No matter how you look at it, incontinence isn’t a fun health condition to deal with, especially if you’re still relatively young. However, it’s not all bad. In many cases, you can actually reverse the effects of incontinence and return to how things used to be.
That doesn’t come without some necessary lifestyle changes, though. If you’re unsure where to start, this brief guide will cover some life changes you can make to better handle your incontinence. That way, you can get on top of it and get your life back on track. Follow on for Incontinence: 4 Life Changes You Can Make To Handle It Better.
1. Start With Some Exercise to Improve Incontinence Symptoms
Losing weight is one of the best ways to help improve your incontinence symptoms. You don’t have to be excessively thin to reverse the effects of your incontinence, but the less weight you put on your bladder, the better. Fortunately, dropping a few pounds isn’t too difficult, but keeping them off can be challenging. Fortunately, there are many ways to be more consistent with your workouts.
While you’re focusing on working out, though, be sure to try to get some Kegel or bodyweight squats exercise into your weekly routine. This is one of the best ways to strengthen the muscles that control your bladder. The stronger they become, the fewer incontinence symptoms you’ll experience.
2. Change Up Your Diet
Back on the topic of losing some weight, though, knowing how to minimize junk food in your diet is another way to cut a few pounds here and there. Of course, when it comes to handling incontinence symptoms, there are other dietary changes you’ll need to make.
Certain substances we consume can make us need to use the restroom more often than usual. While most people don’t notice this, those with incontinence do, so they must cut them out of their diet as far as possible.
These include alcohol, caffeine, citrus, and spicy foods. While you don’t need to quit all of them cold turkey, reducing your intake of each of them can significantly improve your symptoms.
3. Improve Your Time Management around Incontinence
One skill that will undoubtedly come in handy when dealing with incontinence is time management. Making multiple trips to the bathroom daily will significantly reduce the time you could spend elsewhere. Planning out your day with these bathroom trips in mind will help things go much more smoothly.
If you’re not great at managing your time, this is an excellent opportunity to work on it. Start by creating a bathroom schedule for yourself. You don’t need to follow it to the letter, but having a self-catheterization schedule is important if that’s the method you choose for handling your incontinence symptoms. Regardless of how you go about it, effectively managing your time is key.
4. Work on Bladder Training
If you have a bathroom schedule all worked out, this last life change you can make to better handle your incontinence will be much easier.
Bladder training is the best way to improve your current condition. Telling yourself to wait 10 more minutes or until your next scheduled bathroom break will help your bladder get used to not going as often. This tactic isn’t the easiest to implement but it’s probably the most effective.
Incontinence doesn’t have to be a lifelong condition. You can do much to help abate the symptoms and with the right types of exercises, especially breathing exercises, you can even reverse it!
