Some alternative treatments for urinary incontinence

A number of alternative treatments are suggested to cope with urinary incontinence such as bladder control training, using pelvic floor muscles (kegel exercises to strengthen the muscles to stop the flow of urine); biofeedback where electrical signals from the vagina or rectum can help you become more aware of your body’s signals; timed voiding and bladder training where you train your body to go to the loo at specific times of the day.

• A Pessary which is like a small tampon inserted into the urethra, in a study of advanced prolapse 62.5% of patients avoided surgery.
• Absorbant Pads and Underclothing
• Vaginal Cones, held in the vagina for increasing lengths of time to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.

Other things to consider might be hidden food intolerances, such as tea, coffee, sugar, honey, alcohol, soft drinks, tomatoe based products, highly spiced foods. Keeping a food diary and comparing it to periods of incontinence may help you to notice a pattern.

Higher incontinence rates are also associated with obesity and carbonated drinks. (BJU Int, 2003; 92:69-77)

Take herbs to calm and heal your bladder, to do so see a homeopath who may recommend Causticum or Euryale for bladder control.

Magnesium; a double blind trial showed that just over 50% of the women taking magnesium reported an improvement in their symptoms, whereas less than 25% in the control group reported improvement. (Br J Obstet Gynae, 1998, 105:667-9).

There is some suggestion that HRT may make incontinence worse (Obstet Gyne, 2001, 97:116-20).

Try a CONVEEN Continence Guard, it is designed to support the bladder neck through the vagina, in a study of 28 women 84.2% were cured or improved with the guard after just three weeks. (Acta Obstet Gynecol Scand, 2000; 79:1052-5).