at least three years. However, unlike most drug injury cases, patients do not need to be taking Elmiron up until the time of their side effect diagnosis.

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How Could a Risky Drug Get Approval?

Here are two regulatory frameworks for the FDA’s review of a prescription drug. First, there’s the premarket approval process, in which the FDA reviewed the safety and effectiveness of Elmiron when its manufacturers decided to market it in the U.S.

A large part of this review was the FDA’s examination of the manufacturer-provided data from clinical testing conducted in progressively larger Phase I, II, and III trials. In these studies, volunteers took Elmiron in carefully controlled and usually randomized trials. Thus, the FDA’s task involved providing an in-depth analysis, weighing safety, benefit, and risk.

The second regulatory framework involves post-market regulatory procedures. This is when Janssen Pharmaceutical should have reported all the serious and unexpected adverse reactions it received from patients and clinicians to the FDA.

Consequently, now Plaintiffs and critics allege Janssen Pharmaceuticals knew or should have known of Elmiron’s severe side effects. One plaintiff who filed an Elmiron lawsuit in May 2020 alleged that the manufacturer failed to disclose the serious link between Elmiron use and significant visual damage and withheld material adverse events. Another plaintiff also claimed that Janssen withheld material adverse events from the public, the medical community, and the FDA.

Congress passed two significant pieces of legislation to assure Americans that the drugs they use are safe and effective, but these also led to this disaster to happen. One is the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act from 1938, a law that requires drugs to be proven safe before being sold in interstate commerce. The second is a 1962 amendment to this law, requiring that manufacturers also demonstrate the effectiveness of their products.

When FDA finds a drug’s post-approval use presents an increased risk of an adverse event, it has the authority to take limited action. On the one hand, the FDA would require a broader range of enforcement tools. On the other hand, the FDA could be accused of not taking full advantage of its authority.

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Improvement Needed in FDA’s Oversight Process

As mentioned, the information on which FDA approval is based comes from studies funded by manufacturers. That is difficult to square with the Elmiron case, in which data indicating increased risk was available to the manufacturer many months before it made label changes. But the Elmiron case is not singular. In their zeal to market their drugs, companies often overlook dangers that might be more evident to unbiased researchers.

The fault for not taking action may lie inFDA’s reliance on Big Pharma data and user fees that have probably worn away at the agency’s willingness to confront drug makers and compromise objectivity. Most likely, the FDA’s approach to postmarket safety procedures and activities does require significant change.

Some changes lie within the power of the FDA to implement, such as:

• Solutions to the problems of insufficient information
• Lack of public access to data
• Opportunities to use the approval process to enhance post-market activities

However, other changes — FDA organization, FDA budget, the role of Big Pharma — may require congressional action.

Consequently, patients who took Elmiron for years and were later diagnosed with vision damage turned to the law and held Janssen Pharmaceuticals accountable by filing Elmiron lawsuits. Many individuals have already done so, alleging that drug makers failed to warn physicians and the public that Elmiron could cause permanent retinal damage and seek medical monitoring and vision exams for users.

The post Risky drugs: From bladder trouble to vision damage appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It means protecting yourself from a range of complications that can harm so many other parts of your body — your brain, heart, eyes, feet, and kidneys, for starters.

Older people in particular need to protect against falls, since diabetes makes debilitating fractures far more likely, especially if your blood sugar is poorly controlled.

Diabetes also makes you more prone to infections of all sorts, including urinary tract and bladder infections. In fact, diabetics are 10 times more likely to suffer from UTIs than the general population.

A new study has explained why people with diabetes are subject to this particularly frustrating (and often painful) type of infection…

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Glucose gets in the way of preventing UTIs

Researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden have found the connection between diabetes and those troublesome UTIs.

Psoriasin (having nothing to do with psoriasis) is a naturally occurring antibiotic that is part of our innate immune system.

The adaptive immune system acts only in response to the presence of a foreign substance like a virus, attacking and destroying that particular substance, while the innate immune system stands ready to destroy or block all “invaders.”

When left to do its job, psoriasin ensures that the bladder lining remains intact and protects against infections.

High concentrations of glucose, however, block the action of psoriasin. But the Swedish research team has found a way to counteract this…

Estrogen could help prevent UTIs

Annelie Brauner, professor in the Division of Clinical Microbiology at the Karolinska Institute, headed the current study.

Previously, she and her team had shown that treating bladder cells with estrogen (in both mice and humans) allowed those cells to regain their protective abilities.

Could estrogen hold the key to controlling bladder infections for people with diabetes, they wondered?

It could, indeed. And psoriasin was the connection.

They found that the presence of estrogen boosts levels of psoriasin.

This means that estrogen treatment could be a simple and straightforward way to prevent the frequent UTIs experienced by people with diabetes.

More research is needed into the underlying mechanisms that cause frequent infections of all sorts in people with diabetes, according to Prof. Brauner and her team.

But the present findings hold great promise.

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Other infections that affect diabetics

In the meantime, we already have plenty of ways for people with diabetes to lower their risk of infections of all sorts.

Diabetic neuropathy is a form of nerve damage that can result from high blood sugar, a metabolic imbalance, or an infection. Tingling and pain in the feet, followed by sensitivity to touch and complete numbness are its hallmarks.

According to the CDC, the best ways for people with diabetes to prevent neuropathy are to maintain a healthy weight and blood pressure, limit alcohol, and get regular physical activity.

Diabetic kidney disease (also called diabetic nephropathy) keeps the kidneys from doing their job, which is to remove waste and excess fluids from the body.

When diabetes and blood pressure are poorly controlled, the delicate filtering system in the kidneys becomes damaged. Over time, if left unaddressed, this can lead to end-stage renal disease.

Studies show that eating vegetables that contain phenethyl isothiocyanate (PEITC),  especially broccoli, radishes, turnips and watercress, can help prevent and even reverse kidney problems that arise from diabetes.

The bottom line: if you have diabetes, stay on top of it. Visit your doctor regularly, eat a healthy, whole-food diet and quit smoking (or don’t start).

And if you don’t have diabetes, following this advice can keep you from going down that road.

Sources:

New study explains link between diabetes and UTIs — Science Daily

The post The link between diabetes, UTIs and the hormone that helps appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Each time you run to the bathroom, you burn and ache. And almost the second you’re done, the urge to go starts again.

So you head off to your doctor, who gives you a prescription for an antibiotic and lectures you about proper hygiene.

After all, most UTIs are caused by E. coli bacteria that get into the urinary tract. And far too many male doctors are not sympathetic to the frustrations women experience with a UTI.

Even worse, while the antibiotic may provide relief, it’s often only temporary. In fact, a quarter of women go on to develop a second UTI within just six months. And for some of us, the UTIs come back over and over, pushing us into a vicious cycle of taking antibiotics every few months.

Luckily, a study by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine, Harvard and MIT may have found the answer to finally stopping the UTI cycle — and it starts in your gut…

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Your microbiome and your bladder

The bacteria behind most of these repeat infections is E. coli. While it’s in the gut, the body can keep it from causing too much trouble — a gut with a healthy microbial balance, that is.

