Prevention of Incontinence

Incontinence can be prevented -

Urinary and Faecal Incontinence can be prevented with the help of proper diet and a healthy lifestyle. If one develops some good practices then the same can be prevented to a great extent. These practices are –

Drink Fluids – 1.5 to 2 litres of fluids per day is prescribed which can be taken at equal intervals all through out the day. Alcohol is not healthy so it best avoided, lots o water in care of hot weather should be taken.

Healthy Diet – Lots of nutrition’s with lots of fibre rich diet is very healthy. It also helps add more bulk to the bowel motions.

Lead a healthy lifestyle – By quitting smoking and maintaining weight one can maintain his healthy lifestyle. Smoking also cures coughing to a large extent so the pressure on the bowel and the abdomen is less.

Be Social – Regular exercise and most importantly the pelvic exercise to give strength to the pelvic muscles. Pelvic muscles normally get weak after child birth and pregnancy. 

Seek timely help – Seek a nutritionist or a good doctor to consult for irregular bowel movements or bladder related problems

Incontinence treatment depends mostly upon the category of incontinence and its severity. Mostly the doctors treat their patients for incontinence treatment with behavioural techniques and if they do not show any results then only they move towards different options for treatment.

Some known Behavioural Techniques are –

Bladder Training Technique – The doctor here asks the patient to delay when urine is due. Delaying the urine can put some pressure on the bladder but overall it strengthens the bladder to hold the urine for a longer duration. This type of technique hlps in urge incontinence.

Diet and water fluid intake – By managing ones dietary and fluid intake techniques one can deal with the problem of incontinence. By saying so, cutting down alcohol, quitting smoking and spicy food can control incontinence to a certain extent. This technique helps in stress incontinence.

Exercises of pelvic muscle – Different exercises to strengthen the pelvic muscle can help people to deal with incontinence. This technique helps people in stress incontinence.

Surgical methods are another way to treat patients when behavioural techniques do not work well. Various operations are carried out to treat patients from stress incontinence, urge incontinence. There are operations suggested for patients who have undergone prostatectomy also.

For treatment of incontinence various incontinence products in Australia are available for people to choose from.

For a quick review the various products which are widely used for incontinence treatment in Australia are, pads, reusable pants, urinals and bedpans, water proof bed and chair pans, odour control products, Urinary catheters and accessories and bed wetting alarms which are available at selected dealers.

Incontinence – and Its Insight and Presence in Australia

What is incontinence?

It is the inability to control one’s urine or when urine from the bladder leaks accidentally or accidental bowel leakage or faeces movement from the bowel. It is a condition which is widespread now days and can happen to men as well as women. Although studies have shown that women are affected more seven to eight times than men in this disorder. Incontinence can be urinary incontinence or bowel or faecal incontinence. Two kinds of Incontinence are identified -

Urinary Incontinence – like explained above it is the inability of controlling the urine, this generally happens to females after chid birth and also due to menopause.

Faecal incontinence – Any individual who faces difficulty in controlling bowels or may pass wind when one does not want to. The bowel control gets poorer with ageing in faecal incontinence.

Incontinence effects everyday activities of an individual and can go on to affect the quality of ones life. It affects ability of a person to engage in employment, education and other social activities. It is also a burden for old age people and people with some kind of disability associated to them.

Incontinence in Australia –

From a survey done on Australian people almost an estimated 316500 people had experienced in Australia. The number has not been very alarming in terms of increase in numbers but what strikes our attention most is that out of these 3 Lac odd people, 66% were a female. Female incontinence in Australia is fairly high in ratio. A medical journal in Australia after its survey has said that Female incontinence in Australia is over 2 million in numbers with females over the age of 18 years. It also suggests that most of the women experience incontinence between the ages of 18 to 44 years.

Risk Factors involved with incontinence –

The studies have also revealed and showed various risk factors which can commonly be the factors behind the incontinence among Australians. Incontinence is primarily due to –

Pregnancy – The medical survey indicates that urinary incontinence increases during pregnancy. Though it increases for those women who have given birth before also but it increases more in terms of percentage among women who have never given birth.

Obesity – Pelvic muscles weakens due to abdomen pressure caused due to weight gain causing incontinence

Prostrate Cancer, surgery or prostrate disease – Men having any of such disease have the increased risk of having urinary or the faecal incontinence

Other Factors – like urinary infections, diabetes, and menopause, chronic illness and poor health

There are several myths related to incontinence which hamper their reporting and get timely medical counselling for betterment and treatment. Few myths related to incontinence are Old age, incontinence being a disease, drinking less fluid helps, to slow down on routines. These are some typical myths related to incontinence. It is a disorder which actually is very much curable and manageable.