Incontinence: A Taboo Subject

• April
• 28th
• 2008

Urinary incontinence or loss of bladder control. It’s not at all uncommon and no one really wants to talk about it. Seeing the television commercials are a big step, yet talking about it remains something that might be whispered about behind closed doors. Chances are, your medical provider may not even talk about it. It’s been my experience that when women are asked, they are often so surprised that an answer does not appear until a few visits later.

One brave woman opened up an asked this question in a women’s forum:

Let’s talk about kegels. Or rather, incontinence. I know, it’s a very delicate subject, and I have frequently been embarrassed, ashamed, etc. about this little problem. For one thing, I didn’t think I’d even face this until into my 80s or so. I’m too young to have to wear pads every day. I do kegels, when I think about it. I’m probably 10 pounds overweight, most of it in my belly and thighs. I don’t have health insurance, so getting that little ‘tie-up surgery’ is out. And besides, my little sister had that done and 6 years later, it’s no longer effective. Anyone else struggle with this?

So, let’s talk about urinary incontinence (UI) in women. To begin with, there are several types, but we’ll focus on the two main ones here.

Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) (that’s the kind that occurs when you sneeze, cough, lift something, etc) is the most common form, affecting about 50% of those who experience incontinence. It seems to be more common in younger women, though occurs in older women as well.

Urge urinary incontinence (UUI) is more common with advancing age (this is the kind that when you gotta go, you GOTTA go NOW!).
Many women will have a mixture of both.

There are various causes, but interestingly enough; studies have been inconsistent in identifying factors that regularly contribute to UI. Some contributing factors may include:

* childbirth – the more vaginal deliveries, the greater the overall risk

* current smoking status as been associated with UI (though the results are inconsistent in former smokers)

* obesity (it does improve with weight loss)

* constipation

* hysterectomy – Some studies show a 60% greater risk of UI following a hysterectomy.

* hormone therapy (A recent study showed that hormone therapy actually has been shown to increase the incidence of UI. JAMA. 2005;293:935-948.)

Kegels become and important part of treatment with SUI since frequently the pelvic floor muscles are weakened. Just like we need to do strength training for our overall health, we need to do pelvic muscle strength training to support our bodies.

When doing Kegels, it’s important to make sure you are doing them correctly. To identify the correct muscles, sit on the toilet and try and stop your urination. You may notice that your attempts at stopping urinary are ineffective…well those are the very muscles you need to work on. Use this as a bench mark for yourself and re-test yourself weekly.

Kegels must be done several times each day. Fortunately, they can be done anywhere and no one need know what you are doing. When they are done frequently enough, most women will be able to tell a difference. In addition to the contractions, try holding the muscle tight for a count of 8-10.

Other possible treatments include: behavioral modification therapy using biofeedback, physical therapy using weighted cones to help strengthen pelvic floor muscles, bladder training, acupuncture, medications and surgery.

Treatment often takes a multi-pronged approach beginning with an evaluation to discover the exact type of UI that is present (they have different treatment approaches). Often times, treatment will consists of a few different modalities.

For women who wish to try self treatment first, do consider doing kegels, and increase your fluid intake. While that sound counter-intuitive, concentrated urine, along with caffeine are actually bladder irritant and will make the problem worse. Keep a diary to assess how often this is a problem, what may be some contributing factors, and what you are doing to address the problem. When you do see your health care provider, take this diary with you.

If you are faced with this issue, please do see your health care provider for an exam. Left untreated, it generally does not get better on its own, but can improve with the proper treatment.

©2005, Barbara C. Phillips, Nurse Practitioner and founder of OlderWiserWomen™ inspires women to embrace the freedom, magic and wisdom of Successful Aging. Visit http://www.OlderWiserWomen.com for your copy of “Celebrating You: 50 Tips for Vibrant Living”.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Barbara_C._Phillips

PC Muscle Exercises – How To Do Kegels

• April
• 11th
• 2008

What is a PC muscle, and what are Kegels?

Your PC, or pubococcygeus muscle, is a hammock-shaped muscle in your pelvic area. It runs horizontally from front to back and in daily life you rarely put it to any major use. It does come into play however when you have an orgasm. This is why so many people want to exercise their PC muscle with what is known as Kegel exercises. Stronger ‘orgasm muscles’ can provide you with more intense orgasms….something not too many people would complain about.

