Here’s what to avoid and embrace to bolster your pelvic muscles

As we all know, every thing in the human body is connected from tissues to hormones to nerves. We always talk about gut health, nerves, lungs, liver etc, but have hardly seen anyone discussing urinary bladder or urinary tract health. But most of us have been affected by issues related to the same. The urinary bladder is a balloon like organ that holds urine and urine contains all the toxins, waste material and
unwanted minerals that needs to be excreted from the body. As a kid or adult, our bladder and urinary tract hold strength and flexibility, but as we grow old, the tissues and muscles in this area become less stretchy, less flexible and starts losing its strength. If things like this happen, then people start facing issues like weak pelvic muscles and urine leakage.

Let’s look at certain causes of weak pelvic muscles:

• Holding urine for too long may lead to infections, particularly UTI, because urine has bacteria which need to be excreted out of the system, if not, bad bacteria increases, leading to infections.
• If anyone feels constipated, they put more pressure to pass stools. Every time this pressure is exerted in the pelvic area, it leads to pressure on the bladder as well, which may weaken the muscles.
• Certain medication, excess alcohol and excess caffeine keeps the body acidic and acts as diuretics which can lead to frequent emptying of bladder causes bladder problems.
• Pregnancy and child birth puts more pressure on the pelvic muscles and leads to weakening of the same, that’s why pregnant women need to pee so often.

Now let’s look at few lifestyle tips that one can follow to strengthen pelvic muscles:

• Never ever hold your urine for long. The longer its kept inside, the higher the chances of infection and also weakening the voluntary signal mechanism of the urinary tract. Pee whenever required and take your time and so that the muscles feel relaxed.
• Keep your body well hydrated with water (not with caffeine or other drinks) because water helps in naturally flushing out toxins from our body and kidneys.
• Kegels or pelvic floor exercises are a must in your routine to improve the strength and flexibility in the bladder muscles. Kegel exercise means contraction and relaxation of pelvic muscles to improve flexibility.
• Sitting is the new smoking.The more we sit, the more we put pressure and weight on our pelvic muscles and that’s why we need to do the pelvic exercises often. Plus, make sure that you move around every hour without putting too much pressure on the pelvic floor.
• Limit coffee, tea, alcoholic drinks as they keep the body acidic. It’s important to do douching for women to keep the vaginal area clean and wipe the area from front to back to avoid gut bacteria from entering the urethra and causing UTI. Similarly, it’sveryimportant for both men and women to urinate before and after sex because sexual activity may move the bacteria from the bowel to the urethra .