If you suffer from urinary incontinence, a constant need to know where the closest bathroom is, avoiding traveling or potentially embarrassing social activities, stopping exercise routines for fear of leaks, you know how difficult it can be. You know you can’t control it. You would do anything to prevent incontinence. Drastically reducing the amount of liquids you drink may seem like a logical step in getting control of your incontinence. However, this is a potentially dangerous tactic.
The recommended amount of water is about half your body weight in ounces. Either way, that is enough water to keep you hydrated. Water makes up about 60% of your body weight, and is vital to all systems in the body to flush out toxins from organs, carry nutrients and more. But if you are drinking less fluid to reduce incontinence, you can become dehydrated. Being dehydrated can make you feel more tired and give you a headache. Dehydration can also cause constipation. It is unhealthy overall to be dehydrated.
Most importantly for incontinence, cutting back on liquids can concentrate your urine. This can be easily seen because the urine will be darker. Concentrated urine caused by dehydration can irritate the lining of the bladder and urethra and actually worsen your incontinence. Thus, it is important to still drink enough water.
One way to help lessen incontinence is to drink water only, and avoid caffeine, alcohol and carbonated drinks that can worsen it. Another tip is to limit liquid intake at nighttime; do not drink after a certain time to lessen nighttime urge or accidents. You can also schedule when you go to the bathroom and make sure you leave time to go every 2-4 hours this is also a good guide for caregivers of elderly people who have incontinence.
It seems logical to reduce liquid intake, but you may only be dehydrating yourself and adding to your bladder problems. You will probably still experience incontinence. If you suffer from incontinence, you still need water to keep your body healthy. Try to stick with drinking only water, and mostly during the daytime.