These 5 Lifestyle Tweaks Can Help Your Overactive Bladder
Your day-to-day habits play a big role in treating incontinence.

Overactive bladder (OAB) isn’t simply “part of getting older,” and you don’t have to suffer with it. The symptoms of OAB—such as a frequent and urgent need to pee—can be frustrating, embarrassing, and highly anxiety provoking, and they can hold you back from doing things you love.
But treatment is available—and effective. Many people with OAB are able to reduce the urgency and frequency of their bathroom breaks, and that doesn’t always mean medications. “A substantive portion of treatment for overactive bladder is lifestyle modification,” says Lauri Romanzi, MD, urogynecologist in New York City.
Behavioral therapy for OAB alone may not cure your condition, especially if it’s moderate to severe, but it may help reduce your symptoms and live a higher quality of life. Here are important lifestyle tweaks that can help treat OAB.
-
Keep a bladder diary. Log how often you go, how much you urinated, and how urgently you had to go. This can reveal trends to you and your doctor, and help you set goals. Your bladder diary can also help you track progress and allow your doctor to evaluate whether treatment approaches are effective for you, according to American Urological Association. Get started with this bladder diary by the National Association for Continence (NAFC).
-
Drink the right amount of fluid. If you drink large amounts of fluids, you may find that cutting back on fluids helps your symptoms. On the other hand, you might be drinking too little, which can actually make your OAB symptoms worse. Treating OAB might start with helping you find the right level of hydration.
-
Avoid bladder irritants. Certain foods and drinks may irritate OAB and make symptoms worse. These include coffee, tea, caffeinated sodas, chocolate, berries, and spicy foods, according to Dr. Romanzi. Learn other foods that can worsen OAB symptoms here.
-
Lose weight if you need to. “There were a couple of studies that showed that just normalizing weight without any other therapy … significantly reduced incontinence problems,” says Dr. Romanzi. A 2012 study also found that patients with OAB who had a body mass index above 30 experienced higher frequencies of leaking and pad use, compared to patients with a BMI below 30.
-
Keep a bathroom schedule. “Timed voiding” is a strategy to train your body into going at regular intervals. Gradually increase the amount of time between voiding; the goal is to be able to go every three to four hours, according to NAFC. Over time, this should help minimize urges and help you go longer stretches of time without needing the bathroom. (Learn more about bladder training for OAB here.) This goes hand-in-hand with strategic hydration, which may include drinking small amounts of liquid at regular intervals instead of a large amount all at once.
-
Make Kegels a habit. Yes, Kegels work—as long as you’re doing them correctly. (This is a common Kegel mistake women make.)Your pelvic floor muscles wrap around your urethra sphincter like a doughnut, according to Dr. Romanzi. “Every time you’re squeezing the [pelvic floor] muscles, you’re also exercising the muscles in the sphincter,” says Dr. Romanzi. “This can make the urinary sphincter stronger and better able to control urine flow—including preventing incontinence.” Here’s the right way to do a Kegel.
If your OAB isn’t getting better after a few months of these lifestyle modifications, see your doctor. “The earlier you come in for evaluation for overactive bladder symptoms, the better you are in terms of keeping your entire body healthy,” says Dr. Romanzi, “and the better off you are in terms of getting a response to non-medical therapies.”
Dr. Romanzi is a urogynecologist and reconstructive pelvic surgeon based in New York City.
00:00.643 --> 00:02.820 line:15%
(bright music)
00:02.820 --> 00:04.920 line:15%
-: A substantive portion of treatment
00:04.920 --> 00:07.603 line:15%
for overactive bladder is lifestyle modification.
00:11.580 --> 00:14.210
The treatment for overactive bladder starts
00:14.210 --> 00:18.123
with an evaluation method, and that is the bladder diary.
00:19.150 --> 00:22.370
Typically you're recording when you urinate
00:22.370 --> 00:26.030
and measuring how much you urinate, writing that down,
00:26.030 --> 00:29.760
and rating each void against the degree
00:29.760 --> 00:33.040
of pre-urination urgency you were experiencing
00:33.040 --> 00:34.700
before you went to the toilet,
00:34.700 --> 00:36.640
usually on a scale of one to 10.
00:36.640 --> 00:37.980
The first thing you learn is
00:37.980 --> 00:40.690
how much is that patient drinking every day?
