Pelvic Health & Orthopedic Physical Therapy
Addressing your questions about pelvic, women's, and musculoskeletal health. Health is a journey. Movement is healing!
So pretty neat, more studies are being performed looking at pelvic floor training for overactive bladder. One study I came across this morning was recently published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation. I'll post the link I found below, but to summarize the findings they looked at pelvic floor training for Overactive Bladder (OAB) and urinary incontinence in two groups of women. One with idiopathic cause of symptoms. One group who had been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. The researchers were monitoring the activity of the detrusor, the muscular layer inside the bladder. With their standardized exercise protocol almost half the women with idiopathic cause and about a fourth of the women with MS showed elimination of detrusor overactivity. So what does all that mean?
The bladder is a muscle. It has muscle on the outside, muscle on the inside. These muscles give and get information from the nervous system. The muscles of the bladder are also impacted by tissues around it like the pelvic floor muscles. There are certainly a lot of factors that can contribute to overactive bladder and incontinence. The link between the muscles of the bladder, the pelvic floor muscles (which are further south), and the nervous system play a large role. Proper use and implementation of urge suppression techniques suggested in this study can be helpful in hitting a reset to the system. A pelvic health physical therapist can help to assess and instruct individuals in proper urge suppression, as they were also part of this study. Essentially utilizing your pelvic floor muscles (which you can control), sends a message to the muscles of the bladder, which relays through the nervous system and brain to decrease the overwhelming urinary urge. Pretty awesome use of our voluntary nervous system! Study summary can be found here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/10/181019120736.htm Full journal: https://journals.lww.com/ajpmr/Abstract/publishahead/The_effect_of_pelvic_floor_muscle_contraction_on.98382.aspx You went to the bathroom an hour ago, now you have to go again. In twenty minutes you will have to go to the bathroom once again. You will desperately need to find a restroom. Your life revolves around frequenting the bathroom to urinate, but when you go it doesn't always seem like all that much urine.
Does this sound like you? You may be experiencing the symptoms of overactive bladder. Individuals with this typically urinate more than eight times a day. When they do need to use the restroom, they are overcome with an intense urge to urinate. The urge make even lead to some urine leakage at times. When you do get to the restroom you quickly empty your bladder and head about your business, just to quickly rush back to the bathroom shortly. Why does this happen? Sometimes there is an underlying medical reason, other times we develop poor bladder health and train our bladder to go more often.So what can you do? A good first step if you suspect you have overactive bladder is to visit your physician. They can start medical management such as medications if necessary. You may also get referred to Physical Therapy to work on your pelvic floor muscles and retraining the bladder and your current bladder habits. |
AuthorHello! I am Caitlyn, Doctor of Physical Therapy and Board Certified Women's Health Physical Therapist working in St Louis, Missouri. Faculty in developing residency program. Endowarrior Categories
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