Incontinence

As a person gets older he or she loses control over their body, as sad as this is, it is a way of life. Incontinence is an affliction of old age and a sad one. But what is incontinence? Incontinence is the loss of control over urine and fecal elimination. This means that people lose control over their bladder and bowel movements and cannot control the excretion process. But while I have mentioned that old people are affected by incontinence, this is not the only case. People who are not old can also be incontinent. Remember that incontinence is not any form of a disease; it can in fact be classified as a symptom of any other condition.

Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence is the loss of control over urination or loss of bladder control. Urinary incontinence is quite common and quite embarrassing as well. There are different degrees of urinary incontinence, from mild leaking while laughing or severe urges that don’t hold till the person gets to a bathroom. Urinary incontinence isn’t only related to old age, it is also a cause of childbirth or menopause. At any time you notice signs of incontinence it is best to consult with a doctor. There are no fixed symptoms for urinary incontinence except the need to urinate urgently and sometimes wetting of clothes or bed with no time to rush for the bathroom.

There are different types of urinary incontinence, these are:

• Stress Incontinence – this is the type of incontinence that is related to pressure. The stress doesn’t mean mental stress but more of physical stress, like in the case of sneezing, coughing, laughing and picking up heavy things. Stress incontinence occurs when the sphincter muscle in the bladder is weak and cant control the urine or bladder movement. This normally occurs after childbirth, pregnancy and the onset of menopause for women and for men it occurs after the removing of the prostate.
• Urge incontinence – this type of incontinence is when the person has a sudden urge to urinate and cannot control it even long enough to run to a bathroom. The bladder in this case only gives the person a few seconds notice and then losses control. Urge incontinence can be caused by a urinary tract infection, bladder irritation, bowel problems and even nervous disorders like MS, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s or even stroke or injuries. Urge incontinence is also called an overactive bladder.
• Overflow Incontinence – this is a condition when the person is constantly dribbling urine, this is because the bladder cannot empty itself completely and this leads to overflowing of the bladder. This type of incontinence is common among those who have damaged bladder or in men with prostate problems.
• Mixed Incontinence – if a person has more than one type of incontinence like stress and urge incontinence together, then the person is said to have mixed incontinence. In this case, one type of incontinence will be more problematic than the other.
• Functional Incontinence – this type on incontinence has more to do will loss of physical and mental function and mostly plagues the aged.
• Gross total Incontinence – this is a complete and total incontinence where the bladder cannot perform any of its function. This could be because of several reasons like injury, birth defect or bladder capacity problem.

Fecal Incontinence
This is the other type of incontinence is when there is loss of bowel movement control and which causes the passing of feces or stool quite unexpectedly from the rectum. The reason fecal incontinence occurs is because of diarrhea, constipation and muscle damage. It could also be due to old age where the sphincter muscle gets weak. Fecal incontinence can also be a result of damage to the woman during childbirth. The only signs and symptoms of fecal incontinence are uncontrollable gas, stools and liquid from bowels.