Health
5 Lifestyle Changes to Help Combat Incontinence
(Family Features) Sometimes living a healthy lifestyle can feel like an impossible task when combined with all your other responsibilities like working a full-time job, taking care of family and friends or spending time in the gym. Add dealing with an underlying health condition and it may seem almost overwhelming.
For example, a condition such as urinary incontinence is a common problem that is often difficult to manage and can range from a light leak while coughing or sneezing to even greater loss of bladder control.
In fact, almost two-thirds of U.S. women over the age of 20 will experience leaking, according to the experts at FitRight Fresh Start. While stress, aging and obesity can cause incontinence, certain health events unique to women such as pregnancy, childbirth and menopause can also cause problems with the muscles and nerves that help control your bladder.
Consider these healthy lifestyle changes to help combat issues like urinary incontinence:
Focus on Fluid Intake
While it may seem counterintuitive when dealing with certain conditions, it’s important to hydrate appropriately. In fact, drinking too infrequently can cause other issues like dehydration. To avoid frequent or urgent needs to urinate, the Mayo Clinic recommends drinking smaller amounts throughout the day, such as 16 ounces with each meal and 8 ounces between meals. If you find yourself waking multiple times at night to urinate, try drinking more of your fluids in the morning and afternoon rather than evening, and avoid alcohol and beverages with caffeine like coffee, tea and soda.
Make Dietary Modifications
The things you eat can have an impact on your condition – both positively and negatively. For example, alcohol; spicy foods; chocolate; artificial sweeteners; caffeinated, carbonated and citrus beverages; and high-acid foods, like citrus and tomatoes, may contribute to bladder irritation, according to the National Institutes of Health. On the other hand, consider incorporating more of these foods considered good for bladder health:
- Blueberries
- Green beans
- Cauliflower
- Winter squash
- Sea bass
- Eggs or egg whites
- Whole grains
- Nuts
Manage Bladder Leaks
Changing day-to-day habits may improve bladder control, but for those living with leaks, it’s important to manage the condition rather than letting it disrupt your life or define you. One way to do that is choosing products that allow you to live your life to the fullest.
For example, created for women by women, FitRight Fresh Start offers a range of options including discreet underwear, surface protectors, liners and pads that fit close to your body and smoothly under your clothes – all available in a variety of sizes and styles – deliver one-of-a-kind wetness and odor control and uncompromising personal care. The proven power of Arm and Hammer Baking Soda helps fight odor faster and longer, and ultra-advanced materials instantly absorb and trap moisture to keep you feeling dry and confident all day long. Additionally, they’re built for maximum comfort for discreet use whether you’re staying on the couch or heading out on the town, and the 100% breathable materials enriched with vitamin E help soften and protect sensitive skin.
Maintain a Healthy Weight and Stay Active
Two factors that have been shown to be part of nearly every healthy lifestyle include overall body strength and weight loss, which can be improved by increasing physical activity. Seek out exercises you enjoy so you can get physical while having fun. Aim for 30 minutes daily of low-impact activities such as brisk walking, biking or swimming.
Stop Smoking
As a habit that can be detrimental to overall health, smokers are also more likely to suffer more severe symptoms from a variety of conditions, according to the Mayo Clinic. For instance, heavy smokers may also develop a chronic cough, which could cause pressure on the bladder, further aggravating urinary incontinence.
Find more savvy tips to slow urinary incontinence at FitRightFreshStart.com.
Understanding Urinary Incontinence
If you’re experiencing bladder leaks, dealing with them and the frustrations they bring shouldn’t keep you from freely living your full, multifaceted life. Designed for women by women, FitRight Fresh Start offers this information to help you learn about leaks and understand what’s happening to give you the power to keep bladder leaks from disrupting or defining your life.
Common Kinds of Urinary Incontinence
Strong urges: That overwhelming need to use the restroom right away is known as urge incontinence, which frequently involves some level of unwelcome, involuntary leakage.
Stress and pressure: This is the type of incontinence many people experience and hate when they leak a little (or sometimes a lot) simply because a tiny sneeze or good laugh put extra pressure on the bladder. Jumping and heavy lifting are also causes.
Ongoing overflow: If it feels like your bladder is never completely empty and you feel a slow, continuous drip, you’re experience overflow incontinence.
Common Causes of Urinary Incontinence
Motherhood: Carrying a bundle of joy inside your body for nine months then giving birth is bound to put pressure on your pelvic floor muscles, which don’t always bounce back, especially after multiple births.
Menopause: Leaks can begin in perimenopause, before you actually stop having periods, usually in your 40s or 50s. As hormones shift, lower estrogen levels can lead to less elastic, weaker pelvic floor muscles.
Medical issues: Health conditions like diabetes, nerve or joint conditions, urinary tract infections and obesity can cause bladder leaks, too, as well as physical limitations that inhibit your ability to make it to the bathroom in time.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images
SOURCE:
FitRight Fresh Start
https://q5i.09c.myftpupload.com/category/lifestyle/
Author
Discover more from Daily News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
health and wellness
6 Ways to Build Lasting Healthy Habits
Starting on a path toward healthy habits is often easier than maintaining them long term. This year, you can avoid a major pitfall of healthy resolutions and build healthy habits that stick by working small, positive steps into your daily life.