However, when a woman visits the doctor, she’s often given round after round of antibiotics. But here’s the thing…

Scott J. Hultgren, PhD, is the Helen L. Stoever Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University. “It’s not necessarily poor hygiene that’s causing this. The problem lies in the disease itself, in this connection between the gut and the bladder and levels of inflammation. Basically, physicians don’t know what to do with recurrent UTI. All they have is antibiotics, so they throw more antibiotics at the problem, which probably just makes things worse.”

That’s an understatement — and it’s absolutely true.

His research team studied 15 women with histories of recurrent UTIs and 16 without. Both groups carried E. coli strains in their guts capable of causing UTIs, and such strains occasionally spread to their bladders.

So what was the difference between the two groups of women? The women who experienced repeat UTIs (and took antibiotics to treat the infection each time) had less diversity among the microbes inhabiting their guts — in other words, an imbalance. And that’s an open door for disease-causing bacteria to grow their numbers and wreak havoc. They were particularly low on bacteria that produce butyrate, a short-chain fatty acid with anti-inflammatory effects.

Probiotic + prebiotic power

None of this is surprising if you’re a woman. And no matter what sex you are, by now, all of us know that antibiotic overuse only makes things worse.

And we know how to combat the problem. If the secret to stopping recurrent UTIs is keeping your microbiome healthy, it could be time to add more probiotics to your life.

You can find these beneficial bacteria in fermented foods, such as yogurt. However, many people don’t realize that getting probiotics into your gut is only half of the equation. The other half is feeding them prebiotics to help them thrive.

Sometimes antibiotics are necessary to take. As long as your microbiome is armed and ready, you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.

Sources:

Urinary Tract Infection – Mayo Clinic

Recurrent UTIs linked to gut microbiome, chronic inflammation – ScienceDaily

The post Recurrent UTIs start in your gut — not your bladder appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

This isn’t anything new. Like most women, I was taught to suck my stomach in to make it seem as flat and attractive as possible. And with “shapewear” like Spanx to help, it’s easier than ever to hold that position for hours at a time.

It’s not something I ever thought could hurt me. So imagine my surprise when I recently discovered this habit of “stomach gripping” may actually be damaging my body — especially my pelvic floor….

Sucking in your abs can weaken other muscle groups

When people contract and hold their upper abdominal muscles for a prolonged period, it’s known as “stomach gripping.” Training those muscles to always be “on” can affect the entire core and exert force on the muscles of the pelvic floor.

Stomach gripping can cause those pelvic floor muscles to become overwhelmed, which could lead to urinary incontinence and pelvic organ prolapse. And the muscles could also become less flexible over time.

Constantly holding in your stomach is especially bad if you have existing pelvic floor issues, particularly incontinence. When you contract your abdominal muscles over long periods, you’re raising the pressure on your pelvic floor. And when you cough, laugh, or sneeze, you turn up that pressure even further, causing urinary incontinence.

The consequences of stomach gripping can go beyond the pelvic floor. If you’re constantly sucking in your stomach, you could find it harder to take a deep breath, which could lead to breathing problems, especially for people with asthma.

When you inhale, your diaphragm drops down into your stomach, which allows your lungs to expand. And if your abdominal muscles aren’t relaxed, you end up taking short, shallow breaths high in your chest. This means you’re not using your full lung capacity.

This compromised breathing can also lead to headaches and pain in the shoulder, neck, and jaw. It can also increase stress by keeping your “fight or flight” response constantly activated.

Other consequences of stomach gripping include slower digestion and stiffness and soreness in the lower back and hips. Keeping those abdominal muscles contracted also makes them less responsive and less able to absorb impact, leaving you open to injury from activities such as running.

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Time to accept that a little “pooch” is normal

The first thing to do to reverse the effects of stomach gripping is to stop sucking in. Very few of us have a naturally flat stomach, even with hours of abdominal work, and we need to stop worrying about whether our tummy may be sticking out a bit.

This may take some practice. Many of us have become so used to stomach gripping that we may not even be aware that we’re doing it. But there are a few ways to check to see if you’re sucking in your stomach. One is to place your hand on your abdomen close to your ribs and gently jiggle your abs. If that was hard to do or didn’t result in much movement, you’re probably gripping.

You can also use a mirror to examine your abdomen from the side. If you see there is a cinched-in area around the level of your belly button, you’re sucking in. Or, if you see your lower abdomen sticks out farther than the upper, and your upper abs are more defined than your lower, it’s likely you’re gripping as well as suffering from lower abdominal weakness.

To retrain your abdominal muscles to ease up, it’s good to consciously try to relax and let your stomach out fully. If you have difficulty doing this in a seated or standing position, try getting on all fours, releasing your abdominal muscles, and gradually letting your belly hang all the way down. Keep your spine as neutral as possible, with no curve in your lower back, and breathe slowly and deeply.

Doing a combination of flexibility and breath work like belly breathing can also help, as can an abdominal massage. If you can, combine your breath work with movement, such as dropping into a squat with every inhale.

Overall, it’s important to understand that your abdominal muscles play an important role in your body’s functions and that when you do engage them, it should be for a specific purpose and a short duration.

Sources:

Stop sucking in your stomach all the time — it could be bad for your health — The Washington Post

Why you really shouldn’t worry too much about sucking in your belly — The Sydney Morning Herald

Quick Tip: Ab Gripping — The Pelvic Underground

The post The surprising habit that weakens your pelvic floor (and we all do it!) appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

OAB isn’t uncommon. It affects as many as 16 percent of adult men and 33 percent of adult women.

Overactive bladder can be neurogenic, caused by neurological problems such as stroke or spinal cord injuries. Neurogenic OAB can also be a result of Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, spina bifida or Alzheimer’s disease.

But in many cases, an overactive bladder has no apparent neurological cause and is known as non-neurogenic.

One of the inconvenient things about OAB is that it leaves you with little or no control over your bladder, often resulting in urinary incontinence.

The risk for OAB increases with age, but you shouldn’t consider it to be just a normal, inevitable consequence of aging. If you’re experiencing problems, consider these common causes…

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Common causes of non-neurogenic overactive bladder

Recurrent urinary tract infections. Some studies have linked repeated UTIs with bladder hyperactivity, especially in women.

Pelvic organ prolapse. Pelvic organ prolapse is more common in women than in men. It refers to the prolapse, or drooping, of any of the pelvic floor organs, including the bladder, uterus, vagina, small bowel or rectum. A severe case is associated with an increased risk of overactive bladder.

Enlarged prostate. An enlarged prostate gland can place direct pressure on the bladder when it tries to empty. Partial urination is often the result, but eventually, the irritation on the bladder can lead to an overactive bladder.

Hip surgery or hip problems. Either of these hip complications can alter the position of (and place undue stress on) the organs of the lower urinary tract, including the bladder.

Low estrogen levels. Estrogen levels tend to drop after menopause. This can affect the function of the muscles that control urination: the detrusor muscle in the wall of the bladder, and the urethral sphincter muscles, which control the exit of urine from the body.

Kidney stones. These solid mineral deposits can form in the kidney or the bladder. They place pressure on the bladder, creating a stronger and more frequent urge to urinate.

