Stress urinary incontinence can occur on both men and women but it can be warded off through pelvic floor exercises. Females are more at risk in having it, but men are not totally off the hook in having this aliment. As result of weak pelvic muscles, the control of not sneaking out pee is quite impossible - even during petty situations.

These physical activities may include:

Running
Laughing
Coughing
Lifting
Sneezing

The pelvic floor muscles hold up the urinary bladder and urethra. Pelvic floor exercises should be done to prevent the urinary sphincter from breaking down. In fact, the leading cause of stress incontinence is weakened pelvic floor.

Pelvic floor weakness may result from:

Urethral injury
Drug effects
Prostate surgery for men
Pelvic surgery

Contributing factors for stress incontinence are as follows:

Being a female – it mostly affects women
Long term coughing – people affected with asthma and bronchitis
Ageing – menopausal stage, decreased hormonal level
Heavy weight – gives more pressure to the bladder
Smoking – triggers slowdown in urinary bladder functions

Pelvic Exercises

Stress incontinence can be managed by several means:

Behavior and lifestyles changes

Stress incontinence sufferers must decrease the pressure over the bladder. Examples are losing some weight, watching your fluid intake and quitting tobacco use.

Pelvic floor exercises

These exercises can be done with or without cones or biofeedback - but it can greatly enhance results if you use one.

Drug therapy

A medicine such as Duloxetine Hydrochloride is used. It reduces the frequency of passing urine.

Surgical operations

Sling or bladder neck suspension
Collagen injections
Implantation of sacral nerve stimulator or artificial urinary sphincter
Tension-free vaginal tape

Most women who have urinary incontinence prefer to lock themselves in the house rather than put themselves in embarrassing situations. It is not usual that they refrain from mingling with old friends and colleagues. With very limited social life and with some even quitting their jobs, urinary incontinence can lead one thing to another and the obvious result will be depression.

The constant fear of wetting pants is just hard to bear. But do not just nod off! Pelvic floor exercises can come to your rescue. Also known as kegel exercises, it was popularized by Dr. Arnold Kegel – a gynecologist. It effectively strengthens the pelvic muscles and its no surprise that more and more women are into it.

Reasons why kegel exercises is popular

The exercise is simple.
It is cheap.
Kegel exercise is very effective.
Any position will do when kegeling
Special equipment is not needed
Can be done with the use of cones or even without it.

The first thing to do in pelvic floor exercises is to find the pubococcygeus muscles. You can easily locate it by holding off your pee - the strain that you feel is pubococcygeus muscles. Pelvic exercises could be easily done by tightening the muscles around your genital organs and holding it for a few seconds (7-8). Then slowly release it till fully relax (about 7-8 seconds too). Do it 10-12 times (counted as one cycle). Do 3-4 cycles a day sprinkled over during your waking hours. Do this as if you are stopping the flow of your pee.

Some of the things that you should consider while having pelvic floor exercises are:

Avoid holding your breaths while doing it.
Avoid tightening your belly and thigh muscles.
Avoid squeezing your legs as one.

There are two types of contractions in a pelvic floor exercise. It may either be slow contractions or fast contractions. In increasing the strength of the pelvic floor muscles, slow contractions must be done. These assist your pelvic muscles in holding back your pee. While with fast contractions, the pelvic muscles can quickly stop the urine flow. It also helps the pelvic floor to deal with different pressures like when you sneeze, laugh or cough.

Kegel exercises are indeed helpful. It does a lot of good things for the pelvic health on both men and women who have urinary incontinence. The bladder is trained to hold off the pee as you use to do it by making it stronger and more toned. So, go and do your pelvic floor exercises to shut off stress urinary incontinence from even happening.

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