(Family Features) Starting on a path toward healthy habits is often easier than maintaining them long term. This year, you can avoid a major pitfall of healthy resolutions and build healthy habits that stick by working small, positive steps into your daily life.
In fact, healthy habits are the first suggested treatment strategy for people whose blood pressure and cholesterol levels are creeping higher than normal, according to an American Heart Association scientific statement.
“The current guidelines for managing high blood pressure and cholesterol recognize that otherwise healthy individuals with mildly or moderately elevated levels of these cardiovascular risk factors should actively attempt to reduce these risks, and increasing physical activity is a great place to start,” said Bethany Barone Gibbs, Ph.D., chair of the statement writing group and chair of the department of epidemiology and biostatistics at West Virginia University School of Public Health.
These six ideas from the American Heart Association’s Healthy for Good Habit Coach can help.
Bust Common Habit-Building Myths
You may be surprised to learn the truth about creating and sticking to healthy habits. One myth is getting healthy means doing things you don’t like. Research shows positive emotions make habits stick, so set your intentions on something you enjoy. Another misconception is big results require big changes, which may lead to overly ambitious habits. However, the simpler the routine is, the more likely it is to become habit.
Work with Your “Brain Loops”
Your brain creates “loops” for habits made up of three things: a cue, a routine and a reward. Each time the loop is repeated, it becomes more routine and may become automatic. Knowing this, you can design cues for developing new, healthy habits, such as setting walking shoes by the bed to start a walking habit. The routine is putting on the shoes and walking around the block, and the reward is the pleasant sensations and brighter mood from a morning stroll.
Create Cues That Work for You
Most successful health habits begin with a cue. The cue can be external in your environment or internal in terms of your mindset. The more consistent the cue, the more likely it is to trigger the habit. Hacking your brain’s reminder system can help you remember your cue. Some examples of visual cues are placing a sticky note where you’ll see it often, keeping a water bottle on your desk or refrigerating fresh veggies at eye level.
Build a Routine That Supports Your Goals
Positive and consistent habits are important to achieve your personal goals. Small habits done consistently can add up to big results. To create a new healthy habit, think through the steps that could lead to your desired outcome. Ask yourself whether you want to do it, if it’s easy and if it’s high impact. It’s important to choose habits that make a difference and move you closer to your goals.
For example, if one of your goals is improving your heart health, a meaningful habit might be to move more. Increasing physical activity can help lower blood pressure and cholesterol along with many other health benefits, Gibbs said.
“Every little bit of activity is better than none,” she said. “Even small initial increases of 5-10 minutes a day can yield health benefits.”
Use Rewards to Make Habits Stick
Start by choosing a habit you enjoy that’s rewarding by itself. If you’re more of a dancer than runner, increase your physical activity with an upbeat dance class. You might also look for a more enjoyable version of a new habit, such as getting more fruits and veggies by sipping on a delicious smoothie.
Understand Resets are Part of the Process
New habits are experiments. If they don’t stick, you haven’t failed. Instead, you’ve learned what doesn’t work, which is useful. Get curious and ask yourself which part of the habit didn’t work for you. Maybe the cue was ineffective. Maybe the steps of the routine were too ambitious and you need to split them into smaller, easier steps. If you realize you don’t enjoy the habit, stop doing it and try something else.
Find more inspiration and ideas to jumpstart healthy habits this year at heart.org/habits.
Photos courtesy of Getty Images
SOURCE:
American Heart Association
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
Author
Discover more from Daily News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Lifestyle
Get chronic UTIs? Future treatments may add more bacteria to your bladder to beat back harmful microbes
Researchers developed a biomaterial releasing beneficial E. coli to combat urinary tract infections by outcompeting harmful bacteria, aiming to reduce antibiotic resistance and manage chronic UTIs effectively.
Sarguru Subash, Texas A&M University
Millions of people in the U.S. and around the world suffer from urinary tract infections every year. Some groups are especially prone to chronic UTIs, including women, older adults and some veterans.
These infections are typically treated with antibiotics, but overusing these drugs can make the microbes they target become resistant and reduce the medicines’ effectiveness.
To solve this problem of chronic UTIs and antibiotic resistance, we combined our expertise in microbiology and engineering to create a living material that houses a specific strain of beneficial E. coli. Our research shows that the “good” bacteria released from this biomaterial can compete with “bad” bacteria for nutrients and win, dramatically reducing the number of disease-causing microbes.
With further development, we believe this technique could help manage recurring UTIs that do not respond to antibiotics.
Bringing bacteria to the bladder
For the microbes living in people, nutrients are limited their presence varies between different parts of the body. Bacteria have to compete with other microbes and the host to acquire essential nutrients. By taking up available nutrients, beneficial bacteria can stop or slow the growth of harmful bacteria. When harmful bacteria are starved of important nutrients, they aren’t able to reach high enough numbers to cause disease.
