Incontinence

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Incontinence

There are more serious conditions, more painful conditions and more noticeable conditions. But in most people’s books, there are few conditions more embarrassing than urinary incontinence.

Simply put, incontinence is the inability to control your bladder.

Lots of things cause incontinence: urinary tract infections, aging, obesity, nerve damage, spinal cord injuries, prostate problems and more. The natural remedies in this chapter—in conjunction with medical care and used with your doctor’s approval—may help control incontinence, according to some health professionals.

See Your Medical Doctor When... You urinate when you shouldn’t or aren’t trying to. You have no sensation that your bladder is full.

Food Therapy

Sometimes overweight can cause incontinence, because fat around the abdomen pushes down on the bladder, says Michael A. Klaper, M.D., a nutritional medicine specialist in Pompano Beach, Florida, and director of the Institute of Nutritional Education and Research, an organization based in Manhattan Beach, California, that teaches doctors about nutrition and its relationship to disease.

“The answer is a low-fat diet and gentle exercise, because losing weight can help tremendously or even clear up the problem,” he says. Eating more fresh fruits and vegetables is a great first step to losing weight, he says, since they’re low in calories and fat yet very filling. He also recommends pastas, beans and rice—without fatty sauces or butter.

Homeopathy

One remedy worth trying is Causticum, says Stephen Messer, N.D., dean of the National Center for Homeopathy’s summer school and a naturopathic physician in Eugene, Oregon. He suggests taking a 6C dose after every episode of incontinence for three to four days. If that doesn’t help, he advises that you seek medical care.

Causticum is available in many health food stores. To purchase homeopathic remedies by mail, refer to the resource list on page 637.

Hydrotherapy

“Many people with incontinence also experience bladder irritation, which aggravates the problem,” says Agatha Thrash, M.D., a medical pathologist and co-founder and co-director of Uchee Pines Institute, a natural healing center in Seale, Alabama. “We find that drinking more water alleviates the irritation by diluting the irritants in the urine.” Eight to ten eight-ounce glasses of water a day, plus Kegel exercises, often make a big difference in patients’ ability to control urination, according to Dr. Thrash.

Kegel exercises are designed to strengthen the pubococcygeus muscles, a set of muscles that run from the pubic bone to the tailbone, according to Charles Kuntzleman, Ed.D., associate professor of kinesiology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. These muscles help both men and women stop the flow of urine and squeeze off gas and permit women to tighten the vagina, he says.

To learn how to do Kegels, Dr. Kuntzleman suggests that the next time you are urinating, try to stop your flow when you are halfway finished without tensing the muscles in your legs, buttocks or abdomen. If you’re able to stop the flow, you’re using the right muscles, he explains. Once you’ve located them, he says, you can contract these muscles anytime, anywhere.

To control urinary incontinence, Dr. Kuntzleman recommends that you do Kegel exercises as often as possible during the day, slowly increasing the amount of time you hold the squeezing motion.

Imagery

In Rituals of Healing: Using Imagery for Health and Wellness, Barbara Dossey, R.N., director of Holistic Nursing Consultants in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and her co-authors recommend the following visualization exercise to help you overcome incontinence. Imagine that somewhere within you there is a brilliant glowing light that is penetrating and powerful. From this light, a beam shoots into your pelvic and bladder area that heals and calms your urinary tract.

Now imagine that the beam transforms into a tiny boat that journeys on a golden river from the kidneys to the bladder. In the bladder, the small boat of light drifts on a tiny inner lake. As you sail on, you notice the smooth layers of muscle tissue in the bladder. As the bladder fills, you see the muscles relax in response to increased pressure. When the time is right, watch the muscular bands that have been holding the urethra closed slowly relax. Feel the walls of the bladder contract to help empty the urine. Finally, picture the sphincter muscles closing after the last few drops have drained.

Dossey recommends practicing this imagery twice a day for 15 to 20 minutes each session.

Reflexology

To help you with bladder control, New York City reflexologist Laura Nor man, author of Feet First: A Guide to Foot Reflexology, recommends working these reflex points on your feet: solar plexus, diaphragm, chest, lung, bronchial tube, lower spine, bladder, kidney and adrenal gland. To help you locate these points, consult the foot reflex chart on page 592. For instructions on how to work the points, see “Your Reflexology Session” on page 110.

Yoga

A yoga exercise called the stomach lock can help strengthen muscles in the lower abdomen, increasing bladder control, says Alice Christensen, founder and executive director of the American Yoga Association. Her instructions for the exercise: Lie on your back and take a deep breath. Breathe out until the breath is completely gone, then pull in your buttock, groin and stomach muscles hard. Hold for a count of three, then release your muscles.

Christensen recommends doing this yoga exercise three times per session, two or three times per day. You should notice improvement in a couple of weeks, she says.

You should not practice this pose if you have high blood pressure, hiatal hernia, ulcers or heart disease, according to Stephen A. Nezezon, M.D., yoga teacher and staff physician at the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy in Honesdale, Pennsylvania. Dr. Nezezon also cautions that women should not practice stomach locks during menstruation or pregnancy.