It’s time to start talking about bladder health.
November is National Bladder Health Awareness Month, and urogynecologists ““ doctors specially trained in diagnosing and treating women with pelvic floor disorders ““ want you to know you can do three things to take care of your bladder.
- Watch that diet
“There are friendly foods and bladder foes,” said Dr. Susan Oakley, director of pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery with St. Elizabeth Physicians.
Basically, you should avoid the “four c’s” that can irritate your bladder: caffeine, carbonation, chocolate and citrus.
Caffeine includes caffeinated coffee, tea and soda, and other energy drinks. Carbonation is anything with bubbles ““ tonic, club soda, even decaf soda.
Dark chocolate especially has a lot of acidity to it that can irritate the bladder lining, and citrus ““ including cranberry juice, orange juice, grapefruit juice, lemonade and even tomato juice ““ is also harmful to the bladder.
Unless you have a documented urinary tract infection in which the acidity would help kill the bacteria, stay away from citrus, Oakley noted: “No bacteria, no UTI, then no citrus.”
- Pee with a purpose
You should be able to hold about 400 mLs of urine in your bladder, which equates to peeing every four hours. If you’re only holding 100 mLs, then you’re probably peeing every hour, which is not normal.
Also not normal? Holding your pee for up to 12 hours during the day, common among professionals who often don’t have five minutes to excuse themselves to use the restroom, such as teachers, doctors and nurses.
“It’s not safe for you to hold that much urine in your bladder for that long,” Oakley said.
That’s why you should pee with a purpose and go to the bathroom every four hours whether you need to or not (while you’re awake, of course).
- Manage your fluid intake
As we age, many women start to complain about having to wake up at night to go to the bathroom. Although some of that is definitely because of age, some of it also because of how much water we retain in our legs throughout the day.
That water can come back up and filter through the kidneys when we lie down at night, especially if it’s the first time we’ve rested all day.
Managing your fluids during the day, not drinking anything after 6 p.m., and making sure you put your feet up above waist level a few times during the day mobilizes that extra fluid off of our legs and ankles and decreases the number of times we’re getting up at night to use the restroom.
Want to keep your bladder healthy and functioning at optimal levels? Then keep bladder diet, peeing with a purpose and behavior modifications top of mind.
