If you find yourself in the position that you are using the lavatory too often, or just want to avoid that as you age, keeping your bladder healthy is the best way to prevent infections and excessive urination. In the below, we discuss the best ways to keep a healthy functioning bladder to ensure as few problems as possible going forward.
Fluids
The best thing you can do to ensure bladder health is to drink enough water. The average adult should drink six to eight glasses of water per day. When the discussion comes up about drinking enough water, you may be tempted to switch out to a different drink, like coffee or soda. Besides, coffee and soda are mostly water anyway, right?
There is some truth to this, a general rule of thumb is that at least half of your fluid intake should be pure water, the other half can be substituted by another water-based beverage. There is, however, a catch to this situation, caffeine. Caffeine as found in coffee, tea and the majority of sodas is bad for your bladder health, try limiting caffeine intake to a minimum to improve your bladder health as much as possible. When it comes to caffeine, it’s not only your bladder that sufferers.
Excessive caffeine consumption has been directly linked to heart and kidney disease too. The key is excess, caffeine consumption is fine and can even benefit your health in some situations, just keep it to a recommended amount like two cups of coffee per day.
Bathroom Breaks
The very thing we plan to avoid with a healthy bladder may be the undoing of your bladder health in general. The average adult should urinate every 4 hours or so, attempting to “hold it in” will only cause weaker bladder muscles, intensifying the problem.
When you start to feel that you may need to visit a bathroom, do it. Holding urine in will not only weaken the bladder muscles but will also increase the likelihood of bladder infections. This issue can cause a bit of a snowball effect, so be sure to go to the bathroom when you need to and avoid holding urine in your bladder for extended periods of time.
Another point of contention for our bladders is how long we spend on bathroom breaks. The human bladder, especially when the muscles have been weakened from holding it in too long previously, has a bit of illusion to it. After holding for a while and having an eventual release, our bladders may feel empty, when in fact they are not. This leads directly back to excess strain on bladder muscles and potential for bladder infections. When it has been a long time and you eventually get to a bathroom, spend the extra minute to ensure that your bladder is in fact completely empty.
Healthy Lifestyle
It has been said a million times and is worth saying again. Your lifestyle will affect all aspects of your body. Being overweight, smoking and excessive alcohol consumption will all have a negative effect on your bladder along with virtually every other organ in your body.
The best way to change your health outlook is to change to lifestyle to a healthier one. Regular exercise, having fun playing the pokies online NZ offers and eating better and quitting smoking will make the world of difference to any person and will make a positive difference to your bladder too.