Preventing Incontinence

5 HEALTHY HABITS FOR YOUR BLADDER AND BOWEL

The Continence Foundation of Australia encourages older Australians to invest time in 5 healthy habits to help prevent incontinence. These 5 healthy habits are important for Bladder and Bowel Health.

These habits include a healthy diet and staying hydrated, 30 minutes of exercise every day and good toilet habits.

Webinars on each of the 5 healthy habits can be viewed. These include topics such as increasing dietary fibre in cooking without losing flavour, making exercise part of your day, and how to keep your pelvic floor in shape.

View the 5 healthy habits and our webinars below.

HABIT 1 – STAY ACTIVE

Healthy Habit 1 - Stay Active Physical activity is beneficial for overall health – and that includes bladder and bowel function! Aim for at least 30 minutes of physical activity per day. This doesn’t have to be all at once. Activities like gardening, cleaning, playing with the grandkids, and taking the stairs all add up.

Making a move in the right direction, not matter how small, can make a big difference.

HABIT 2 – EAT WELL

Healthy Habit 2: Eat Well Fibre in your diet will help improve bowel function and avoid constipation. Fibre is found in foods such as multi grain or whole grain breads, cereal products, fruit, vegetables, legumes, and nuts and seeds. Aim to eat two servings of fruit, five servings of vegetables and five servings of cereals and breads each day.

You are what you eat, and eating well can make a world of difference to how we feel and how our bodies operate.

HABIT 3 – GET ENOUGH FLUIDS AND DRINK WELL

Healthy Habit 3 - Drink Smart It’s important to increase fluids when you increase fibre in your diet. Drinking plenty of water and staying hydrated helps maintain digestive health. Drinks that contain caffeine, cola and alcohol can irritate your bladder, so water is the best choice.

While our tendency when dealing with bladder and bowel problems might be to restrict our liquid intake, this is actually the opposite of what we should do.

HABIT 4 – EXERCISE YOUR PELVIC FLOOR

Healthy Habit 4 - Pelvic Floor Having a strong pelvic floor is your insurance against incontinence. You can train your pelvic floor anytime, anywhere, no matter what sex, gender, age or fitness level you are.

Try to do your pelvic floor muscles exercises every day, three times a day. See a continence health professional to learn how.

Making a move in the right direction, not matter how small, can make a big difference.

HABIT 5 – PRACTICE GOOD TOILET HABITS

Healthy Habit 5 - Good Toilet Habits Don’t get into the habit of going to the toilet ‘just in case’. If you keep emptying your bladder ‘just in case’ too often, then the bladder may never fill up properly, and shrink a bit. This may give the feeling of needing to go to the toilet more frequently (urge incontinence).