Why are they called Kegel exercises?

A leading gynecologist in the early 1900′s named Dr. Arnold Kegel created a set of exercises for women to do after pregnancy. Women have PC muscles, but Dr Kegel figured out that when women exercise their’s after childbirth that they can re-tighten their body and eliminate many of the problems associated with loose muscles post-pregnancy. What women found was that after performing Kegels they were experiencing better orgasms than ever before.

What are the benefits of making my PC muscle stronger?

The benefits span across a few different areas. First, sexually the benefits are obvious. Better orgasms that are stronger and last longer are the most obvious benefits.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Samantha_C

Remember Those Kegels? Why They Still Work After Childbirth

• March
• 5th
• 2008

When pregnant, I kept hearing about Kegels, the wonder exercise that would make birthing my baby easier. So of course I thought, “Sign me up!” But now, after baby has arrived, do Kegels still play a role in great health?

The answer is yes! The enormous strain of having a baby can weaken the pelvic floor muscles. But by doing regular Kegels after delivery, you can easily strengthen these small but important muscles again. Other added benefits include enhanced sexual pleasure both for you and your husband so read on!

Named after Dr. Arnold Kegel, this exercise is designed to strengthen the pubococcygeus muscles, or PC muscles. To find these muscles, try stopping and starting the flow of urine. Bingo! Now simply tighten and relax these muscles over and over again, as if you’re trying to stop the flow of urine. There are many variations of the exercise:

1. Tighten and relax the PC muscles throughout the day (shoot for 200 times)

2. Tighten slowly in increments going in and out, like an elevator stopping on several floors

3. Hold the muscle tightened for five seconds and then release. Gradually work up to holding each Kegel for a count of ten

Make sure you don’t do these when you’re actually going to the bathroom or with a full bladder. This could increase your risk of a urinary tract infection. Otherwise, you can do Kegels sitting at the computer, standing in line, even when you’re lying in bed. It’s a little invisible exercise that can be done anywhere, whether you’re alone, talking to a friend, or in a crowd of people.

By having a strong pelvic floor, you will be better prepared for your next pregnancy, experience more sexual pleasure with your husband, and reduce the risk of incontinence in the future. Now granted, if you have a little one in diapers, you may not be thinking of having another now or incontinence in the future, but wouldn’t you welcome a boost to your sex life? Kegel exercises are great for strengthening a healthy body and a healthy marriage, so don’t forget about them since baby has arrived. Kegels are always in vogue for moms of any age.

Today’s Action Step: What variation of Kegel exercises will you do today?

Arlene Pellicane, mother of a toddler and infant, helps women lose their baby weight and thrive as wives and mothers. Her weekly podcast “Losing Weight After Baby” is full of practical ideas that work for busy moms. Visit Arlene’s website for free articles and exercises at http://www.losingweightafterbaby.com and blog at http://losingweightafterbaby.wordpress.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Arlene_Pellicane

Pelvic floor health — strengthening your core

• February
• 19th
• 2008

The pelvic floor makes up a significant piece of your body’s core, the essence of your very being. The foundation for all movement, balance, stability and flexibility begins in the pelvis. And in times of change, such as during pregnancy, childbirth, perimenopause and menopause, we can support our bodies — literally and figuratively — by creating strength in our cores.

You might not know that seven out of ten women have disorders of the pelvic floor. It’s not surprising, given that the pelvic floor supports the bones in the spine; structures the abdominal cavity — muscles and organs included; controls the passage of urine and stool; facilitates the childbirth process; and contributes to a woman’s sexual pleasure and ability to reach orgasm. What is surprising for many of us, however, is that problems with the above are avoidable.

As a midwife, I have seen what strength and flexibility in the pelvic floor can do for women. Yet many of us think our only option for these muscles is to practice Kegel exercises. Dr. Arnold Kegel discovered in the 1940’s that you can actually strengthen the vaginal muscles by — get this — resistance strength training. These squeeze-and-hold vaginal exercises known as Kegels were specifically designed to target pelvic floor strengthening.

Kegel’s research has certainly helped lots of women over the years, but we’ve learned so much more since then! So whether you’re already having pelvic floor issues or want to avoid problems down the road, there’s a lot you can do to strengthen those elusive vaginal muscles, and many compelling reasons why you should.

