Tips For Living With Overactive Bladder
If you are living with overactive bladder and are struggling with the disruption in your life that constantly running to the bathroom creates, then you will be happy to know there are certain things you can do to make your life better, including each of these tips:
Tip: Completely Eliminate Alcohol and Coffee from Your Diet
Both alcoholic drinks and coffee are diuretics. When you consume a diuretic liquid, your kidneys and bladder must work harder to process the excess water your system is excreting. So, in addition to making you have to urinate more frequently from drinking the coffee or alcoholic beverage, you will also be irritating your bladder. This will result in many extra trips to the bathroom over the course of a few hours that can easily be avoided by drinking water instead.
Tip: Journal to Discover Your Bladder's Triggers
One of the best ways to determine what factors are affecting your overactive bladder is to keep a journal. This information will help when you are looking into overactive bladder services. In your journal, keep track of:
- medications you take and what time you take them
- foods you eat and what time you eat them
- drinks you drink and what time you drink them
Bring along your journal when you visit your doctor and have them take a look at it. This will allow your doctor to see if there are specific medications, foods, or drinks that are aggravating your overactive bladder. Sometimes, removing certain foods or drinks, or changing medications, will greatly improve the symptoms of this frustrating condition.
Tip: Avoid Thinking that Water and Other Fluids are Your Enemies
While drinking too much water will make you have to urinate more frequently, not drinking enough fluids can irritate your bladder and have the same result. For this reason, it is important that your body gets a constant stream of fluids and other liquids throughout the day. Just as other people should drink eight glasses of water each day, so too should you. However, you should avoid drinking too much at one time and space out your drinks evenly throughout the day.
Tip: Enlist the Help of Your Physician
Finally, even if talking about your overactive bladder problem is uncomfortable, you should speak to your doctor about it. Overactive bladder is a very common medical problem and it is nothing to be embarrassed about. In fact, by talking with your doctor you will discover new treatments and medications that can greatly improve your quality of life.
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