Urinary catheter use. A urinary catheter is a hollow, partially flexible tube that collects urine from the bladder and leads to a drainage bag. A catheter is used after surgery or injury, or at other times when a patient is unable to control their bladder.

Prolonged use of a catheter can irritate the bladder and/or prostate gland, and the irritation can persist even after the catheter has been removed.

Lifestyle factors that increase risk of OAB

Some common lifestyle factors increase the likelihood of having an overactive bladder. These factors promote bladder infection, stress on the bladder, and excessive urination, all of which are “triggers” for the condition.

Obesity. Being obese seems to increase the risk of OAB in women more than men. It increases urinary frequency, especially at night.

Caffeine. Caffeine is a diuretic (it promotes urination as a way to remove water from the body).

And it’s not just the caffeine in coffee that can do this. Tea, chocolate, colas, and energy drinks, when consumed in excess, can act as diuretics.

Overhydration. Drinking too much fluid can be just as bad as not getting enough. So, don’t go overboard, and remember that everything you drink counts as far as your bladder is concerned, not just water.

According to the U.S. National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the requirements for daily water intake are 11.5 cups (2.7 liters) for women and 15.5 cups (3.7 liters) for men.

Alcohol. Not only is alcohol a diuretic, but it can increase the acidity of urine, which irritates the bladder.

Smoking. Smoking promotes overactive bladder because it increases the risk of hardening of the arteries (atherosclerosis), which affects the bladder as well as the cardiovascular system.

Medications. Diuretic medications are used to treat high blood pressure, but they cause increased urination and are linked to an increased risk of OAB in adults 75 and over.

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Help for your bladder

Your bladder is a muscle, and like any muscle, it can be trained.

Kegel exercises involve squeezing the muscles you’d use to stop urinating. No time to do them? Kegels can be done while sitting or even driving as long as you keep your focus on the road.

Some supplements may also help. Research has shown pumpkin seed extract can have a positive effect on these annoying symptoms. One such study of 45 men and women with overactive bladder taking the extract daily for 12 weeks showed a 1.7 point reduction on the bladder scoring system, with decreased daytime and nighttime frequency along with decreased urgency.

It’s also important to actively maintain the health of your bladder. Here are 18 do’s and don’ts for keeping your bladder strong and healthy that can get you headed in the right direction.

Sources:

Causes and Risk Factors of Overactive Bladder — very well health

Nature’s Answer to Overactive Bladder — Easy Health Options

Pumpkin Seed Oil Extracted From Cucurbita maxima Improves Urinary Disorder in Human Overactive Bladder — Journal of Traditional and Complementary Medicine

The post Overactive bladder: Causes, risk factors and fixes appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

For some women, urinary incontinence runs their lives internally, keeping them from activities they used to enjoy, such as dancing, exercising or playing with the kids and grandkids. 

But as common as the problem is, it’s not easy to talk about. You might feel embarrassed and powerless to do anything about it. And worse, some women accept bladder leakage as something they just have to tolerate.

That doesn’t have to be the case…

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 Types of urinary incontinence and causes in women

There are several different types of urinary incontinence, but these three types are most common among women:

• If you experience bladder leakage when you exercise, lift something heavy or sneeze, you may have stress incontinence. This is when physical movement puts pressure on your bladder and causes you to leak urine.
• Urge incontinence is when the feeling to urinate is sudden and urgent and you may have a hard time getting to the restroom fast enough.
• If you suffer from an overactive bladder, you may need to urinate frequently, especially overnight.

A leaky bladder can be a sign of an underlying condition — some normal with age and some related to disease conditions. Typical causes include:

• Changes with age. The bladder muscle can become weaker with age, and also bladder contractions occur more frequently as we get older. 
• Pregnancy and childbirth can weaken the pelvic floor muscles or the sphincter which can cause bladder leakage.
• Menopause. Estrogen loss due to menopause can cause pelvic muscles to weaken.
• Diseases like Parkinson’s and Multiple sclerosis can damage the nerves that control your bladder.

Treatment options for and reduce urinary incontinence

Many treatment options exist, and it may take time to find what works for you. Although it’s a good idea to discuss bladder leakage with your doctor to rule out a serious condition, for the majority of women, it usually comes down to issues of pregnancy, childbirth and menopause taking a toll on the pelvic floor. It may take time to find what works for you.

Non-Invasive treatments

• Decreasing the amounts of fluids you drink three hours before bedtime can help tremendously.
• Eating more fiber to reduce constipation and reducing artificial sweeteners and caffeine can all help improve symptoms.
• Double voiding can be helpful for someone who feels they aren’t emptying well after going to the bathroom. Try this technique: stand up after urinating, then sit back down again to completely empty your bladder.
• Pelvic floor strengthening exercises. Kegel exercises are beneficial when you initially do the exercises with a physical therapist to learn how to perform the exercises correctly. However, many bladder control devices, some with accompanying apps, have been developed to help make it easier to perform these exercises by targeting the right muscles and reminding you to do them.

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Invasive treatments

• Botox injections have been used to treat urgency incontinence for over 10 years. Botox is injected into the bladder wall which helps it relax since spasms can also cause incontinence. Unfortunately, insurance does not often cover this procedure.
• Sling procedures involve using a synthetic material or your own tissue that is inserted through the vaginal opening or a small incision in the abdomen. A sling is placed under the urethra to stop incontinence that occurs with increased abdominal pressure for activities such as jumping, sneezing, running and coughing.  
• Electrical stimulation. There are a variety of electrotherapies that have shown benefits for women. Some administer a small electrical current from within the vagina to stimulate pelvic floor muscles. While others such as electro-acupuncture, use electrical pulses to activate meridians in the body.

Natural remedies to calm your bladder

If your symptoms are mild or you’re not ready for a medical procedure, there are natural options you could consider…

• Pumpkin seed extract. Research has shown pumpkin seed extract can have a positive effect on these annoying symptoms. One such study of 45 men and women with overactive bladder taking the extract daily for 12 weeks showed a 1.7 point reduction on the bladder scoring system, with decreased daytime and nighttime frequency along with decreased urgency.
• Kohki tea — this sweet tea is known for high levels of antioxidants and a protective effect on bladder function.  
• Some studies have found that phytoestrogens, a natural compound in some foods, like soy, sesame seeds, lentils, oats and berries, are associated with improved pelvic floor muscles. Phytoestrogens contain natural estrogens.
• Bladder-friendly drinks include: water, cranberry juice, barley water, diluted squash, caffeine-free teas — but even these shouldn’t be consumed close to bedtime.
• Avoid constipation. Adding fiber to your diet and exercising regularly can help reduce some of the extra pressure on your bladder. Eating foods higher in fiber including beans, whole-wheat bread, fruits and vegetables.
• Avoid bladder irritants. Foods and beverages that are high in spice, sugar and acid, such as citrus and tomatoes, can irritate your bladder.

Sources:

What home remedies work for an overactive bladder — Healthline

Bladder Leakage? 3 Things Women should know about Urinary incontinence — UofMichigan Health Blog

The post What every woman should know about bladder leaks appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, every year 150 million people suffer from an infection of the urinary tract or bladder, commonly called a UTI. And a whopping 60 percent of women are diagnosed with a UTI sometime during their lifetime, with many suffering again and again.

