Does Alcohol Make Urinary Incontinence Worse for Women
Does Alcohol Make Urinary Incontinence Worse for Women? A question many women wonder when they start to experience incontinence.
If you’re suffering from urinary incontinence, you may be looking for solutions to those distressing leaks. Is there a connection between alcohol and incontinence? What can you do to lower the number of leaks? Do you have to change your diet, or can exercise help improve incontinence?
Alcohol and Urinary Incontinence: Understanding the Connection
Women suffering from incontinence often receive advice on treatments like medication, exercise, and sometimes surgery to improve the symptoms.
There’s another possible path that can help curb leaks: what you drink.
Does alcohol cause incontinence, or make it worse? What is the relationship between alcohol and incontinence?
Understanding Urinary Incontinence
Urinary incontinence, as you likely know, is a condition whereby you accidentally leak urine on a regular basis. Another form is fecal incontinence, when you leak stool by accident.
When it comes to the recurring leaks known as urinary incontinence, there are different causes. This inability to control your bladder takes different forms, too.
A very common form is known as stress urinary incontinence or SUI. This is when you leak urine when you cough, laugh, or sneeze. This type of action puts pressure on the bladder, causing it to leak.
Other forms of incontinence include overactive bladder or urgency urinary incontinence. This is when you suffer from frequent urination, including a sudden and strong urge to go, which sometimes leads to leaks. You might also feel like you need to pee many times during the day, and at night that feeling disrupts your sleep.
A more rare form is overflow urinary incontinence, when your bladder stays full because it cannot completely empty. Finally, some women suffer from more than one type, known as mixed urinary incontinence.1
What Causes Urinary Incontinence?
There are a variety of reasons that lead to incontinence. If it’s a short-term problem, it could be the result of a urinary tract infection, a vaginal infection or irritation, constipation, or a medication.
If the problem is ongoing, here are some possible causes of incontinence:2
- Weak bladder muscles.
- Weakened pelvic floor muscles.
- Overactive bladder muscles.
- Damage to nerves that control the bladder from diseases such as diabetes, or multiple sclerosis.
- Conditions like arthritis that make it difficult to get to the bathroom in time, or to get your pants undone in time.
- Pelvic organ prolapse, which is when pelvic organs like the bladder, rectum, or uterus move out of their normal place into the vagina or anus.
Is There a Link Between Alcohol and Urinary Incontinence? Does it make it Worse?
If you’re suffering from urinary incontinence or bladder leaks, you’re not alone. It’s estimated that over 35 million American adults suffer from incontinence.3 Incontinence can impact your quality of life, causing you to stop exercising, avoid social situations, and change your work patterns.
But is there a connection between alcohol and incontinence? Depending on the reason for your leaks, there could be a connection, but that doesn’t mean alcohol has caused your incontinence.
For instance, one study of people who experienced urine leakage found that the prevalence of alcohol drinking was only slightly higher among the incontinent women than others without the condition. Researchers concluded that there was little association between alcohol consumption and urinary incontinence.4
That seems to indicate alcohol doesn’t cause incontinence on its own. But alcohol can cause problems for some people who are suffering from urine leakage.
Alcohol can be a trigger because it’s a diuretic, which means that it increases the production of urine. So when you drink alcohol, you have to pee more often. Alcohol can also irritate the bladder, which can make the symptoms of overactive bladder worse.3
Alcohol can also cause problems with incontinence at night. There are a number of reasons for that, the simplest being the fact that you likely drink alcohol in the evening. Night-time social outings mean you’re drinking close to when you go to bed. This means your bladder has to hold more pee through the night — an issue for those with incontinence.5
Can Reducing Alcohol Help Minimize Bladder Leaks?
If you find that urine leaks happen at night, once again, you’re not alone! It’s estimated that up to 5 million Americans have a bedwetting problem.3
Besides drinking close to bedtime, there is another reason that connects alcohol and incontinence at night. Bedwetting may happen because alcohol affects your body in a way that makes it harder to hold your pee.
Our brain produces an antidiuretic hormone, or ADH, which signals the kidneys to keep them from making too much urine. The body does this naturally to keep you from using up your hydration reserves. But when you drink alcohol, it suppresses the production of ADH, so your body makes more urine than it normally would.
During the daytime, you simply go to the bathroom more often when you’re drinking alcohol. But if you drink before sleeping, the suppression of this hormone continues, your bladder fills more quickly, and your body releases that pressure by peeing — while you’re sleeping.
