London:
Unable to control urination? Stimulate your legs with an electric current, for a new study says that it can help stop the embarrassing leaks.
The problem, called incontinence in medical parlance, is the inability to control urination. It is caused by the bladder muscle contracting before the organ is full. It affects people of all ages and gender, but woman are twice as likely as men to develop incontinence.
Conventional treatments include pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the muscles and bladder training, which involves learning techniques to increase time between feeling the need to urinate and passing urine. For some, surgery is the option.
Now, a team at North Middlesex University Hospital in Britain has found that the new technique can help 70 per cent of women with an overactive bladder and more than halve the frequency of their symptoms, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
According to researchers, the latest technique, known as percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, doesn't involve an implant. Instead, doctors insert a small needle into the calf to stimulate the tibial nerve - this runs up through the calf to the sacral plexus. The needle is connected to a device that sends electrical pulses into the nerve and the therapy is painless.
In a trial, 43 women with an average age of 55 had a 30-minute treatment each week. None of the women had benefited from other treatments previously. At the end of the six weeks, 70 per cent of them showed an improvement in symptoms. Frequency of urination declined from an average of 15 to seven times in 24 hours, while the average number of incontinence pads required also fell by 34 per cent.
It is thought nerve stimulation works by blocking the signals from hyper reactive nerves in the bladder. Gradually it also retrains the nerves to behave normally, according to the researchers.
However, the research suggests the treatment must be repeated fairly frequently. Patients reported their symptoms worsening three weeks after the treatment ended.
The problem, called incontinence in medical parlance, is the inability to control urination. It is caused by the bladder muscle contracting before the organ is full. It affects people of all ages and gender, but woman are twice as likely as men to develop incontinence.
Conventional treatments include pelvic floor exercises to strengthen the muscles and bladder training, which involves learning techniques to increase time between feeling the need to urinate and passing urine. For some, surgery is the option.
Now, a team at North Middlesex University Hospital in Britain has found that the new technique can help 70 per cent of women with an overactive bladder and more than halve the frequency of their symptoms, the 'Daily Mail' reported.
According to researchers, the latest technique, known as percutaneous tibial nerve stimulation, doesn't involve an implant. Instead, doctors insert a small needle into the calf to stimulate the tibial nerve - this runs up through the calf to the sacral plexus. The needle is connected to a device that sends electrical pulses into the nerve and the therapy is painless.
In a trial, 43 women with an average age of 55 had a 30-minute treatment each week. None of the women had benefited from other treatments previously. At the end of the six weeks, 70 per cent of them showed an improvement in symptoms. Frequency of urination declined from an average of 15 to seven times in 24 hours, while the average number of incontinence pads required also fell by 34 per cent.
It is thought nerve stimulation works by blocking the signals from hyper reactive nerves in the bladder. Gradually it also retrains the nerves to behave normally, according to the researchers.
However, the research suggests the treatment must be repeated fairly frequently. Patients reported their symptoms worsening three weeks after the treatment ended.
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