Tips for Personal Program Success

Timing is everything. Take your first packet of nutrients with your breakfast, when your body can best metabolize the rich ingredients and benefit from the energizing boost they provide.

Let’s explore the pelvic floor and why it’s so important.

What is the pelvic floor?

It may be helpful to visualize your pelvic floor as a hammock that supports all your lower organs. The flexibility and strength of this hammock come from a set of muscles and ligaments interwoven into the bowl-like pelvic walls, closing in at the base to form the pelvic and urogenital diaphragms. Entirely encasing the pelvic floor is a thin wall of fascia, or connective tissue, that covers, connects, and further supports the muscles and organs of the pelvic region.

Here is a simplified drawing of the pelvic floor. This part of our bodies is amazingly complex, and most anatomy texts devote a dozen or more drawings to its explication — it’s miraculous how all the elements work together to serve their multiple functions. It’s also the case that the pelvic floor varies from woman to woman, so no two are exactly alike!

Written by Carrie Levine, CNM, MSN

Urinary Incontinence: Overcoming an Often Overlooked Side-Effect of Childbirth or Menopause

• February
• 18th
• 2008

Childbirth and menopause are two phenomena that many women will face in their lives. Unfortunately, having children or going through menopause can create temporary or long-term issues with urinary incontinence. If you’ve had a baby, you’ve no doubt been told to do Kegel exercises, which strengthen the pubococcygeus muscles that form the pelvic floor between the legs. Toning these muscles helps to prevent the onset of incontinence; yet many women skip these exercises altogether or do them incorrectly.

Women going through menopause can experience urinary incontinence due to a lack of estrogen. Once a woman stops menstruating, her body ceases to make estrogen. Estrogen is, in part, responsible for keeping the lining of the bladder and urethra plump and healthy. A lack of estrogen can be responsible for a weakening of the bladder control muscles.

Pressure from coughing, sneezing, or lifting can push urine past the grips of a weakened muscle. Leakage of this type is known as stress incontinence. It is one of the most common types of bladder control problems experienced by older women.If you are experiencing urinary incontinence, you should not self-diagnose your problem. It is important to see a doctor first.

Your obstetrician-gynecologist or medical doctor should first perform a physical exam. Your doctor should be certain that your bladder empties properly, that you don’t have a urinary tract infection (UTI) and that you know how to properly contract your pelvic floor or Kegel muscles.

After your doctor has determined that there is no physical deformity, complication or infection, you must next determine which course of action to take. There are three common ways to treat urinary incontinence:

– learning behavioral techniques — how to control the muscles of the bladder and the sphincter to prevent leakage.

– taking medication to replace hormones, stop abnormal bladder muscle contractions or tighten sphincter muscles.

– performing Kegel exercises to work the pelvic muscles.

In most cases, the most effective and beneficial course of action is to work the Kegel muscles back in to shape. But how is one to do that?

Over 50 years ago, Dr. Arnold Kegel discovered that by clenching and relaxing the muscles used to stop the flow of urine, the pelvic floor (or Kegel) muscles could be strengthened and rehabilitated. Because of this discovery, most people have heard of “Kegel exercises,” but what most people do not know is that Dr. Kegel incorporated a device known as the “Kegel Perineometer” that was inserted into the vaginal cavity to measure the contractions and provide feedback to the patient. In this way, the patient was able to monitor the quality of the exercises and be certain that they were being done correctly.

Most women who just “do” kegels have minimal results due to the lack of feedback. There is nothing to tell them if they are doing the exercise properly. The most common problem associated with doing Kegel exercises without feedback is the accidental contraction of the abdominal muscles at the same time as the pelvic floor muscles. When this occurs the abdominal muscles (which are bigger and stronger) push down on the pelvic floor and can actually make the problem worse.

Since it’s not likely that the typical family has a Kegel Perineometer lying around, what’s a woman to do? Fortunately there is a safe, affordable solution that has been used successfully by over 100,000 women to strengthen their Kegel muscles in the privacy of their own homes.

This device is known as The Kegelmaster. The Kegelmaster is a small, hinged device that is gently slipped three inches into the vagina. Once done, a safety knob is loosened allowing the small spring (or springs) inside to open the hinged device a few degrees. The woman will then squeeze her kegel muscles causing the device to close. The Kegelmaster’s two, flat internal surfaces close tightly against one another providing feedback to the user that the exercise has been done correctly and completely.