The bottom line: The suppression of the hormone when you drink alcohol results in your body producing more urine than when you’re sober. That can lead to leaks during the day, and bedwetting at night.5
Alcohol causes another problem, by irritating the detrusor muscle. This is part of the wall of the bladder, which creates the signal to let you know when you need to pee. Too much alcohol could mean you don’t feel the signals from the bladder.5
Finally, drinking alcohol causes your body to pull from its liquid reserves. That could add even more volume to your bladder.5
If you’re needing to pee frequently during the night — a condition known as nocturia — try drinking less in the hours before you go to bed. That means alcohol and other fluids.
What Alcohol Is Bad for Urinary Incontinence?
Besides increasing the production of urine in several different ways, and potentially disrupting signals to send you to the bathroom, alcohol may also irritate the bladder lining. This irritation can trigger urgency, bladder discomfort, and worsen other symptoms of overactive bladder. That’s especially true of beverages high in acidity like wine and some cocktails.6
Here’s how other types of alcohol may make incontinence symptoms worse:6
- Beer: The carbonation and hops can irritate the bladder and increase urine output.
- Wine: Contains acidity and tannins that can irritate the bladder.
- Spirits: May be more diuretic due to a higher alcohol content. If your mixed drink contains citrus or artificial sweeteners, that could make things worse.
- Cocktails: Sugary syrups, citrus, and carbonation, can all be problematic.
What Else Triggers Incontinence?
Alcohol is not the only food that can make incontinence symptoms worse.
Other foods that can irritate the bladder include:3
- Caffeinated beverages like coffee and tea.
- Chocolate.
- Carbonated drinks.
- Spicy, citrus or acidic foods.
- Cranberry juice.
- Sugar, including artificial sweeteners.
- Certain medications.
This doesn’t mean you have to stop eating and drinking everything on the list! You could try eliminating one item at a time, and see if it helps reduce your leaks, lower the number of times you have to pee during the night, and with other symptoms of incontinence.
Diet and Lifestyle Changes That Support Bladder Health
Besides experimenting with your diet, there are other options to help support bladder health.
Some forms of urinary incontinence are caused by weakened pelvic floor muscles. These important muscles and ligaments hold the pelvic organs in place and help with bodily functions like peeing and pooping. Weakened pelvic floor muscles can lead to unintended leaks.
Research has shown that one of the best ways to treat pelvic conditions like urinary incontinence, or to prevent them from occurring, is by adding pelvic floor exercises to your daily routine. Also known as “Kegels,” these exercises can give you better control over your bladder and bowels by strengthening the pelvic muscles.
Kegels involve tightening and then releasing your pelvic floor muscles. To perform pelvic floor muscle exercises, you contract the same muscles you use to stop your urine flow, or hold in gas. Tighten or contract those muscles and hold for five seconds, and then relax for five seconds.
As you progress, work up to holding the contractions for 10 seconds at a time. You should aim for at least three sets of 10 repetitions each day.
Make Sure to Do Kegels Properly
Your doctor can provide guidance to ensure your efforts are effective and you’re performing Kegels properly. One way to know you’re doing them the right way, and to do the correct number of Kegels, is by using a clinically proven tool.
The Gynesis pelvic floor trainer shorts are targeted trainers that deliver muscle stimulation to retrain and rebuild your pelvic floor. Exclusive Multipath Technology ensures electrical stimulation reaches multiple areas and targets all the critical muscles of your pelvic floor.
The shorts are comfortable and designed for everyday use. Using the Gynesis shorts, you can perform 180 precise Kegels in each 30-minute session. You’ll know you’re doing the exercises properly and for the correct period of time.
Find Support with the Physician Finder Tool
Alcohol may not directly cause urinary incontinence, but there are a number of reasons that it can make leaks worse. Alcohol and other foods and drinks can contribute to incontinence during the day and at night. Don’t let incontinence impact your quality of life. Use our Physician Finder to find a doctor near you with expertise in women’s health. Seek guidance on a treatment plan for incontinence, on strategies for adjusting your diet to help reduce leaks, and to learn the proper technique for performing Kegels, a valuable addition to any woman’s health care routine.
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1- https://www.urologyhealth.org/urology-a-z/u/urinary-incontinence
2- https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/bladder-health-and-incontinence/urinary-incontinence-older-adults
4- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22050668/
5- https://health.clevelandclinic.org/adults-booze-bedwetting-heres-happens
6- https://allianceurology.com/overactive-bladder-and-alcohol/
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