And while the pain and symptoms of the infection themselves are bad enough, according to a new study, having a urinary tract infection could be a signal of far worse to come…

Bladder cancer.

Toxin-induced DNA damage to bladder cells

Doctors say that approximately 80 percent (an overwhelming majority) of UTIs are caused by a bacteria known as Uropathogenic E. coli or UPEC. And now, a new study has shown that this bacteria is capable of producing a toxin known as colibactin, which has long been suspected of being involved in cancer.

The research, performed at the Université de Toulouse, analyzed urine samples from 223 patients with community-acquired UTIs. Out of those samples, they found that 55 of the patients (or close to 25 percent) showed evidence of colibactin synthesis.

Additionally, when the researchers isolated strains of the UPEC bacteria from these same patients, they found that the bacteria itself was producing that colibactin.

Now, here’s where it gets really scary…

In a mouse model of urinary tract infections, the team found that colibactin-producing bacteria were capable of producing extensive DNA damage in bladder cells.

Yup, DNA damage! That’s cancer folks.

As the researchers put it, their findings support the idea that UTIs may play a role in bladder cancer development.

And they conclude, “Our work suggests that there should be a more specific follow-up of patients regularly suffering from urinary tract infections, with a systematic search for colibactin markers in their urine, but also more proactive, by proposing therapeutic approaches aimed at modulating the composition of their intestinal microbiota, which represents the main reservoir of the E. coli bacteria involved in these urinary tract infections.”

A reservoir of E. coli bacteria

That last was a lot of scientific talk, but it came down to two very important points:

1. If you live with regular UTIs, you need to ask your doctor about getting checked for colibactin in your urine to gauge your future cancer risk.
2. Focusing on improving the balance of good bacteria in your gut is a must, since the researchers say that it’s the “main reservoir” for the E. coli (bad bacteria) that causes those UTIs.

So, how do you improve the balance of bacteria in your gut microbiome?

The answer is getting more probiotics and prebiotics in your diet.

Probiotics are the good bacteria that help to tip the balance and prebiotics are responsible for feeding them.

You can find each in supplement form or get them through your diet.

Probiotic sources include things like yogurt, kefir, kimchi and kombucha, while prebiotic-rich foods include garlic, onions, Jerusalem artichokes and bananas.

Sources:

Bacterial toxin is found in patients with urinary tract infections — EurekAlert!

The post How urinary tract infections can lead to bladder cancer appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

For a long time, the medical community believed that there was no microbiome in the urinary tract and that urine was totally sterile (you may even come across doctors who still think this today). But recent research shows this is far from the truth.

As technology has progressed, researchers have used more advanced urine cultures and DNA sequencing to detect microorganisms in urine that didn’t show up using old testing methods. As a result, it’s becoming more widely accepted that, just like everyone has a unique microbiome in their gut, everyone has a unique microbiome in their urinary tract. This urinary microbiome most likely impacts your urinary health… and according to new research, it may even impact whether you become incontinent or not.

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Incontinent women have major differences in their urinary tract microbiome

A recent study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology found that women with urinary incontinence have big differences in their microbiomes from women without incontinence. The study also found that women with different types of urinary incontinence even have important differences in their microbiomes from each other.

The study included 309 adult women who fell into one of three categories: continent, suffering from stress incontinence or suffering from urgency incontinence.

In case you don’t know, stress incontinence refers to urine loss that happens during physical activity, and urgency incontinence refers to a sudden urgent need to urinate followed by urine loss. These women’s symptoms were gauged through a questionnaire, and urine cultures were taken to look for microbes. Here’s what researchers determined…

Women with urinary incontinence had different microbes in their urine than women without incontinence. Women with incontinence also had more microbial diversity in their urine than women without incontinence.

The fact that there were microbial differences in women who had stress incontinence versus urgency incontinence is another interesting finding from the study.
Although it’s long been suspected that these two different types of incontinence have different causes, we didn’t know those differences happened in the microbiome.

Probably the most important information to take away from this study is the specific strains that seem to make up a healthy urinary microbiome and the ones that don’t. In this study, women who were continent had these bacterial strains most abundantly in their urine:

• Lactobacillus iners (12.7%)
• Streptococcus anginosus (12.7%)
• L crispatus (10.7%)
• L gasseri (10%)

Women with both types of incontinence had far more Streptococcus anginosus in their urine than continent women, plus they had a variety of other bacterial species that weren’t present in the urine of continent women.

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Can probiotics help?

All this evidence connecting urinary incontinence to microbiome imbalances raises one important question… can probiotics help?

It’s possible. But there hasn’t been a lot of research into it yet. Right now, all we know is that Lactobacillus-based probiotics may have the potential to prevent urinary tract infections based on the results of a couple of recent studies. And there is a connection between incontinence and UTIs. Incontinence can happen as a symptom or side effect of UTIs, and people with incontinence are more likely to develop UTIs.

There are a variety of probiotics on the market that were designed specifically with urinary tract health in mind, so, if you suffer from incontinence, those may be worth a try. You can also turn to other natural remedies for incontinence like Kegel exercises (here’s a video to get you started) and bladder training (here’s more information on bladder training). Diet and lifestyle changes can make a big difference too, especially if you avoid potential bladder irritants, like the following:

• Alcohol and caffeine are bladder stimulants and diuretics, meaning they trigger the urgent need to urinate. Avoid them when possible.
• Carbonated drinks, tea and coffee (with or without caffeine), artificial sweeteners, corn syrup and foods and beverages that are high in spice, sugar and acid, such as citrus and tomatoes, can irritate your bladder.
• Heart medications, blood pressure drugs, sedatives, muscle relaxants and other medications can contribute to bladder control problems. Talk to your doctor to see if it’s possible to switch to a medication that’s less irritating to your bladder.
• Pumpkin seed extract may help reduce urgency for an overactive bladder.

Sources:

1. An emerging link between the urinary microbiome and urinary incontinence — Harvard Health Publishing
2. Randomized, placebo-controlled phase 2 trial of a Lactobacillus crispatus probiotic given intravaginally for prevention of recurrent urinary tract infection — Clinical Infectious Diseases
3. Use of Lactobacillus spp. to prevent recurrent urinary tract infections in females — Medical Hypotheses
4. Bladder bacterial diversity differs in continent and incontinent women: a cross-sectional study — American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology
5. The Human Microbiota in Health and Disease — Engineering

The post Can probiotics put a plug in urinary incontinence? appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

The truth is that after a prostatectomy, not only do many men deal with erectile dysfunction, almost every patient has incontinence immediately post-surgery. And, for up to 20 percent of them, that incontinence can persist two years after the surgery, and beyond.

That’s why doctors recommend that men who have gone through prostate surgery and are not seeing improvements in their incontinence issues within the first few months receive physical therapy.

But, there’s a problem with that…

Not all men who undergo physical therapy for their incontinence get better.

Now, thanks to a new study from UT Southwestern’s Departments of Urology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, we not only know why but what you can ask your therapist in order to get the help you need to regain that control.

