Doing Kegel exercises treat Urinary Stress Incontinence

Urinary Stress Incontinence is usually observed in women. Urine leaks for a few women when they cough, sneeze or even laugh. There will be no control over the urinary bladder. This condition is very embarrassing. Few women even avoid social gatherings when the problem is severe.

The Urine Incontinence is observed in women during pregnancy and after childbirth. Ideally the nerves, ligaments, and pelvic floor muscles work together to support your bladder and keep the urethra closed so urine doesn’t leak out. Overstretching or injury to these areas during pregnancy or childbirth can cause them to stop working properly.

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Causes for Urinary Stress Incontinence

• Pregnancy
• After delivery (birth vaginally)
• Assisted Vaginal delivery ( usage of forceps)
• Prolonged pushing ( large baby)
• Obese persons
• Smokers
• Genetic predisposition(runs in the family)
• More number of vaginal deliveries
• Menopause stage , Aging
• Repeated urinary tract infection

Treatment for Urinary Stress Incontinence

The treatment options range from conservative treatment, behavior management, bladder retraining, pelvic floor therapy, medications and surgery. The success depends on the correct diagnosis in the first place.

Exercises to control Incontinence

Kegels are exercises to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles – the muscles that support your urethra, bladder, uterus, and rectum. Kegel exercises may also help reduce the risk of Anal incontinence and urge incontinence.

How to do Kegel exercises at home

Start the exercise with an empty bladder. Imagine that you’re trying to stop yourself from passing gas and trying to stop the flow of urine midstream at the same time i.e closing and drawing up of the front and back passages.

Make sure that you squeeze and lift without pulling in your tummy, squeezing your legs together, tightening your buttocks, or holding your breath. In simple words, only your pelvic floor muscles should be working.

Though you may have trouble isolating these muscles at first, it gets easier with practice. It might help to place a hand on your belly while you’re doing your Kegels to make sure that it stays relaxed.

What is the frequency and duration for Kegel exercises

Start doing Kegels a few at a time throughout the day. As your muscles starts to feel stronger, gradually increase both the number of contractions you do each day and the length of time you hold each contraction, up to ten seconds. Practice them in sets of ten and try to work up to three or four sets about three times a day.

Make Kegels a part of your daily routine. You can schedule a set in the morning, while watching TV and prior to bed time. But it really doesn’t matter when or where you do them – as long as you do them regularly.

Be patient and keep up the schedule. It may take three to six weeks of regular Kegels before you notice an improvement in bladder control.When done correctly and often enough, they can strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, giving you better control.

Precautionary measures

However in the initial stages follow some precautionary measures to avoid any embarrassment.

• Use a sanitary pad to protect your clothes from urine leaks
• Try crossing your legs and tightening your pelvic muscles or shifting your body weight to one side when you feel a sneeze or a cough coming on.
• Cut down on caffeine consumption.(results have indicated positive effect)

Ayurveda recommendations for Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence is primarily a vata disorder, caused by weakness of the muscles of the bladder, especially the bladder sphincter.

Natural Home Remedy using Indian gooseberry, turmeric powder and honey:

Cut and de-seed 1 Indian gooseberry (Amla), Crush the Indian gooseberry into paste. Add a pinch of turmeric powder and 1 tsp of honey. Mix well.

Have 1 tsp of this mixture every morning for about 4 weeks.

You will feel the strengthening of prostrate muscles after duration of 4 weeks.

Natural home remedy using milk, fennel seeds and sugar:

In a glass of warm milk, add 1 tsp of crushed fennel seeds (saunf) and 2 tbsp of sugar syrup in it. Mix well and drink this every day.

To make Sugar syrup: Mix 2 tbsp of sugar in ½ glass water. Heat the sugar and water solution till it becomes a syrup.