The best urge incontinence treatment combines lifestyle modification tips, exercise, and an open dialogue with your health care provider.
We get it – if you're like the average patient with urge incontinence, you would prefer a quick fix. And further down in this article we’ll present an easy once daily solution that is the best urge incontinence treatment we've seen and tested. But your urge incontinence, which is when you have a sudden urge to urinate, can dramatically lower your quality of life, and needs a well-rounded approach that steps back and looks at the big picture.
So let's do that. Pull up a chair and let's look closer at urge incontinence and find the best urge incontinence treatment for your needs – the one that can bring peace your bladder, your well-being and ultimate, your life.
What is Urge Incontinence?
First, a definition. Urge incontinence is a sudden need to urinate. It happens because your bladder contracts when it shouldn't. This causes urine to leak through the sphincter muscle that controls flow through the bladder.
You've got company if you have urge incontinence. Estimates it affects 30% of men and 40% of women in the United States. While urge incontinence can hit anyone, it is most common in women and older patients.
Note that urge incontinence is not a disease. Rather, it's one of several forms of urinary incontinence, which stem from lifestyle, medical or physical causes.
Risk Factors For Urge Incontinence
In many cases, a doctor simply cannot pinpoint why urge incontinence happens. However, we do know you're at higher risk of urge incontinence with these factors:
- Bladder Problems – Various bladder problems and diseases can damage the nerves that control the urinary sphincter. These include diabetes, stroke, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease.
- Women Who've Given Birth by C Section
- Obesity
- Men With Enlarged Prostate or Prostate Conditions
- People With Nerve Damage
- People with Urinary Tract Infections
What's the Best Urge Incontinence Treatment?
Your first step is to speak with your doctor about urge incontinence. He or she knows your medical history and can help you best determine your course of action. This may include lifestyle changes, bladder retraining and/or even some medical treatments, which may include Botox injections, nerve stimulators and even a urinary catheter.
You may also want to consider a natural incontinence supplement, like Confitrol24, for reasons we'll discuss later in this article.
Lifestyle Changes to Treat Urge Incontinence
There are few shortcuts in life, and if you have urge incontinence, you may have to make changes to how you go about your day. These may include:
Lifestyle
The best urge incontinence treatment takes a closer look at your diet, weight, habits and conditions. You can start this by reducing alcohol, caffeine, sweeteners and/or any foods that are spice or acidic.
Take a moment. For some people, that's have their diet.
You may also want to eat more fiber-rich foods. Fiber is good if you have urge incontinence because it can help to prevent constipation, which can pressure the bladder or increase your urge to run to a toilet.
Good sources of fiber include apples, bananas, quinoa, avocado, almonds, popcorn and oats.
Also, think about weight loss options, especially if you're overweight. If you smoke, stop. The coughing linked to this nasty and health-destroying habit can lead to stress incontinence or make urge incontinence worse.
In addition, you might think about wearing an absorbent pad to get unwanted leakage while you go about your day.
Kegel Exercises
Kegels are among the best urge incontinence treatments. These are a form of exercise that strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which allow for better bladder control.
To do a kegel, contract your pelvic floor for five to ten seconds. Then rest for the same amount of time. Don't know how to 'contract your pelvic floor'? Try this – stop your urine flow midstream the next time you pee.
That's how you contract your pelvic floor – and it's how you do a kegel.
Repeat this process as many repetitions as you can, preferably for at least three times daily. Kegels help strengthen the pelvic muscles and can be done anywhere, whether you're at home, work, the gym – anywhere.
You can also progressively overload your pelvic floor muscles, with 'kegel cones' that further strengthen the pelvic muscles, allowing for even better bladder control, although you'll want to do this with your doctor's approval.
Bladder Retraining
OK, so you may have winced a little at the words 'Bladder Retraining'. You're not a toddler. Why do you need to retrain your bladder?
Because bladder retraining is one of the best urge incontinence treatments. We all pick up habits in life. Some are good and some are bad. With bladder retraining, you give your bladder a little tough love and tell it when it's appropriate to release – and when it's not.
One way to retrain your bladder is by timing your trips to the toilet. With this method, you can only urinate during scheduled times and must resist the urge to go to a toilet at other times throughout the day.
For example, you might schedule a toilet break every half hour to start, and then increase the wait times by 30 minute intervals until you can last three to four hours with no leakage.
Another technique: try to delay urination when the urge hits you. This builds your bladder's capacity and, just as important, your willpower. And yet another technique: visit the toilet and empty your bladder – and then do it again, right away. This trains you to completely empty your bladder.
Watch What You Eat and Drink
Here's another way to treat urge incontinence: watch what you eat and drink. Some beverages are notorious for making urge incontinence worse (we're looking at you, coffee). The best urge incontinence treatments take a long look at what's on your plate, what's in your mug, and how you manage both. You can do that with the following tips:
Choose Your Drinks Wisely – and Time Them
It sounds surprising, but water is one of the best urge incontinence treatments. Good old H20 should be your drink of choice. Drinks with added sugar and/or caffeine, like energy drinks, soda and, yup, hate to say it, coffee, can all trigger urge incontinence and make things, well, not so fun.
