What Is Adult Incontinence?
What Is Adult Incontinence? What Can Be Done To Help It?
Urinary Incontinence, affects between 3-6 Million adults in the UK to one degree or another. Urinary Incontinence, is defined as an involuntary leakage of urine. It is often distressing and more common than people may think, and usually there is a treatable medical condition which if resolved should alleviate the problem.
Who Does Adult Incontinence Affect? And Why?
Adult Incontinence is most frequent in older generations, however with an aging population; it is likely to become more prevalent. It can affect both men and women, however due to the make-up of the urinary tract in males; they are less likely to suffer from it than women.
Urinary Incontinence is often caused by the following problems:
– Enlarged Prostate – this is only an issue for males, it can often be as a result of medical issues with the prostate, however it is also thought that treatments for conditions such as prostate cancer can have incontinence as a side effect.
– Polyuria (excessive urine production. – this is often a side effect of conditions such as various types of diabetes, but also because of Primary polydipsia (excessive fluid consumption due to the sensation of having a dry mouth constantly.
– Excessive caffeine consumption – this stimulates the bladder, and someone who regularly drinks large amounts of caffeinated beverages is potentially at risk of suffering.
– Neurological Conditions – conditions such as multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s can cause incontinence, due to the effect these have on the brain and nervous system.
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.
By having incontinence products, then a level of peace of mind is provided, as well as meaning that a normal lifestyle can be led, without any embarrassment or worry.