Delivering beneficial bacteria to the bladder to prevent UTIs in challenging, though. For one, these helpful bacteria can naturally colonize only in people who are unable to fully empty their bladder, a condition called urinary retention. Even among these patients, how long these bacteria can colonize their bladders varies widely.
Current methods to deliver bacteria to the bladder are invasive and require repeated catheter insertion. Even when bacteria are successfully released into the bladder, urine will flush out these microbes because they cannot stick to the bladder wall.
Biomaterials to treat UTIs
Since beneficial bacteria cannot attach to and survive in the bladder for long, we developed a biomaterial that could slowly release bacteria in the bladder over time.
Our biomaterial is composed of living E. coli embedded in a matrix structure made of gel. It resembles a piece of jelly about 500 times smaller than a drop of water and can release bacteria for up to two weeks in the bladder. By delivering the bacteria via biomaterial, we overcome the need for the bacteria to attach to the bladder to persist in the organ.
We tested our biomaterial by placing it in human urine in petri dishes and exposing it to bacterial pathogens that cause UTIs. Our results showed that when mixed in a 50:50 ratio, the E. coli outcompeted the UTI-causing bacteria by increasing to around 85% of the total population. When we added more E. coli than UTI-causing bacteria, which is what we envision for future development and testing, the proportion of E. coli increased to over 99% of the population, essentially wiping out the UTI-causing bacteria. Moreoever, the biomaterial continued releasing E. coli for up to two weeks in human urine.
Our findings suggest that E.coli could stick around and survive in the bladder for extended periods of time and successfully decrease the growth of many types of bacteria that cause UTIs.
Improving biomaterials
Our findings show that E. coli can not only control harmful bacteria it’s closely related to but also a broad range of disease-causing bacteria in humans and animals. This means scientists might not need to identify different types of beneficial bacteria to control each pathogen – and there are many – that can cause a UTI.
Our team is currently evaluating how effectively our biomaterial can cure UTIs in mice. We are also working to identify the specific nutrients that beneficial and harmful bacteria compete over and what factors may help beneficial bacteria win. We could add these nutrients to our biomaterial to be released or withheld.
This research is still at an early stage, and clinical uses are not in development yet, so if it does reach patients it will be well in the future. We hope that our technology could be refined and applied to control other bacterial infections and some cancers caused by bacteria.
Sarguru Subash, Assistant Professor of Veterinary Pathobiology, Texas A&M University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Our Lifestyle section on STM Daily News is a hub of inspiration and practical information, offering a range of articles that touch on various aspects of daily life. From tips on family finances to guides for maintaining health and wellness, we strive to empower our readers with knowledge and resources to enhance their lifestyles. Whether you’re seeking outdoor activity ideas, fashion trends, or travel recommendations, our lifestyle section has got you covered. Visit us today at https://stmdailynews.com/category/lifestyle/ and embark on a journey of discovery and self-improvement.
Discover more from Daily News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Lifestyle
Does Your Favorite Brand of Dark Chocolate Contain Dangerous Metals?
According to a recent article from Consumer Reports, there are some brands of Dark Chocolate that contain dangerous levels of lead, and cadmium.
Dark Chocolate
According to a recent article from Consumer Reports, there are some brands of Dark Chocolate that contain dangerous levels of lead, and cadmium.
Dark Chocolate has become popular due to studies suggesting that they are rich in antioxidants, which is beneficial to the heart, and it having low sugar properties that positively impact health.
The article, which was posted in mid December, states that 28 popular brands were tested, and that 23 of them contained high levels of the dangerous metals.
For more details, check out the article from Consumer Reports: https://www.consumerreports.org/health/food-safety/lead-and-cadmium-in-dark-chocolate-a8480295550/
STM Daily News is a vibrant news blog dedicated to sharing the brighter side of human experiences. Emphasizing positive, uplifting stories, the site focuses on delivering inspiring, informative, and well-researched content. With a commitment to accurate, fair, and responsible journalism, STM Daily News aims to foster a community of readers passionate about positive change and engaged in meaningful conversations. Join the movement and explore stories that celebrate the positive impacts shaping our world.
Author
Discover more from Daily News
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
-
Urbanism1 year agoSignal Hill, California: A Historic Enclave Surrounded by Long Beach
-
News2 years agoDiana Gregory Talks to us about Diana Gregory’s Outreach Services
-
Senior Pickleball Report2 years agoThe Absolute Most Comfortable Pickleball Shoe I’ve Ever Worn!
-
Senior Pickleball Report2 years agoACE PICKLEBALL CLUB TO DEBUT THEIR HIGHLY ANTICIPATED INDOOR PICKLEBALL FRANCHISES IN THE US, IN EARLY 2023
-
STM Blog2 years agoWorld Naked Gardening Day: Celebrating Body Acceptance and Nature
-
Automotive2 years ago2023 Nissan Sentra pricing starts at $19,950
-
Travel2 years agoUnique Experiences at the CitizenM
-
Senior Pickleball Report2 years ago“THE PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS OF PICKLEBALL” – VOTING OPEN