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Spastic versus weak muscles

For decades, therapy to strengthen pelvic muscles using so-called Kegel exercises has been the standard treatment for men dealing with urinary incontinence after prostate surgery.

The idea is that since men have been put through a difficult surgery, those pelvic floor muscles that ensure you can hold your urine must have become weak. And so, by strengthening them, continence will be restored.

Related: Kegel exercises for men

But, UT’s new study has shown that may not be the best approach.

The team examined the records from post-prostatectomy patients with stress urinary incontinence who received physical therapy over a six-year period. And, they found that the majority of men don’t have just weak pelvic floor muscles but instead a combination of both tight (spastic) and weak muscles.

In fact, just over 18 percent of the patients were living with only weak pelvic floor muscles. On the other hand, over 72 percent of patients had spastic muscles, while close to 10 percent had tight muscles only.

This is a big problem, since if you are one of the more than 82 percent of men with tight pelvic floor muscles following prostate surgery, and you’re given therapy to strengthen a spasming muscle, you can actually make the muscle tighter instead of stronger.

So, the team took a different approach…

Instead of the one-size-fits-all type of therapy that far too many men receive, they instead recommended individualized sessions to address the specific needs of the patients and either relax or strengthen the muscles in question.

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The results were impressive

A whopping 87 percent found that their incontinence improved with this targeted approach. And, 58 percent achieved what is considered the optimal level of improvement — needing two or fewer protective pads per day.

The benefits didn’t stop their either…

The men receiving individualized therapy based on their muscle issues also reported a decrease in pain. In fact, while 27 percent were suffering at the beginning of the study, that number dropped to just 14 percent after only four sessions.

While this may not seem like a huge decrease, according to the researchers, it was actually quite impressive.

“This is the first study to show a decrease in post-prostatectomy pain after therapy,” said Kelly M. Scott, M.D., an associate professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at UT Southwestern and first author of the study.

Getting the care you need

So, if you are post-prostatectomy or preparing for surgery and you’re concerned about getting the right type of physical therapy to ensure you can regain your continence and your freedom, here’s what you should ask your therapist.

“Are my pelvic floor muscles actually weak and need to be strengthened, or are they actually tight and just need to be relaxed and lengthened?”

This will help ensure you get the targeted therapy you need to get back to your life after surgery.

Sources:

1. Individualized physical therapy reduces incontinence, pain in men after prostate surgery — EurekAlert!

The post The best therapy for incontinence following prostate surgery appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Certain neurological and other conditions can cause the urge to urinate to occur, even when the bladder is not full.

Having an overactive bladder can result in urinary incontinence, or the inability to hold urine in. This can be embarrassing, and disrupt your normal day-to-day functioning.

If an overactive bladder is affecting your quality of life, it’s time to see your doctor. There are behavioral strategies that can help to control and regulate bladder function and voiding, as well.

How the bladder operates normally

Your kidneys produce urine, which drains into your bladder, where it is held until you urinate.

As your bladder fills, nerve signals sent to your brain will eventually trigger the urge to urinate. When you urinate, nerve signals also work to relax the pelvic floor muscles and the urinary sphincter muscles, while tightening the bladder, which helps push urine out.

Following my recent brain surgery, it was clear that there was a temporary disruption in these nerve signals. In my case, the urge to urinate was there, but the bladder was not pushing the urine out. When I tried to urinate, nothing happened, and a catheter was needed. Fortunately, this situation resolved itself with time.

With an overactive bladder, though, what you have is an involuntary contraction of the bladder, causing the often uncontrollable release of urine, even when the bladder is far from full. It’s like you just can’t hold it in.

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What causes overactive bladder?

Conditions that may cause overactive bladder include:

• Neurological disorders like a stroke or multiple sclerosis
• Diabetes
• Abnormalities of the bladder, such as tumors or bladder stones
• Decline in cognitive functioning – this can make it difficult for your bladder to “understand” the signals it gets from your brain
• Factors that obstruct bladder outflow, such as an enlarged prostate, constipation, or perhaps previous surgeries that were done to treat other forms of incontinence

Other things that can cause the symptoms of an overactive bladder are excessive caffeine and alcohol consumption, urinary tract infections, and medications that cause a rapid increase in urine production, or that need to be taken with a lot of fluid.

Symptoms of an overactive bladder

With an overactive bladder, you will experience a sudden urge to urinate that is difficult to control. Incontinence, or the loss of urine upon feeling this urge, is common.

An overactive bladder will cause you to urinate frequently, up to eight or more times in 24 hours. You may also wake two or more times during the night to urinate, a condition known as nocturia.

Treatments for an overactive bladder

Fortunately, there are medications and other interventions that can help control the activity of an overactive bladder. If the condition is disrupting your sleep or your normal daily life, it’s a good idea to talk to your doctor about these.

Behavioral interventions. This will likely be your doctor’s first choice to help you. They are simple to employ and carry no side effects as some medications do.

Pelvic floor muscle exercises – Your doctor can teach you how to do Kegel exercises, in which you voluntarily contract the muscles of your urinary sphincter and pelvic floor. Be aware that it could take six to eight weeks of regular practice of these exercises before you see any changes.

Related: 5 yoga poses for better bladder control (slideshow)

Bladder training – Once you can control your pelvic floor muscles, bladder training is a possibility. It involves training yourself to delay urinating, even when you feel the urge. Beginning with short delays of, say, 30 minutes, and gradually working your way up to urinating every three or four hours, this method re-trains your bladder.

A toileting schedule – Much like a sleep schedule, where you re-train your body to fall asleep and wake up at certain times, a toileting schedule can help re-train your body and get it on track to urinate, say, every two or four hours, rather than waiting for the urge to strike.

While these interventions are at work, you can make use of absorbent pads or undergarments so that you don’t need to limit your activities for fear of an embarrassing situation.

Other interventions

Medications. Medications that relax the bladder muscle can help reduce episodes of incontinence. Among these are Darifenacin (Enablex) and Oxybutynin (Ditropan XL). Your doctor can prescribe these, but you may want to read about the downsides of these anticholinergic medications and the problems they can cause with memory and cognitive abilities.

Nerve stimulation. In a surgical procedure, a thin wire is placed close to the sacral nerves that carry signals to your bladder. Or, your doctor may try a more advanced procedure where an electrode is implanted that can deliver signals through the wire to your bladder. If this is successful, a battery-powered pulse generator, similar to a pacemaker, can be used to regularly deliver the needed signals.

Bladder botox. Known for paralyzing muscles in the foreheads of women yearning to avoid frown lines and wrinkles, botox can also paralyze bladder muscles and decrease the muscular “spasms” that can arise from an overactive bladder. The effect generally lasts for 6 to 8 months (longer than a wrinkle-free forehead!) and can be done in your doctor’s office.

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How not to irritate your bladder

Drink enough. If you have an overactive bladder, you might think you should limit your fluid intake. Don’t! If your urine becomes too concentrated, it can irritate the lining of your bladder and actually increase the urge to urinate. But you might avoid drinking fluids a couple of hours before bedtime so you don’t make frequent nighttime trips to the restroom.

