Understanding stress incontinence and how to manage it!

Before we discuss stress incontinence, I would like to talk a little bit about the subject of incontinence itself and how it may be conceived by those affected by the condition.  It seems that most individuals who have the beginning stages of urinary incontinence are anxious to find out how many others are dealing with the same problem. There may be some consolation in knowing that you are among a significant portion of the population confronted with incontinence. In a recent 2014 study by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); entitled, “Prevalence of Incontinence Among Women”,  it was found that urinary leakage affected up to 40% of women over the age of 65. It should also be recognized that bladder leakage is not a condition that just affects older adults…22.9 million Americans under the age of 45 experience some bladder leakage. When you recognize that this number equates to tens-of-millions of people, you can readily see why so many companies have entered the incontinence market.  That is not a bad thing, because more competition in the marketplace relates to more research and development with the objective of producing better and more advanced products.  And that is exactly what has taken place over the past ten years…as a result of that research and development, the products you will find available on the market today are so much better than the products available in the past. This is the reason I continue to stress the importance of keeping abreast with the advances being made with incontinence products…today’s best and most advanced products may be outmoded tomorrow. I hope these facts inspire you to stay informed about new developments and new products for urinary incontinence, and to seek the information about the many solutions available to meet your needs without embarrassment. I will do my best, through this blog, to keep you abreast of product improvements as they are being developed.

My approach to the management of incontinence is to first present the different types of incontinence. Once we learn about the condition itself, we will be prepared to discuss which products are the best to manage the condition. We’ll begin with STRESS INCONTINENCE. which is the most common type of incontinence.

Stress incontinence can be described as the loss of urine when you place pressure or stress on your bladder. For example; stress incontinence can occur with a sudden physical exertion such as coughing, sneezing, laughing or heavy lifting. A number of things can cause stress incontinence; for instance, it may involve weak muscles in the pelvic floor or a weak sphincter muscle at the neck of the bladder. When one coughs, sneezes, laughs, etc. there is extra abdominal pressure placed on the bladder, which causes small amounts of urine to leak.…think of this as squeezing a balloon filled with water…a slight squeeze will release a small amount of water from the neck of the balloon while a more pronounced squeeze will release a larger amount of water. Usually, especially in the early stages of stress incontinence, the leaking of urine is not large. The leakage may be as little as a drop or two or may be a “squirt” or even a stream of urine.  It should be stated that chronic coughing, smoking, and obesity have a tendency to lead to stress incontinence. In women stress incontinence may also be related to child birthing or menopause.

Today we are learning about stress incontinence and its symptoms…and in an earlier blog, we learned about the four categories of incontinence products (click on the link to review) available on the market; namely, liners, pads, underwear and briefs. Now, let’s connect the dots. If liners and pads are a good choice for light to moderate leakage and stress incontinence usually results in a small amount of leakage of urine, then logic dictates, that if you have stress incontinence, you should begin by exploring liners and pads.
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At Careway Wellness Center our best selling liners and pads are Tena products. These products, as well as other brands of liners and pads, are always on sale at Careway Wellness Center. You can shop online today for all of your incontinence needs.

While on the subject of Tena products, we encourage you to join our exclusive TENA CLUB to begin enjoying even more savings on Tena products. Play the video to see how the TENA CLUB works.

 

And, of course, our incontinence specialists are always available to help you make the right selection. In addition, free samples are available for you to try in the privacy of your own home. If you live within the vicinity of our retail store, just drop in and select the samples you want to try from a self service basket stationed in the incontinence department. If you live outside of the vicinity of our retail store, we encourage you to call us at 781-933-2345 for free samples or any questions you may need answered.

In my next blog, I will be discussing another common type of incontinence, which is Urge Incontinence.

 

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