00:40.690 --> 00:44.640
And right away you can gauge is this person dehydrated,
00:44.640 --> 00:47.500
is this person in the habit of over-hydrating,
00:47.500 --> 00:50.220
or is this more or less a good amount
00:50.220 --> 00:52.630
of fluid intake for 24 hours?
00:52.630 --> 00:55.280
If they're dehydrated or over-hydrating,
00:55.280 --> 00:56.923
you need to start there.
00:57.810 --> 00:59.730
And then you can begin to look at
00:59.730 --> 01:02.260
how much bladder irritant beverages
01:02.260 --> 01:04.240
are they taking in every day?
01:04.240 --> 01:06.110
Some of the foods and drinks that are more irritating
01:06.110 --> 01:09.520
to patients with overactive bladder, they're coffee, tea,
01:09.520 --> 01:12.570
sodas that have a lot of caffeine in them, chocolate.
01:12.570 --> 01:13.740
For some patients,
01:13.740 --> 01:15.590
sensitive to certain types of berries,
01:15.590 --> 01:17.800
particularly strawberries.
01:17.800 --> 01:20.210
There were a couple of studies that showed
01:20.210 --> 01:21.940
that just normalizing weight
01:21.940 --> 01:23.770
without any other therapy alone
01:23.770 --> 01:26.270
significantly reduced incontinence problems.
01:26.270 --> 01:29.690
One of the behavior modifications that's very common,
01:29.690 --> 01:34.140
that would be timed voiding and also strategic hydration.
01:34.140 --> 01:37.020
This is particularly helpful for patients
01:37.020 --> 01:40.340
where frequent nighttime voiding is a big problem.
01:40.340 --> 01:43.100
You want them to get to bed
01:43.100 --> 01:46.700
with a minimum amount of fluid still in their system
01:46.700 --> 01:49.570
and a minimum amount of bladder irritants coming in
01:49.570 --> 01:52.550
to their system in the afternoon and early evening.
01:52.550 --> 01:54.080
There is some data showing
01:54.080 --> 01:58.130
that women can help restore continence and bladder control
01:58.130 --> 02:01.870
for all types of incontinence with Kegel exercises.
02:01.870 --> 02:05.810
The way Kegel exercises work for bladder control,
02:05.810 --> 02:08.720
the Kegel muscles contribute muscle fibers
02:08.720 --> 02:11.790
to the urethral sphincter that wrap around like a doughnut.
02:11.790 --> 02:13.810
So every time you're squeezing the muscles,
02:13.810 --> 02:16.960
you're also exercising the muscles in the sphincter.
02:16.960 --> 02:19.740
This can make the urinary sphincter stronger
02:19.740 --> 02:22.920
and better able to control urine flow,
02:22.920 --> 02:25.160
including preventing incontinence.
02:25.160 --> 02:26.200
This is crucial
02:26.200 --> 02:28.610
because overactive bladder is a chronic condition.
02:28.610 --> 02:30.160
It's not going to go away.
02:30.160 --> 02:32.130
It will always have to be managed.
02:32.130 --> 02:34.380
The earlier you come in for evaluation
02:34.380 --> 02:37.060
for overactive bladder symptoms, the better you are
02:37.060 --> 02:41.260
in terms of keeping your entire body healthy,
02:41.260 --> 02:42.810
and the better off you are
02:42.810 --> 02:47.360
in terms of getting a response to non-medical therapies
02:47.360 --> 02:48.860
like pelvic floor physical therapy
02:48.860 --> 02:52.269
and behavior modification without any medications.
02:52.269 --> 02:54.852 line:15%
(bright music)
Al-Shaiji TF, Radomski SB. Relationship between body mass index and overactive bladder in women and correlations with urodynamic evaluation. Int Neurourol J. 2012 Sep;16(3):126-31.
Diagnosis and treatment of non-neurogenic overactive bladder (OAB) in adults: AUA/SUFU guideline. Linthicum Heights, MD. American Urological Association. (Accessed on April 12, 2021 at http://www.auanet.org/guidelines/overactive-bladder-(oab)-(aua/sufu-guideline-2012-amended-2014)#x3763.) Find an immediate way to manage your condition. Charleston, SC. National Association for Continence. (Accessed on April 12, 2021 at https://www.nafc.org/triage-1.) Lifestyle changes. Linthicum, MD: Urology Care Foundation. (Accessed on April 12, 2021 at https://www.urologyhealth.org/urologic-conditions/overactive-bladder-(oab)/treatment/lifestyle-changes.)