Avoid irritating foods. Caffeine, alcohol, apples, carbonated drinks, chocolate, citrus juice and fruit, spicy foods, tea, tomatoes, and vinegar are some foods known to irritate the bladder. If any of these worsen your symptoms, do your best to avoid them.

Sources:

1. Overactive bladder — Mayo Clinic
2. Slideshow: OAB — Helping a Confused Bladder — WebMD

The post When your bladder works overtime appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

I also love it when my local grocers and markets start offering my favorite fall treat…

Pumpkins.

Well, pumpkin seeds, to be specific.

When I was a kid, we used to go to the corner candy store and buy little red boxes of pumpkin seeds. We would pop them by the handful and suck the thick layer of salt off of the shells until our extreme thirst made us stop and guzzle some water or other drink.

Knowing what I know today about salt, I’d opt for the natural, unsalted variety. (Don’t get me wrong — salt is an important part of your diet, but most of us get way too much.)

And anyway, pumpkin seeds don’t need a coating of processed salt to be tasty.

Let me tell you why these little seeds are so good for you, and why they should be part of your diet, not only each fall but year-round…

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Vitamins, minerals and benefits galore

When you clean out your Halloween pumpkin and drop those clumps of seeds into the trash (or, hopefully, the compost), you probably wouldn’t guess how much health and wellness you’re throwing away.

Here are five health benefits to be gained by munching on roasted pumpkin seeds (and, they are a delicious snack!)…

Tons of nutrients. A one-ounce (28g) serving of pumpkin seeds has 1.7g of fiber and 7g of protein.

It also offers a healthy portion of the recommended daily intake of a bunch of vitamins and minerals:

• Vitamin K 18%
• Phosphorous 33%
• Manganese 42%
• Magnesium 37%
• Iron 23%
• Zinc 14%
• Copper 19%

High in antioxidants.  In one study, pumpkin seed oil reduced inflammation in rats with arthritis without side effects, while animals given an anti-inflammatory drug experienced some unpleasant side effects.

High in Magnesium. Pumpkin seeds are rich in magnesium. Healthy magnesium levels are important for blood pressure and blood sugar levels, as well as heart and bone health.

Research shows that up to 75 percent of Americans are deficient in this vital mineral. Heart problems, stroke, asthma, and migraines can result from a magnesium deficiency, not to mention the constellation of ailments known as metabolic syndrome.

Help for an overactive bladder. A 12-week study found that pumpkin seed oil extract significantly reduced overactive bladder symptoms. Other studies have shown it helps support prostate health and relieves BPH symptoms, like frequent nighttime urination.

Better sleep. Pumpkin seeds are a natural source of tryptophan, an amino acid that can help promote sleep. They also have plenty of zinc, which helps convert tryptophan to serotonin which is then converted to melatonin, the hormone that regulates your sleep cycle.

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How to roast your pumpkin seedsTo

In order to enjoy munching on those seeds, you’ll want to roast them first. That’s not hard to do.

Just preheat your oven to 300°, then toss the seeds in a bowl with some melted butter or, better yet, extra-virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt.

Spread them on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for about 45 minutes or until they’re golden, stirring them occasionally.

Editor’s Note: You’re invited to join a tiny handful of Americans who enjoy rare, fresh-pressed olive oil all year long that can’t be found in grocery stores or specialty shops. Take my word for it, there’s a difference in taste, quality and benefit! Click here to learn more…

Sources:

The potential of pumpkin seeds as a functional food ingredient: A review — Science Direct

Effect of pumpkin-seed oil on the level of free radical scavengers induced during adjuvant-arthritis in rats — Pharmacological Research

Antioxidant and lipoxygenase inhibitory activities of pumpkin seed extracts — Food Research International

The post 5 great things about pumpkin seeds appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

They’re much more likely to develop physical limitations and disability with age than men. And scientists have no clue why.

So, ladies, as you get older, stay extra vigilant about those healthy habits that increase your odds of staying physically strong and mobile in old age, like eating well and exercising.

But you should also watch out for this one warning sign that your physical abilities are on the downward slide…

Urinary incontinence.

Bladder leaks are bad news for your strength and mobility

Urinary incontinence is common in women as they age. About 25 percent of women over 60 have incontinence issues. But a new study shows this all-too-common problem could signal that serious physical repercussions lie ahead.

Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Mānoa recently found that women who struggle with incontinence are more likely to experience a steep decline in their physical abilities in the years to come.

The study included 900 women in their 60s and 70s. These women completed a health questionnaire that asked them how many urine leaks they’d experienced in the past week. They also participated in a physical function test, which measured walking pace, balance and how fast they could stand up from a chair. Two years later they took the physical function test again…

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Within two years, women with bladder issues lost a shocking amount of their physical function… much more than women without bladder leaks.

Why would bladder leaks have anything to do with physical strength and stability?

Here’s one theory…

Women who have incontinence may exercise less because they fear bladder accidents. This creates a vicious cycle. By avoiding exercise, incontinence gets worse (because exercise strengthens muscles that help with bladder control). And the worse the incontinence gets, the more women avoid exercise.

How to keep bladder leaks from making you weak

There are a couple of things you can do to prevent your bladder leaks from taking a toll on your physical abilities…

The first is to keep exercising no matter what’s happening with your bladder. Work out at home if you feel more comfortable. Just make sure to keep moving and sweating for the sake of your mobility.

Of course, if you want to continue working out in a gym or a class, don’t let bladder leaks stop you. Instead, buy a pair of triathlon shorts. They not only offer compression (which supports the muscles, nerves, and tissues around the bladder), but they have a small pad to soak up leaks. They look like any old pair of workout shorts, so they’re discreet. And they’re easy to wear under other workout clothing if the bike short look isn’t up your alley.

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Besides exercising your body, there’s one more thing you can do to improve your situation…

Exercise your bladder.

Pelvic floor exercises are proven to alleviate bladder issues. All you have to do is squeeze the muscles in your pelvic floor (the muscles you use when you’re trying to hold back your urine) and clench them for a few seconds. Do this 10 to 15 times in a row.

If you practice daily, you should have better bladder control. And as an added bonus, you should have stronger orgasms too. What more incentive do you need?

Sources:

1. Health declines are more rapid in older women with urinary incontinence — MedicalXpress
2. Urinary Incontinence Is Associated With Physical Performance Decline in Community-Dwelling Older Women: Results From the International Mobility in Aging Study — Journal of Aging and Health
3. The effect of pelvic floor muscle contraction on detrusor overactivity pressure in neurogenic and non-neurogenic women during urodynamic study: a cross-sectional study — American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
4. Exercising With Stress Incontinence — Everyday Health
5. What are pelvic floor exercises? — National Health Service

The post The strange sign women get their health is headed for trouble appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Bladder infections travel in packs. Once you get one, there’s a good chance another one’s not far behind.

In fact, more than a quarter of women get a second bladder infection within six months of their initial infection. And between 44 and 77 percent of women get a second bladder infection with a year of their initial infection. Yikes!

But there is something you can do to slash your risk of a second infection almost in half…

Drink tons of water.

I know. I know. That’s obvious advice. But how well are you practicing it?

It’s easy to slack off on your water intake when your bladder’s feeling good. It’s when that icky, irritated feeling resurfaces that you start pumping the fluids again.

