Healthy Bladder Habits Can Be Fun For Anyone

Are you one of those people that blames it on a long car trip to why you always have to go to the bathroom, you have to make the person driving stop. Or maybe you're out and about and you're always having radar on where is the nearest public restroom, because I have to go all the time, and I'm blaming it on my small bladder. Well keep watching this video, if you've said that before, or you're always blaming it on your small bladder. And I want to debunk that myth and tell you what really could be the problem. So bladder urgency, or stress incontinence, urge incontinence, these are all common terms in the world of having a bladder issue and being embarrassed about it being a little frustrated, not sure on, you know why this is happening. Or maybe you had a baby in the past, maybe you didn't, it's actually very common in a lot of women with different backgrounds. And going through this, it could be something related to your pelvic floor muscles down there, and how your brain is actually connecting to that area. So I treat a lot of bladder urge incontinence issues as a pelvic floor physical therapist, super common but not normal. And I'm here to tell you that there are ways around it from not thinking is blaming it on your small bladder, but it really is a very treatable problem. And not with a gadget not with a medication, not with surgery, but with someone's help like myself, a pelvic floor physical therapist that focuses on the muscles, and really retraining your brain to connect to that area to help this annoying habit that you have. So I love to show my little pelvic model here, but this is your hips from the front, your pelvis and your spine in the back here, you have this basket of muscles underneath you see in red, and your bladder sits right within this cavity here. So this basket of muscles is the bottom part of your core. And these muscles act like a trampoline. So they have to be able to lengthen and let go. And they also have to contract and constrict and support those pelvic organs properly. And for many women that are having a bladder related issue, this is something that you want to get checked out and see if your muscles are functioning properly. Because most likely, in so many cases of the women that I see that are having bladder issues, their doctor might not tell them that it could actually be a muscle issue and they try to prescribe a medication. Or say you need surgery, or give him some sort of gadget or just tell him to do key goals. When all actuality it is not the size of your bladder, but it could be the muscles down here and what they're not doing. So I want to go through this video today to debunk that myth. It's not that you just have a small bladder. But there are seven common unhealthy bladder habits that a lot of the women that I see are not following these, and they couldn't be red flags. So if you find yourself in any of these, this is going to be something that you seek out some help for. Or go watch another video I have on four ways to stop leaking. There are a lot of resources that I have over on this channel. And I've done other videos on bladder problems and how to stop this from happening to you. So those healthy bladder habits, there's seven of them that I want to go through today. And if any of them stick out to you, then please comment below, let me know which one was an eye opener for you. And you're going to try to see if you can stop this from happening. But most likely, if one of these are on your list of something that sounds unfamiliar to you, then you could be saying you have a small bladder and you've blamed it on that before everyone's bladder is the same size. You don't just have a small bladder, but number one, do you actually sit all the way down on the toilet. So commonly, I see women that maybe work in a hospital or work in a restaurant, they work in a public area and they want to hover over the toilet, they don't actually sit all the way down, or they hold it for long periods of time until they get back home. Well, those are not what you should be doing. So you have to sit all the way down on the toilet. This is really important to allow those pelvic muscles to fully relax and therefore you can excrete your urine with your pelvic floor muscles letting go if you're in a hover position you're squatting, you're using a lot of external muscles around your hips and your muscles that control your bladder are not going to allow to fully let go. So you may feel like a little trickle or you may not fully empty, but you want to make sure you're sitting all the way down on the toilet. Number two, you're urinating every three to four hours. So this is normal for women that go every hour on the hour, I do a bladder log for my clients. And I'll see this a lot. If you drinking a lot of coffee, drinking a lot of water, I noticed like maybe a couple hours during the day where you're going more often. But if that's a habit throughout your whole day, that is not normal. So going every three to four hours, you're able to actually hold it and when you do have to go, but every three to four hours on average is normal. And if you go way, wait way longer than three to four hours, or if you go a lot of times less than that more often through the day, then you may have a problem with those muscles and your brain control to your pelvic floor muscles. Number three, you aim for eight Mississippi. So counting for eight seconds, slowly, that's a normal amount of time for your bladder to be letting go and excreting your urine. If you're only counting two or three seconds, and this happens over and over, then you're getting more of that urgency that's not normal and your brain is telling your bladder over and over again, it has to go more often when all actuality it doesn't. Or if you're having to sit down and you count for like 2030 seconds and you're excreting a lot of urine, then that is not normal to you probably waited way too long. So around a count of eight Mississippi, we consider on average to be normal. Number four, you're not getting up to go in the middle of the night. I see this all the time after pregnancy. It's very common during your pregnancy, because obviously you have the baby pushing on your bladder, but your brain gets used to that habit over and over again. So many times women 1020 years down the road are still getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, when you should be able to hold it the whole night. Now Healthy Bladder Habits your brain has become alert and said it's time to go this is a habit that you can actually train to stop. But that way you can get more of a sound sleep and even better sleep if you're not waking up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. And this is something that we can train. So if this happens to you all the time, maybe you're waking up once, twice, three times a night. There are ways that we can solve that and that is not normal. Number five positioning when you're urinating so are you actually kind of tilting your pelvis forward leaning your hips forward, shifting your chest forward when you going to the bathroom, this is going to allow those pelvic muscles to relax and you will put your pelvis in a more optimal position to let go. That's very true of having any constipation having bowel issues, bladder issues, you want to lean forward slightly not sit back on your tailbone because your muscles will tense up in that position. So it puts it more optimally in a way that you can let go of your urine and go to the bathroom that way. Number six, avoiding constipation. Now constipation, adding more fiber in your diet is going to help you avoid this but people with chronic constipation, their pelvic floor muscles may be guarding and tensing up a lot. So this is something where we play with the diet but also your habits of how you're sitting down on the toilet and what your habits are like through the day, getting some exercise. Maybe coffee can stimulated a little bit some fiber in your diet. There's things to avoid constipation, because chronic constipation is not good for setting you up for the risk of pelvic organ prolapse. If you're constantly straining and pushing, or it can mean you're always fighting against those pelvic floor muscles that can't fully relax and lengthen. So that is something I see a lot bowel issues, constipation, people brush it off and just think it's something in their diet, but it could actually be the muscles not allowing you to excrete when you go number two, so constipation big issue and that is definitely an unhealthy habit. And then number seven and going to the bathroom urinary eating urinating right before and right after having sex. I know this puts you in the window of under three to four hours. But you want to make sure you're doing this it cuts down on risk for bacteria, having UTIs having any bladder problems there. So that's one habit that we want to make sure that we're doing as well. So if any of these top seven things that I mentioned about unhealthy bladder habits, if it doesn't sound like you're following these and one of them could be a red flag for you. Don't blame it on having a small bladder. Actually go get help for this you can see a pelvic floor physical therapist you can go back and watch my video on the four ways To stop leaking, having the constant urge to go to the bathroom is not normal and you should be able to solve it. So which one spoke to you? Which one was a surprise? Or maybe you're going to go back and re analyze again for yourself? Comment below. I'd love to hear from you. And if you're not already subscribed to level four women's health, please do. You hit that subscribe button and thank you so much for watching.