The Kegelmaster has four positions in which springs can be installed or moved. This allows the user to slowly increase the amount of resistance experienced during each exercise. Exercises can be completed in only a few minutes and results can be seen within a few days and improvement can continue over a few short months. No one should suffer needlessly from this embarrassing problem when a simple, affordable solution is so readily available.

Michael Callen is the author of the Weekly Weightloss Tips Newsletter (ccwebgroup.com/tips) and the Chief Technology Officer for WellnessPartners.com, an online retailer of dozens of health and wellness products such as conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), r+ alpha lipoic acid (R+ ALA), and Green Tea Extract.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Michael_Callen

An Enlightened Approach to Kegel Exercises

• February
• 8th
• 2008

We’ve all heard that a definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result.

Isn’t that what we’ve done for years with Kegel exercises? Countless hours of practising while wondering if we’d got the right muscle, or if there was any point in doing the exercises anyway as we weren’t really feeling that our effort was making any difference.

A little known fact about Kegel exercises which often surprises people when they first hear it is that they were never meant to be performed the way in which they are today. Indeed, they were never meant to be performed the way they have been for decades!

Dr Kegel was an American surgeon, Associate Professor of Gynaecology at the University of Southern California and Health Commissioner of Chicago, who spent more than thirty-two years in the study of the female pelvis and the muscles therein.

His studies document his results with thousands of women that show the incredible benefits to be gained from Kegel exercises when performed correctly. In 1950 Dr Kegel had achieved complete relief of urinary stress incontinence in 93% of a group of 300 women in this way.

“On the strength of these favorable results urinary stress incontinence in women is no longer routinely treated by surgical intervention at…LA County General Hospital.” Dr Kegel. (A progress in Gynecology, 1950 p.786)

Isn’t it amazing to think that the results he was getting in the last century are even better than the generally accepted success rates for incontinence surgery carried out today? How were these results achieved? By ensuring that the exercise protocol that his patients followed consisted of two essential elements:

1) Isolating the pelvic floor muscle (using no abdominal, buttock or thigh muscles) 2) Working the pelvic floor muscle against resistance

What is commonly known as a Kegel exercise today bears little relation to authentic Kegel exercises. Dr Kegel knew that the exercises were pretty useless without either of these components. If you’ve been struggling to get results with Kegel exercises, maybe for years, now you know why they seem to be exercises in futility.

Think about it like this – Squeezing against nothing is about as effective as trying to rehabilitate or build muscle in your arm simply by flexing it up and down, you could do that forever and see little improvement. However, put a small weight in your hand and exercise against the resistance of that, adding slightly heavier weights as the arm gets stronger and improvement in strength and tone is inevitable.

Imagine going to the gym and finding all the equipment has been taken out and you’re told you can go through the motions of doing the exercise and achieve the same result! This is what women have been told about pelvic floor exercise over the last half century, and still are. By merely going through the motions of doing the exercise you cannot come close to achieving the results that come from actually doing the proper exercise.

Dr Kegel was quoted in TIME magazine, Dec 3rd, 1956 as saying, “There is a better way than surgery to correct most cases of pubococcygeal weakness”.

Considering the vast amount of surgery that is carried out for incontinence and prolapse today, it has to be fairly obvious at this stage that there is something missing from pelvic floor exercises as is normally taught.

An enlightened approach to Kegel exercises involves asking the questions “What is missing here?” Why are women not getting the results they were promised?” It is clearly insane to keep teaching women to squeeze against nothing, when the results of such a misguided approach are so poor. Performing the exercises as they were meant to be performed produces real results.

Abigail O’Donovan is the founder of Kegelmaster Europe. She aims to raise awareness that powerful pelvic floor exercises could eliminate stress incontinence and reduce the need for unnecessary pelvic surgery to near zero. To find out more please visit http://www.kegelmaster.co.uk

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Abigail_O’Donovan

Does KegelMaster 2000 really work?

• January
• 13th
• 2008

Yes, it does. However like any other piece of equipment, it will not work until you start using it. A lot of people ask me about that. By using the product I realized that it really works and personally, that’s why I’m involved in selling the product. So far it is the best one out there.

our promise