I bet the health of your bladder is one of the last things you ever think about, right? BUT maintaining a healthy bladder is pretty simple and has SO many benefits!
Below is a list of benefits of maintaining a health bladder and how they can help!
1. Drink ½ your body weight in ounces of fluid every day (2/3 should be water!)
Did you know that 60-70% of your body is water?! This is why it’s super important to drink enough water to maintain healthy hydration for your body.
2. Empty your bladder every 3-4 hours or 5-7x in 24 hours.
If you are going more than this, that could be a sign you are not fully emptying your bladder each time. If you are going less than this, that could lead to weakened bladder muscles and make infection more likely.
3. When you sit on the toilet to empty your bladder, count for 8 seconds (or Mississippi).
This is to make sure that you are really emptying your bladder each time. If you don’t make it to 8 seconds, you most likely did not need to go!
4. Avoid the “just in case” trips to the restroom.
This may be the most common mistake! Believe it or not, our bladder is super trainable. When using the restroom “just in case” you are creating a habit when you may not really have to go.
5. Avoid constipation. Eat the FIBER. Drink the WATER.
Increasing your water intake can help you have more regular bowel movements and reduce your symptoms.
6. Avoid bladder irritants: alcohol, caffeine, carbonated drinks, etc.
Caffeine and alcohol both act as a diuretic, so will force fluids out of the body.
Carbonated drinks can over stimulate the bladder and contribute to stress incontinence.
7. SIT DOWN on the toilet. No public restroom hover.
When you hover over the toilet, you aren’t allowing your muscles to relax. Relaxing the muscles around the bladder will make it easier to empty.
8. Do your pelvic floor muscle exercises!
Pelvic floor exercises help to strengthen the muscles around your bladder, which can help keep urine from leaking when you sneeze, cough, lift, laugh, or have a sudden urge to urinate.
9. Void before and after intercourse.
This will help to flush away any bacteria that may have entered the urethra during sex.
10. Do not strain to empty your bladder.
Straining puts a ton of pressure down on your pelvic floor. This doesn’t allow your pelvic floor muscles to relax, which needs to happen in order to empty your bladder.
Want to tackle your bladder issues head on? Get in touch and we can help get to the bottom of it and come up with a plan to fix it!