Plus, you’d be surprised how many women think they’re drinking enough water when they’re not.

So, for the sake of your bladder health, let’s look at how much water you need to drink to keep your bladder healthy (hint: it’s more than you’d expect!)

Extra water tackles recurring bladder infections

Researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center recently asked women with recurrent bladder infections to up their water intake. And these women experienced amazing results.

Women in the study were drinking less than six eight-ounce glasses of water per day on average. So, they weren’t quite hitting that eight-glass target most of us shoot for.

Researchers asked them to up their water intake 1.5 liters per day for a year. That’s another six eight-ounce glasses of water per day. By increasing their water intake by double (or in some cases more), they were able to slash the number of bladder infections they got in half compared to women who didn’t drink extra water.

All in all, they were able to decrease their bladder infections, increase the amount of time between bladder infections and reduce the number of antibiotics they took. That’s a big deal for women with chronic bladder infections. But if you are one, you already know.

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Drink more water

This study’s a great reminder that the simplest health advice is usually the best… no matter how obvious it seems.

So, if you think you’re drinking plenty of water, but you don’t measure your water intake daily, start. You might learn that you’re not drinking as much as you thought.

Even if you are drinking eight cups of water per day, there’s a good chance this isn’t enough… especially if you have frequent bladder infections. Increase your intake to 12 cups per day like the women in the study and see if your infections become fewer and farther between as theirs did.

Of course, there is such a thing as drinking too much water. It’s called water intoxication or water poisoning and it can be dangerous (even fatal), so don’t go overboard.

Water intoxication is typically only a problem if you drink a lot of water quickly. So, if you drink 12 glasses of water spaced out throughout the day, you should be safe.

If you’re looking for easy (and tasty) ways to up your water intake:

• Infuse a pitcher of water with fruits or veggies. There’s nothing quite as refreshing as ice-cold cucumber water.
• Drink herbal tea and sparkling water. They both count toward your daily water tally. But caffeinated beverages and sweetened beverages don’t.
• Keep a water bottle on hand at all times. If the water’s there, you’re more likely to drink it. Plus, this makes it easier to keep track of how much you’re drinking, since you know the exact size of your bottle.
• Set reminders on your phone. If you frequently forget to drink water throughout the day, set reminders on your phone or use the old-school method—strategically placed post-it notes that say “Drink More Water!”

Sources:

The post The simple solution that slashes frequent bladder infections almost by half appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

In fact, we have a weekly “date” set up — just him and me. We go to the same little diner… We order the same awesome burgers…

And, we stop at the same gas station on the way so that my dad can go pee.

You see, my poor dad can’t go more than five minutes in the car without needing to “go.” But lately, he’s not the only one…

Over the last year, I’ve noticed the urgency to “go” is creeping up on me rather unexpectedly.

So, not that big a deal, right? Just visit the doctor and get a pill to decrease the urgency and both dad and I would be good to go.

Wrong!

Those anticholinergic drugs they use for bladder control are seriously dangerous. In fact, there are four major health risks that come with taking that prescription bladder control medication that you need to know about before you take even one more pill.

Here they are…

#1 – Falls

The way those drugs work is by blocking a key chemical in your brain called acetylcholine which is involved in passing messages between your nerve cells. This can lead to side effects like blurred vision, increased heart rate, tiredness and confusion.

And, guess what?

According to a study by researchers at Trinity College Dublin of men over the age of 65 taking the medication, raises the risk of falling by 50 percent.

Yep, it may help decrease your urge to pee but it increases your risk of a fall, which could land you in the hospital or even a nursing home. Not a good trade off in my book.

#2 – Dementia

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, you better hold on to your socks.

A landmark study of 350,000 adults published in the British Medical Journal found that if you take an anticholinergic drug to help with bladder control for a year or more, you increase your chance of developing dementia by a whopping 30 percent.

Do you really want to trade urgency or leaking for your memories?

#3 – Brain atrophy

To go along with the increased dementia risk, how about a little brain atrophy (or a lot)? Doesn’t sound good, does it?

But, anticholinergic drugs are associated with accelerated brain atrophy.

Brain atrophy can lead to:

• Aphasia (trouble speaking)
• Muscle weakness
• Hearing loss

And, yes… The dementia we talked about in #2.

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#4 – Death

And finally, the granddaddy of them all… Death.

Taking more than one anticholinergic drug at a time has a negative impact on your lifespan and could lead to an early death.

Before you write that one off and say that it’s not a problem since you’re only taking a bladder control medication, you should know that there are some very common anticholinergic medicines that you could be taking without even knowing it, like:

• Dramamine
• Benadryl
• Advil PM
• Promethazine
• Cyclobenzaprine

And, many, many more.

Natural bladder control

Those dangers are why natural bladder control is the much better option. That’s why I sought out a bladder supplement for me and dad.

Yes, there are lots of them on the market. They key is to find one that contains these two proven ingredients…

The first is known as EFLA 940. It actually a water soluble pumpkin seed extract – the difference being that it’s easier for your body to both absorb and use.

Double-blind scientific studies have shown that pumpkin seed extract helps urinary flow, voiding time and left-over urine volume in men with prostate concerns.

The second one is SoyLife® soy germ isoflavones.

The reason these are important lie in their natural ability balance the estrogen levels in your body which helps support stronger bladder function.

These two supplements work so well together that studies show that taking them results in:

• Decreased frequency of urination both day and night in a study of women age 52 to 86… a decrease of 44 percent after two weeks and a decrease 78 percent after just 4 weeks!
• Decreased nighttime urination by 40 percent in a study of men over the age of 65 in just 6 weeks!
• 100 percent improvement of overactive bladder and uncontrolled urge to “go” after 6 weeks in two separate studies of women age 35 to 84!

Don’t let bladder problems control your life or prescription bladder medication risk it. Instead, find relief from your bladder control problems naturally using soy germ isoflavones and pumpkin seed extract.

The post 4 serious risks from prescription bladder control medication appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

Research shows that about 50 percent of adult women deal with urinary incontinence. That means, when you head out to dinner with your girlfriends, half of the women at the table are worried about their bladder control too.

So, yes, bladder leaks are embarrassing. But when you know you’re far from the only person in the room dealing with them, they become far less embarrassing.

If you feel comfortable confiding in your friends about your bladder issues, I have some news you can share with them at your next get-together:

Yoga may be able to improve your bladder control — by a lot…

The post 5 yoga poses for better bladder control (slideshow) appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

As organs go, we pretty much take our bladder for granted. We certainly don’t give it the attention we give, say, our heart or lung health. Unless something goes wrong or you have an overactive bladder, chances are, you rarely think about it at all.

But you really should…

National Cancer Institute statistics show that nearly 82,000 people, mostly men, will be diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2018.

In women over fifty, bladder function can become more problematic in other ways, leading to health issues ranging from merely embarrassing to painful and potentially life-threatening.

Preventing bladder problems is far easier than treating them. Before we talk about preventive measures, though, let’s understand what happens when things are working correctly…

Your bladder: The basics

Your bladder is an elastic sac that sits just below the kidneys and behind the pelvic bone. In a healthy urinary system, the bladder can hold urine for up to five hours. On average, the bladder can retain up to about 16 ounces of fluid.

