urinary urgency

  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. Feel the Need, the Need for Speed?

    I feel the need the need for speed

    Do you feel the need, the need for speed when getting to the toilet to pee?

    An urgent need to get to the loo is a common thing and often mistakenly called a "weak bladder" and excuses are made  'I have been like this since I was a child'  or 'it is only since I had the kids'

    There is no such thing as a weak bladder. There are weak pelvic floor muscles, there is stretched fascial tissue, there is a low compliant bladder (the muscular wall of the bladder is stiff and won't stretch well - like blowing up a balloon for the first time), there is an overactive detrusor ( bladder wall muscle which contracts when it shouldn't)  but you don't have a weak bladder - it is the support and control mechanisms that are not working properly.

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