What is Overactive Bladder Syndrome?
Overactive bladder syndrome, as the name suggests is a syndrome in which the ordinary urges of voiding/urinating is much more frequent and difficult to deal with, to the point that it interferes with daily activities.
This Overactive bladder syndrome can result from a vast array of unrelated medical conditions. For example, it can be a side effect of medication, or of alcohol or caffeine, which are both diuretics and can cause excessive voiding.
There may be a hormonal cause, seen in menopause women and breast-feeding women where overactive bladder is a symptom due to reduced oestrogen levels.
Overactive bladder can also have musculoskeletal causes within the pelvis, such as childbirth, pelvic surgery, physical trauma from an accident, or pelvic muscle tension. One of the other major causes of overactive bladder is neurological, such as Parkinson’s disease, stroke, diabetic neuropathy, and multiple sclerosis.
People with overactive bladder syndrome may feel an excessive need to urinate at any time of day or night and can develop some degree of urinary incontinence. The four primary hallmarks of overactive bladder are increases in urgency, frequency in urination, nocturia (the need to urinate at night), and incontinence risk. Going about with daily activities of living as well as other social activities becomes inconvenient, potentially embarrassing, and even distressing condition. Abnormally frequent urination (that is, more than eight times in an average day) is a clear indicator of OAB, and can prove disruptive to daily life as sufferers have to interrupt activities to use the bathroom and may resort to planning their days around restroom access.
Nocturia becomes a problem when it repeatedly interrupts sleep cycle and the person gets into a cycle of inadequate rest and fatigue. Finally, incontinence associated with OAB tends to be in the form of urge incontinence – involuntarily urination with an urgency sensation makes it difficult to participate in normal activities of daily living.
What makes it worse it that it is something that people don’t want to share with anyone and sometimes they think that it’s a normal process of aging.
How Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy Can Help Overactive Bladder Syndrome?
The good news is, our expert pelvic therapists have a relief for Overactive Bladder syndrome. When you meet us, we will take a detailed history of the symptoms that you are having and its effect on your day-to-day activities as well as leisure activities. Once we have got a detailed idea about your symptoms, we will give you a bladder dairy to fill for the next three days. An internal examination will also be done to check the musculoskeletal system and the bladder neck mobility. We will also rule out any other cause of the symptoms, like a weak pelvis floor or a dry vagina in post-menopausal women.
Once all the examination and assessment are done, our pelvic therapist will help people with OAB get control of their bladders back. We train patients in safe, effective, easy pelvic floor exercises that are easy to keep up with and that can have incredible results in reducing sensations of overfullness and urgency, making holding in urine easier, and reducing anxiety about overactive bladder.
Furthermore, we emphasize and specialize in patient education. We guide and teach them coping strategies to deal with urgency and advise them on small lifestyle changes picked up on their bladder diary.