Urine produced by the kidneys travels to the bladder through two tubes called ureters, and is stored there until urination, when it passes through the urethra.

A healthy bladder empties completely each time you urinate. When this does not occur, bacteria can accumulate that can lead to bladder infections and other health concerns.

What can go wrong

As the body gets older, there is usually a decline in how well nerves and muscles function to signal the bladder to hold or release urine. In addition, the bladder itself gradually loses elasticity, and can hold less fluid.

This may mean more frequent trips to the bathroom, more getting up at night to urinate, or leakage when you cough or laugh (known as stress incontinence).

But these inconveniences are far less serious than other possible complications, such as:

• Neurogenic bladder – Parkinson’s disease and diabetes are among the conditions that can damage the nerves that control bladder function. In some cases, this is accompanied by an enlarged prostate, which increases the risk of bladder stones.
• Bladder stones – When the bladder doesn’t empty completely, urine crystallizes into painful mineral deposits. Left untreated, bladder stones can lead to more permanent bladder dysfunction.
• Cystitis (a urinary tract infection affecting the bladder) – an inflammation of the bladder wall, usually caused by bacteria. Dark, cloudy urine, painful urination, and lower back pain are signs of a bladder infection.
• Prolapsed bladder – When the tissue between the bladder and vaginal wall weaken due to a strain, they stretch and allow the bladder to bulge into the vagina.
• Bladder cancer – the fourth most common internal cancer in males. Under-hydration, as well as arsenic in drinking water, have been cited as risk factors.

How you can keep your bladder healthy

There are quite a few adjustments you can make to your lifestyle that will increase the chances of having a healthy and fully functional bladder for life.

Here are some “do’s” and “don’ts” for bladder health:

Do:

1. Kegel exercises – If you are ‘leaking’ when you laugh or sneeze, try squeezing those vaginal muscles, as if you were trying to stop the flow of urine. It will strengthen the pelvic floor muscles that support the bladder.
2. Stay hydrated – There is evidence that drinking plenty of water (not other liquids) can keep bacteria from multiplying in the bladder and help keep cancer away.
3. Wear cotton underwear – Silk or polyester trap moisture, increasing risk of a bladder infection.
4. Wipe front to back – to prevent spread of bacteria.
5. Get your polyphenols – Cranberries, dark chocolate, and blueberries are high in this antioxidant.
6. Stay regular – Constipation can cause the bladder to spasm and not empty completely.
7. Support a healthy prostate – An enlarged prostate often causes difficulty in urinating completely. Here are some things you can try.
8. Eat some broccoli – Cruciferous vegetables including broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and Brussels sprouts can lower the chances of bladder cancer.
9. Take vitamin D – Research has shown that sufficient levels of Vitamin D can lower the risk of bladder cancer.
10. Take vitamin B12 – This B vitamin is shown to help your body excrete arsenic, sometimes found in well water. Low to moderate exposure to arsenic is tied to elevated levels of bladder cancer.
11. Eat Mediterranean-style – A Mediterranean diet rich in healthy fats protects the prostate (an enlarged prostate will interfere with urination).
12. Try Manuka honey – Researchers found that this type of honey prevents the buildup of bacterial film on the inside of the bladder that cause infections.

Don’t:

13. Use perfumed bubble baths – or only use them once in a while. They can irritate the bladder.
14. Hold it in. Urinate as soon as the urge strikes. Holding onto urine weakens the bladder muscles and increases the chance of a bladder infection.
15. Strain yourself – A pulled muscle can cause prolapsed bladder in women.
16. Overdo the caffeine – While caffeine doesn’t cause a bladder infection, it can irritate an already infected urinary tract.
17. Smoke – Studies show a correlation between smoking and bladder cancer.
18. Drink soda – The carbonation and sugar will irritate the bladder.

The post 18 tips for a stronger, infection- and cancer-free bladder appeared first on Easy Health Options®.

It was so bad that I had to give up one of my favorite kinds of exercise and stress relief — rebounding.

That’s where you exercise using one of those mini-trampolines.  Years ago, I had been told by a trusted friend in the medical field that it’s one of the best exercises you can do for your cardio health, so you can understand how disappointed I was that there would be no more of that.

But bouncing and my bladder no longer mixed! That’s when I decided I had to do something. But, what?

Of course, there are prescription medications to help with bladder leaks… but beware.

Drugs used for bladder control are anticholinergics. The problem with these drugs starts with the fact that they interfere with the neurotransmitter called acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is used by the neurons in your brain to send messages to each other. You need a steady supply of this substance to keep your memory working correctly.

No worries, you don’t have to choose between a happy bladder and a functioning brain…

An old answer with a new twist

Researchers in Sweden decided to take a new approach to an old recommendation to improve urinary incontinence by combining pelvic floor training with an app.

The app was evaluated in a study with 123 participating women from all over the country.

The self-reported results and lists of leakage showed that the situation for women who had used the app improved with regard to symptom, quality of life, number of leakages and use of incontinence pads.

In fact, the number of leakages was reduced from an average of three times to just once per day in the group that had used the app.

So, what was this pelvic floor training the app helped with?

You may know it as good old-fashioned Kegel exercises.

Kegel exercises strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which support the uterus, bladder, small intestine and rectum, so that you don’t leak.

To do Kegel exercises:

• Find the right muscles – To identify your pelvic floor muscles, stop urination in midstream. If you succeed, you’ve got the right muscles. (Don’t make a habit of using Kegel exercises to start and stop your urine stream. Doing Kegel exercises while emptying your bladder can actually lead to incomplete emptying of the bladder — which increases the risk of a urinary tract infection.)
• Practice – Tighten your pelvic floor muscles, hold the contraction for five seconds, and then relax for five seconds. Try it four or five times in a row. Work up to keeping the muscles contracted for 10 seconds at a time, relaxing for 10 seconds between contractions.
• Maintain your focus – For best results, focus on tightening only your pelvic floor muscles. Be careful not to flex the muscles in your abdomen, thighs or buttocks. Avoid holding your breath. Instead, breathe freely during the exercises.
• Repeat three times a day – Aim for at least three sets of 10 repetitions a day.

And, if you want help, apps are readily available. You can get one for your iPhone or Android.

Other ways to help a weak bladder

I also found a number of other ways to help with incontinence. These include:

• Getting fit – Excess belly fat puts pressure on the bladder and the pelvic muscles. Shedding a few pounds if you are overweight can help restore your bladder control.
• Training your bladder – Training your bladder can help you learn to put off the need to rush to the nearest bathroom. In the beginning, try to delay urinating by 10 minutes and build up to 20 minutes. Eventually you increase the time so that you can comfortably use the restroom every four hours.
• Taking soy germ isoflavones – These natural plant estrogens are called phytoestrogens. They naturally help balance estrogen levels to help support stronger bladder function.
• Adding magnesium – In a study, women with urge incontinence, reported improvement after supplementing with magnesium. Take 150 mg twice daily to reduce symptoms.

The post How to laugh, cough, sneeze and run without bladder leaks appeared first on Easy Health Options®.