Bladder

  1. 3 Steps to Leak Free Gym Sessions

    3 things you can do to stop leaking at the gym.    

    Do you leak when you exercise? Do you make an excuse not to attend if your gym session includes running, skipping or, even worse, double unders and box jumps?

    This is called Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI) and you are not alone, but there are solutions!

    A recent study1 of over 4500 women found that 46% had stopped exercise they previously enjoyed due to their pelvic floor symptoms. Of these, 41% reported the reason to be SUI.

    Many long term health issues can result from not exercising. For females in particular, due to hormonal fluctuations throughout life’s stages, lack of exercise can affect bone strength, muscle mass and c

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  2. Busting The Myths : Incontinence

    Busting The Myths : Incontinence

    One of the favourite TV shows in our house is Mythbusters. There is always great excitement when a myth is “busted ” and the more spectacularly the better. Personally I could watch it just for the mustachioed guys – they are so cool!

    Let’s look at some myths in the pelvic floor, incontinence, bladder and bowel world. I may not have a moustache but hopefully together we can bust some myths and help you get back in control of your bladder, bowel and pelvic health.
    Today we are myth busting incontinence. We will start with incontinence and in future blogs we will look at bladder, bowel, erectile dysfunction, prolapse, pelvic floor, pelvic exercises and more …if you have a topic you’d like the plain facts on – let me know

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  3. Bladder Urgency and Frequency

    Bladder urgency running to the toilet

    Before reading on if you want to know what bladder urgency and frequency is, have a look at the page about urgency and frequency in our resource section. Bladder urgency happens because, for many reasons, your bladder contracts when it shouldn't. The only time it should contract is when you give it permission to when you are on the loo or squatting behind a bush.

    Bladder urgency can rule your life but it doesn't need to. Here is how I explain it to my patients and a few strategies to help calm the bladder, once urgency has been diagnosed. However please ensure you have had a full medical check and been properly diagnosed prior to attempting any bladder training as there are some medical causes of frequency and urgency that need to be treated medically. 

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  4. Busting the Myths: The Bladder

    Bladder Urgency, weak bladder

    Firstly a Few Facts

    There are two types of muscles in your body :

    Skeletal muscle – we have control of these and can make them contract and relax as we wish. These are the moving muscles like the biceps and hamstrings.
    Smooth muscle – we don’t have control of these muscles , they contract by themselves, automatically and are controlled by our brain. They are the 'function' muscles that keep the body working e.g the heart and the gut. They work by stretch response. For example, as blood fills the heart chambers (input) the walls stretch and at a certain point of stretch automatically contract to push the blood out (cardiac output). The same with the gut – as the food bolus passes through, it stretches and squeezes and pushes it along a bit like an inchworm!

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  5. When is a Leak Not a Leak? When it is a leek!

    When is a leak not a leak? When it is a leek!

    WHEN IS A LEAK NOT A LEAK?

    The short answer is never but you would be forgiven for thinking that little leaks or "LBL 's" are not really leaks, going by the media and advertising reports we have been bombarded with of late.
    There have been some very high profile campaigns excusing you from worrying about those embarrassing little leaks and freeing you up to just wear a pad and forget it.

    Well you may be able to do that....at first. But that annoying little leak will soon become a gush or a whole bladder full.

    You will start to go just in case in order to keep your bladder empty - so it can't leak and let you down - and this will lead to a smaller bladder capacity
    (can't hold as much), frequency and urgency which can lead to further leaks and a whole big mess.

    So then you might be scared to go out, stop going to the gym or be the one at the back of the class so you can run out unnoticed to go to the loo halfway through the star jumps and all of

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