Stress and General Bladder Discomfort Stress can also cause changes in your lifestyle that may impact your bladder. For some people, stress can lead to overeating or neglecting physical exercise. Both of these habits can irritate your bladder, especially if overeating includes a lot of processed or sugary foods.
SUMMARY: Both anxiety and the fight or flight system cause changes to the body that can lead to urinary difficulties. There is no treatment specifically for those difficulties, but it is possible to treat anxiety.
You may feel like you need to pass urine many times during the day and night, and may also experience unintentional loss of urine (urgency incontinence).
Social stress produces changes in the bladder over a spectrum ranging from increased urinary frequency with reduced bladder capacity to decreased voiding and an increase in bladder capacity (urinary retention).
Interstitial Cystitis (IC) or Bladder Pain Syndrome (BPS) or IC/BPS is an issue of long-term bladder pain. It may feel like a bladder or urinary tract infection, but it's not. It is a feeling of discomfort and pressure in the bladder area that lasts for six weeks or more with no infection or other clear cause.
Although bacterial infections are the most common cause of cystitis, a number of noninfectious factors also may cause the bladder to become inflamed. Some examples include: Interstitial cystitis. The cause of this chronic bladder inflammation, also called painful bladder syndrome, is not clear.
While there is no direct research that states that high stress will outright cause a UTI, it could increase some of your symptoms, making it more uncomfortable to deal with. Understanding the connection between a stress-induced UTI can help us better avoid one.
Stress is also thought to have a major influence in cases of interstitial cystitis, meaning it could worsen urinary tract symptoms, even if an infection is absent.
Urinary symptoms such as frequency, urgency, burning or retention are most common in women and become an automatic response to anxiety-provoking or sexual stimuli. In men, functional urinary symptoms are relatively infrequent. Often they indicate problems of genital dysfunction.
The Impact of Stress on the Bladder
And it's thought that the adrenaline pumping through you triggers your need to pee. So, there's definitely a link between what's going on in your brain (fear, anxiety, etc) and what might be coming out of your bladder. Anxiety and stress can cause you to urinate more frequently, too.
The three most common causes of bladder pain are interstitial cystitis, urinary tract infection, and bladder cancer.
Many foods and drinks can cause bladder irritation. This can be from the amount or type of a food or beverage that you eat or drink. High acid food or drink and caffeine may irritate the lining of the bladder or upset the nervous system that controls the bladder and bowel.
These include: damage to the bladder lining, which may mean pee can irritate the bladder and surrounding nerves. a problem with the pelvic floor muscles used to control peeing. your immune system causing an inflammatory reaction.
Bladder pain syndrome is often mistaken for a urinary tract infection (UTI), also called a bladder infection. But bladder pain syndrome and UTIs are not the same health problem. Bladder pain syndrome and UTIs can have some of the same symptoms, including pain near the bladder and the need to go to the bathroom often.
So, if it's not a UTI, what else could it be? Several other infectious and non-infectious disease processes can cause symptoms that mimic a UTI. These include conditions such as vaginitis, overactive bladder, and kidney stones; some sexually transmitted infections (STIs); and diseases such as bladder cancer.
A person with paruresis (shy bladder syndrome) finds it difficult or impossible to urinate (pee) when other people are around. Paruresis is believed to be a common type of social phobia, ranking second only to the fear of public speaking. Paruresis is often first experienced at school.
Stress urinary incontinence (SUI) is a leakage of urine during moments of physical activity that increases abdominal pressure, such as coughing, sneezing, laughing, or exercise. SUI is the most common type of urinary incontinence in women.
Capsaicin: This natural remedy comes from chili peppers. Some research recommends it as an efficient and inexpensive treatment for overactive and highly sensitive bladders. Pumpkin seed extract: Research suggests this is beneficial for both nighttime urination and OAB.
The bladder can regenerate like nobody's business and now we know why. The bladder is a master at self-repair. When damaged by infection or injury, the organ can mend itself quickly, calling upon specialized cells in its lining to repair tissue and restore a barrier against harmful materials concentrated in urine.
Management and Treatment
Your healthcare provider will prescribe an antibiotic based on the type of bacteria found during your urine tests. In order to adequately treat the infection, it's important to take all of the antibiotics your provider prescribes. Some commonly used antibiotics include: Nitrofurantoin.