To understand what a healthy bladder is, you can start with thinking about what an unhealthy bladder looks like. Do you have severe urgency throughout the day? Do you find yourself always knowing where bathrooms are, calculating how long you will be away from home or avoiding activities that may take you away from easy access to a bathroom? Do you wear pads, panty liners or do you change your underwear or pants regularly due to leakage? No matter how many pregnancies you’ve had, abdominal surgeries, or years of dealing with these issues, there is always room for improvement and pelvic therapy can really help!
Here are some healthy bladder habits:
- Space fluid intake throughout the day (sip on water all day long)
- No “just in case” peeing. You are leaving your house and you think “Do I really need to pee or am I going just in case? This is not good for your bladder as it can re-teach your brain and bladder to have bad habits. It can also irritate pelvic floor muscles.
- When emptying a full bladder, you should be able to count at least “8 mississippis”. Anything less than that indicates that you did not have a full bladder.
- Do you pee in a straight line or does it pull to the right or left or spray all over the toilet bowl? If urine does not fall in a straight line, you may have tight pelvic floor muscles causing dysfunction.
How much water is enough?
A quick and easy way to calculate how much water you should drink is to take your weight and divide by 2. This is the amount in ounces that you should drink per day. For example, if you weigh 200 lbs, you should drink 100 oz of fluid per day. 2/3 of this fluid intake should be water.
Having problems with your bladder? Pelvic therapy can help. Contact Holistic PT to schedule an appointment today!