Warning issued to anyone who needs the loo when they get nervous
Ella Scott
Featured Image Credit: picturegarden/Getty Images/Peter Cade/Getty Images
A medical expert has issued a warning to those who need to use the bathroom whenever they get nervous as they are more likely to develop certain health problems in the future.
Stress can pose serious side effects to your mental health, but did you know it can have a serious negative impact on your body, too?
Not only can chaos increase your heart rate and blood pressure, but it also can cause serious issues such as intestinal inflammation, psoriasis flare-ups and tension headaches.
According to urologist Doctor Rena Malik, stress can also have an impact on your bladder.
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In 2020, the content creator spoke to Men’s Health and revealed that nervousness is the main perpetrator of pelvic floor dysfunction.
Cleveland Clinic defines pelvic floor dysfunction as the inability to correctly relax and coordinate your pelvic floor muscles. The corporation also notes it is a direct response to stress.
"The bladder has receptors on it that respond specifically to this neurotransmitter, which acts on the bladder by increasing bladder contractions, and bladder contractions are the reason that you feel the urge to urinate,” said Dr Malik on the topic.
"A reduction in serotonin levels has been found to be associated with more bladder contractions and subsequent urinary urgency and frequency.”
The practitioner went on to explain that there is a strong correlation between having an overactive bladder and nervousness.
She told the publication that those who need to go to the toilet more often have a higher likelihood of developing anxiety over the next decade.
If you are one of these people who suffer from a sensitive bladder and find yourself going to the loo when you’re nervous, then Dr Malik has a solution.
The expert claimed that when you feel the urge to urinate you should wait for the sensation to lessen.
“We call this bladder training; when you get the urge, you wait, you distract yourself, and you do quick Kegel exercises, pulling up and in your pelvis, doing quick contractions and relaxing while you wait for the urge to pass, and then calmly walking to the bathroom after the urge has passed,” she explained.
“This causes your brain and bladder to be reconnected so that they don't sense that urge so strongly any more.”
Earlier this year, Doctor Rachel Peck issued a similar warning about why bladder training was so important.
"I see this a lot with some of my patients who have increased [urination] urgency and frequency and, sometimes, leakage and the reason that this happens is because, normally, the bladder fills at a certain rate,” she began.
"Once we get to a certain point, we'll kind of get the first urge to go and we usually ignore that urge."
This urge is just letting us know that our bladder is ‘filling up’ said the practitioner, adding: "It gets a little bit farther, and it sends some stronger urges and we may kind of ignore those as well and then once it gets full, that's when it sends us the urge, like, 'Hey, you actually need to pee now'.”
So, if you’re someone who needs to go to the toilet whenever they experience stress, adding bladder training into your daily routine may totally change the game.