Water is the way to go with urge incontinence. The trick is to drink enough to keep you hydrated, but no more than that. We've all heard it said the average person should drink eight glasses a water each day. The American Urogynecologic Society takes a different approach and says you should drink only when you're thirsty.
A few more tips for how you drink if you have urge incontinence. Spread your drinks throughout the day, and drink water between meals. Drink smaller amounts of liquid, with your cup half-full, or use a smaller cup.
Sip – don't gulp, your drinks. A good way to confirm you're getting enough water is when your urine is light yellow or clear.
Drinks to Avoid
We've already touched on the fact that coffee is one of the worst offenders for urge incontinence. Now, we're not trying to inflict cruel and unusual punishment on you, but if you have urge incontinence, you might want to limit your daily coffee to one small cup.
Also, avoid drinks with caffeine, like soda and energy drinks. Acidic fruit juices, like orange juice, grapefruit juice and tomato juice are bad news too. Apple and pear juice are a little easier on the bladder, and you can water them down further to reduce bladder problems.
And yes, alcohol can make urge incontinence worse.
Foods to Avoid
While we're at it, let's talk about foods to avoid if you have urge incontinence. These include:
- Acidic Foods – Citrus fruits, which include lemons, limes, oranges and grapefruit, and tomato products, including salsa and tomato sauce, are well-known to aggravate the bladder.
- Spicy Foods – Chilies, wasabe and other highly spicy foods are a no-go as well.
- Artificial Sweeteners – Try to avoid foods with asparate and saccharin. Yes, they're in foods too.
- Salty Foods – Sodium can spike your blood pressure, lead to kidney stones and they're no friend of yours if you suffer from urge incontinence. Foods to avoid? Salty snacks, like potato chips, salted nuts and basically any 'snack food' from a convenience store.
Granted, this is a lot of work. That's why the best urge incontinence treatment should include a food journal, to document the drinks and foods that trigger your symptoms.
You might also find it a little easier to start with baby steps. Start by reducing one item at a time, like lemons or tomatoes, from your weekly meals. If you see an improvement to your symptoms, note them in your food journal. At this point you might gradually add the foods and drinks you like back to your diet until your urge incontinence symptoms return.
The point we're getting at? Isolate the target. Then get rid of it – or learn to live with it as best as possible.
Best Urge Incontinence Treatment Supplement? Try Confitrol24
Finally, we can't talk about the best urge incontinence treatments without mentioning Confitrol24. This is a natural incontinence supplement designed to help strengthen bladder muscles. It's an all-natural product with a proprietary compound called 'Urox'. This is an excellent product that helps with the following:
Uses:
- Strengthens Bladder Muscles
- Reduces Dribbling
- Reduces Leakage
- Cuts Down On Bathroom Visits
- Helps With Higher Sleep Quality
Look, there are hundreds of health supplements all vying for your hard-earned dollar, and the natural incontinence supplement niche is no exception. So why do we feel Confitrol24 is the best urge incontinence treatment from a natural product. It starts with the Urox.
Confitrol24: The Urox Study
In 2013, Australian researchers put Urox under the microscope. They did so in an 8 week, double-blind study that consisted of 150 volunteers with mild to moderate incontinence, split in two groups.
The first group took Urox. The second group took a placebo at similar dosage. The 'double blind' factor assured that no one, whether the researchers or the volunteers, knew who was taking Urox or the placebo.
As past of the study's methodology, the researchers had each volunteer keep a journal of their symptoms. This included their daily bathroom visits, their accidents, urgency level and how many times each night they woke up to visit a toilet.
Now here's the part that we like.
At the end of study, the placebo group reported no improvements to their symptoms. But the Urox group reported fewer bathroom visits, less urgency throughout the day, better sleep, with fewer nocturnal runs to the toilet, and fewer accidents – and the embarrassment linked to them.
In short, it worked – and Confitrol24, with Urox as its formula, is the best urge incontinence treatment supplement in our opinion.
You can read more about the Urox study in this article's footnotes, click here to learn more about Confitrol24.
Best Urge Incontinence Treatment: In Conclusion
To summarize, the best urge incontinence treatment is a comprehensive strategy. It includes your doctor, a daily journal and a close look at your triggers and symptoms. It may include lifestyle changes and some modifications to your diet.
That could include giving up coffee and alcohol – or at least cutting back on them to see if this improves your symptoms.
It may also include kegel exercises and bladder retraining. You might also want to think about putting Confitrol24 in your life, because it makes a difference.
Most of all, the best urge incontinence treatment is about willpower. How much do you want normal in your life?
Make no mistake, this is not an easy road. Then again, you can take some solace in knowing you don't do it alone. You've got plenty of company if you have urge incontinence. You've also got the tools to beat it. An easy journey? Heck no. But it's one worth taking to get your life back.
The best urge incontinence treatment involves lifestyle and dietary changes. You might need to cut back on coffee and alcohol. Confitrol24 may help as well.
