Coping With Adult Incontinence
What Is Adult Incontinence?
One of the issues that faces modern society, is that of an aging population. With people living longer however, then they often require additional care and develop more health issues. One of these health issues, that isn’t often discussed, is that of adult incontinence. Urinary incontinence is a problem that although not often talked about is very common. Statistics show that around 200 million people worldwide suffer from one form of urinary incontinence.
This represents a rather large proportion of the global population and although often found in the elderly, urinary adult incontinence can affect adults of any age.
There are two main types of incontinence – stress incontinence where you lose urine through things such as sneezing coughing, laughing or running when you don’t intend to (you tend to only use a little though), this is the most frequent type, Urge incontinence is an overactive bladder where you suddenly have an urge to pass urine due to the over sensitivity of the muscles responsible for this. Some people can be unfortunate and suffer a mixture of both.
What Causes Adult Incontinence?
There are a number of causes of incontinence in adults, some of which include:
– Polyuria – this is the excessive production of urine and can be caused by a number of things, such as diabetes (when it is uncontrolled), primary polydipsia – which is the excessive consumption of fluids, and neurological forms of diabetes which affect control of urination. These the raise the urge and frequency of urination however do not always necessary lead to incontinence – related to this is also excessive caffeine consumption which tends to stimulate the bladder.
– A range of conditions involving the spine brain and nervous system, such as Parkinson’s disease, spina bifidia, strokes, multiple sclerosis and spinal cord injury. These all impact on the way that messages are transmitted from bladder to brain.
– In women, stress incontinence is often a result of childbirth, due to damage to the pelvic support structures which results in a lack of support of the urethra.
– In males, a common cause of urinary incontinence is an enlarged prostate – this can also be affected by prostate cancer, or by the drugs or radiation used to combat it. This is often only the case in those over 40.
What Can Be Done To Prevent Adult Incontinence
With figures suggesting a large amount of people suffering from the condition, one of the issues many face is they find it embarrassing, there are a number of options that are available to help alleviate the worries and issues that come as part of being an incontinence sufferer.
– Exercises – the main suggestion for sufferers is specialist exercises which are designed to strengthen the muscles of the urinary tract and as such stop or limit the severity of the incontinence.
– Surgery – this is a drastic step, however corrective surgery can take a number of forms and can be a useful last resort in terms of treatment.
– Medication – there are a number of medicines available to handle incontinence, however there are numerous side effects with all of them, and the effectiveness of them is questionable.
– Devices – a range of incontinence products are available, which without invasive treatments or surgery can help alleviate the problems involved. Incontinence pads, incontinence pants and specialist bedding are just a few of the options that can be bought off the shelf to help make life less stressful for sufferers.
What is the best option to deal with incontinence?
There is no once size fits all answer to dealing with adult incontinence. The options and combinations of these options are available, are numerous and different solutions will be better suited to different people. That said, a combination of utilising exercise as a preventative measure (it has benefits under the age of sixty which will carry onwards) and incontinence products is a good plan.
Incontinence products are a discrete non-invasive way to handle the issue of incontinence. Incontinence pants can be either reusable or disposable, and different people have different severities of the condition; meaning some may want to have single use products, whereas those at the minor end of the scale or taking precautionary measures are more likely to favour reusable incontinence products.