Did you know that drinking alcohol could be increasing your chances of incontinence or making your incontinence worse? Even at a young age, you may have discovered that bladder leaks become that much more likely when you have drunk alcohol. It is expected that from the start of drinking you struggled with an irritated stomach and bowel. It should not be surprising that if you continue drinking, then you will exacerbate the damage you are doing.
Alcohol is not the reason people become incontinent. However, alcohol can make the symptoms of bladder and bowel incontinence worse. Let's explore what it does to our passing of urine and feces thanks to HARTMANN Direct.
The impact on the bladder
The depressing news is that alcohol is a diuretic. This means it will naturally make you want to go to the toilet more. You will increase urination output as well as the number of times you will want to go to the bathroom. Therefore, you have a direct cause and effect: alcohol can make you incontinent because it decreases the health of your toilet habits.
There are further impacts of drinking alcohol. The increase in urine also means you are dehydrated. Constant dehydration can lead to irritation and inflammation of the bladder lining, which can lead to incontinence. Alternatively, it can lead to urinary tract infections, which in turn can lead to incontinence. Your urine is highly concentrated after drinking alcohol, which is what causes the infection.
Another consequence of all that alcohol is an increase in the amount of sugar you are taking in. Sugar is also a major irritant on your bladder. It can also cause you to increase in weight, and this weight can put pressure on your pelvic floor, which is the muscle that controls your ability to go to the toilet when you need to.
The impact on the bowel
Alcohol has a double effect on the bowel. It can cause you to suffer diarrhea like fecal incontinence, or it can cause constipation. It is possible that you can have one followed by the other. The constipation can be particularly troublesome, as the straining can cause damage to muscles that will control your level of continence.
The dehydration that causes problems for your bladder also has an impact on your bowel. It can slow down bowel motility, which are the contractions that allow you to push out a stool. It can also cause the stool to be hard and painful to pass.
Generally, however, alcohol is a significant irritant for the gut. It can cause acid and inflammation, and it can increase the symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. All these problems are precursors to fecal incontinence.
A sensible message
In conclusion, I would suggest to anyone to stop drinking. If you are already suffering discomfort from urinary or fecal incontinence, then you should consider stopping alcohol consumption. Any dietary change is going to make a massive difference to your symptoms, but arguably none more than withdrawing alcohol. It is less that you are drinking less fluid, if anything you should replace it with water, it is that you are taking away an element that causes significant inflammation. Inflammation in the body can lead to all sorts of other problems, not just incontinence. Therefore, it is a vital means of taking control of the health of your body.
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