Fortunately, there are some natural remedies for urinary incontinence that women can do in their day-to-day lives. We’re taking a look at ten practical ways that women can address bladder leakage in ways that don’t include pads, expensive treatments or painful surgeries.
Urinary incontinence treatments that are natural include :
- Doing your kegels
- Addressing constipation
- Losing excess weight
- Cutting down on caffeine and alcohol
- Staying hydrated
- Eating a balanced diet
- Exploring bladder retraining
- Increasing magnesium intake
- Quitting smoking
- Trying herbal treatments
10 Best Ways to Stop Urine Leakage Naturally
No one wants to live with leakage forever. Fortunately, you can make some small changes to your diet, lifestyle and exercise regime to remedy urine leakage naturally.
The treatments below have benefits beyond reducing leakage, so you can address the problem while enhancing your overall health. A win-win!
1. Do your kegels
The most important recommendation when it comes to addressing bladder leakage is to have a consistent pelvic floor exercise routine. Doctors recommend that women do at least 100 minutes of kegels a week just to maintain their pelvic floor muscles. So, for women experiencing leakage, hitting that 100-minute mark of traditional kegels during the week is important.
A strong pelvic floor equals less leakage. So strengthen the area with kegels! If you don’t have time for 100 minutes a week (who does?), an FDA-registered weighted kegel device can help you stay consistent and see real results with a much smaller time commitment.
2. Address constipation problems
When people strain to go number two, it places undue stress on the pelvic floor muscles, resulting in more leakage. A few great ways to address this include increasing fiber in your diet and increasing movement throughout the day. So build some space into your calendar for workouts to keep things flowing! If you’re still experiencing constipation issues despite lifestyle and diet changes, consulting a medical professional is a smart next step.
3. Lose excess weight
Women who are overweight tend to have more fatty tissue that’s weighing down on the bladder, as well as creating more work for the pelvic floor muscles. By losing excess weight, your body doesn’t need to work as hard to function properly. This decrease in fat alleviates the bladder and can contribute to reduced leakage. If you deal with leaking urine when exercising, these tips can help.
4. Cut down on caffeine and alcohol
As great as they are, caffeine and alcohol both pose their own challenges for the body, especially for those who experience incontinence. Drinks with caffeine can make incontinence worse.
Alcohol is a diuretic, which makes people have to go to the bathroom more frequently, further exacerbating incontinence symptoms. So consider cutting back on that morning joe and those evening cocktails to see if any improvements come about.
5. Stay hydrated
You might think that avoiding water is helpful when battling leakage problems. In reality, this is doing more harm than good. By limiting fluid intake, your bladder’s capacity is actually reduced, making symptoms worse. It can also result in constipation and other digestive system problems.
6. Eat a balanced diet
Clean, minimally processed foods bring a bevy of benefits for the body. Eating probiotics to encourage healthy bacteria growth is key for vaginal health, especially as the vagina changes as we age. Overly spicy or acidic foods can irritate the bladder and make incontinence issues more prominent. By maintaining a balanced diet, you can prevent inflaming your system and help prevent bladder leakage.
7. Explore bladder retraining
There are many causes of urinary incontinence—an overactive bladder is one of them. Incontinence and bladder urgency can be a vicious cycle because the need to go or fear an accident means people tend to go to the bathroom more frequently. Over time, this can cause your bladder to be able to hold back urine for less time.
By keeping a journal, tracking when you go to the bathroom, and trying to be intentional about increasing the time between visits, you can help retrain your bladder.
8. Increase magnesium intake
Magnesium contributes to proper muscle and nerve function. Bladder leakage and incontinence issues are usually impacted by the pelvic floor muscles not functioning properly. By increasing your magnesium intake, you can help your pelvic floor muscles get back on track. This, in turn, improves incontinence symptoms. Magnesium-rich foods include nuts, avocado and dark chocolate. Yum!
9. Quit smoking
Smokers tend to cough more, which puts more strain on the pelvic floor muscles. If you leak when you cough, laugh or sneeze, this is a sign of weak pelvic floor muscles. As if you need another reason to quit smoking, this change can help your body get back on track with managing incontinence issues.
10. Try herbal treatments
While evidence on the effectiveness of herbal treatments is largely anecdotal, some women have found relief via this method. There are a variety of different herbal treatments and teas that are thought to help address bladder and muscle contraction. A few to explore are Gosha-jinki-gan (GJG), Ganoderma lucidum (GL), Corn silk (Zea mays), and Capsaicin. Be sure to consult your doctor before starting any new herbal treatments. If you get the green light, combine herbal treatments with other methods on this list to see more noticeable results.
Say Bye to Bladder Leakage with a Strong Pelvic Floor!
Kegels are proven to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles, which is why doctors recommend that women do 100 minutes of kegels a week to address a whole host of problems. But who wants to spend 100 minutes a week doing kegels? We sure don’t!
That’s why we created Kegelbell, also known as the Super Kegel. Women only need to use Kegelbell in the shower for five minutes, three times a week in muscle building mode or once a week in maintenance mode. Kegelbell is the first externally weighted pelvic floor training solution and the heaviest on the market. That means our customers get better results in less time.
Our customers have told us that they start seeing relief from their bladder leakage and all sorts of other benefits in just two weeks. Are you ready to accelerate your pelvic floor training routine?
Learn more about how Kegelbell →
