How Exercising Can Improve Incontinence

Incontinence often occurs as the pelvic muscles get weak. Pelvic muscles help stop the flow of urine. Incontinence often occurs as the pelvic muscles get weak. There are many reasons why this happens.

Incontinence affects both women and men

For women, pregnancy, childbirth and being overweight can weaken the pelvic muscles. For men, prostate surgery can weaken pelvic muscles. For both genders the natural process of aging, can weaken pelvic muscles. Weak pelvic muscles can cause you to leak urine. The good news is that...
pelvic muscles are just like other muscles, which means that exercises can make them stronger. Studies have shown that people, who leak urine, may have better control of these muscles, by doing pelvic muscle exercises, called Kegel exercises. This has been found to be true for seniors, who are suffering from incontinence.

Incontinence can be an inconvenient, uncomfortable, and even embarrassing medical condition, but urinary incontinence can often, be treated by several non-surgical methods. As a caregiver to an elderly loved one, it becomes important to understand the methods that can improve incontinence. One of the best and easiest ways is be exercising weak pelvic muscles.

The most common form of pelvic muscles exercise is known as the Kegel. This exercise was developed in 1948, by Dr. Arnold Kegel, as a way to treat incontinence in women, after childbirth. Kegels improve urethral and rectal sphincter control, by strengthening the muscles of the pelvic floor.

To begin the person must find the right muscles, and reduce the chance of contracting the abdominal or thigh muscles. This can be done by sitting on the toilet, and beginning to urinate. They should then try to stop the flow of urine midstream, by tightening their pelvic floor muscles.

To perform pelvic floor exercises Kegels:

• Begin by emptying your bladder.
• Tighten the pelvic floor muscles and hold for a count of 10.
• Relax the muscle completely for a count of 10.
• Do 10 exercises, 3 times a day (morning, afternoon, and night).

It should be noted that these exercises can be performed at any time, and any place. Most people prefer to do the exercises while lying down, or sitting in a chair. You should keep in mind that most people notice some improvement after four to six weeks, but it may take as long as three months to see a major change. There is a word of caution, however, over-exercising can cause muscle fatigue and increase urine leakage.

Experts caution that this type of therapy is "slow going", and must be done several times a day, for a long time, to achieve any sort of results. The good news is that pelvic muscle exercises have been shown to improve mild, to moderate, urge, and stress incontinence. When they are performed correctly, these exercises can help strengthen the muscles that support the bladder. Through regular exercise, those suffering from incontinence can build control, and endurance, to help improve, regain, and maintain, bladder and bowel control

Caregivers can encourage, and support the use of pelvic muscle exercises, to improve incontinency. However, the bottom line is that the senior suffering from incontinence must be willing to perform the exercises on a daily basis. Because the exercises to improve pelvic muscle strength will have to be done over a long period of time, caregivers must determine the best ways to deal with the incontinence, in the meantime.

The Incontinence Product Finder allows you to easily sort through over 500 different styles, sizes, absorbencies, brands

Incontinency can be a difficult issue to deal with, when you are a caregiver. For help and resources you should check out The CareGiver Partnership resources.  They have designed this site to help caregivers find the products, and information; they need to deal with incontinence issues.  Three resources:

The different styles of incontinence products explained

• Explanation of the types of incontinence products
  
  
• A tool to help make comparison easy - The Incontinence Product Finder sorts through over 400 products
  
  
• Many people don't know what will work best.  Take advantage of 'try before you buy' where you can try any number of over 100 different incontinence products before having to purchase.  The only cost is the postage. 

Sample any number of over 100 different samples.  Just pay postage.

                             Watch the video:  How to choose the right incontinence product


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About The CareGiver Partnership. The CareGiver Partnership helps caregivers and their loved ones with answers to their caregiving questions, including information about home health care products and supplies, from our Wisconsin-based team of Product Specialists who are all current or former caregivers. The company’s Web site provides the largest online library of resources on subjects most important to caregivers — from arthritis to assisted living, and Parkinson’s to prostate cancer — as well as access to more than 3,000 home care products for incontinence, skin care, mobility, home safety and daily living aids. The CareGiver Partnership was founded in 2004 by Lynn Wilson of Neenah, Wisc. Visit http://www.caregiverpartnership.com to learn more or call 1-800-985-1353.