Urinary incontinence is a condition involving uncontrolled urine leaking from the urethra. It most commonly affects women, but men can also experience urinary incontinence.
The most common type of urinary incontinence is stress urinary incontinence (SUI), that occurs during physical activities such as sneezing, lifting something, coughing, or laughing.
Current treatment methods include pelvic exercises to strengthen muscles, and pharmaceutical medications for more extreme cases.
When acupuncture is added to a standard regimen of pelvic exercises, it can naturally decrease urinary incontinence to improve quality of daily life.
Acupuncture for Urinary Incontinence
Acupuncture works effectively to stimulate muscles. When applied for urinary incontinence, it can strengthen pelvic floor muscles and help prevent leakage. Acupuncture also stimulates circulation, which increases cellular activity to repair damaged muscles more quickly and helps to restore regular bladder and kidney function.
Compared to pharmaceutical medication in a clinical study, acupuncture performed 10% better when it came to completely curing patients with SUI. An additional 54% of acupuncture patients experienced significant improvement in their symptoms, whereas only 24% of the medicated patients had significant improvement.
Electroacupuncture, where a light electric current is passed into the needles, provides constant stimulation to acupuncture points. In clinical study, electroacupuncture reduced urinary leakage quantities by 54% over 6 weeks of treatment.
When implemented with acupuncture, Chinese herbs can also help treat urinary incontinence. In a clinical study, acupuncture and herbs had a 91.7% total success rate at treating urinary incontinence in participants.
(Always consult with a licensed Chinese medicine practitioner before starting an herbal regimen.)
If you or a loved one are tired of the daily stresses of urinary incontinence, Chinese medicine can help! Call us at (321) 972-2940 to schedule your initial consultation today.
Sources:
HealthCMI. "Acupuncture Beats Drugs for Urinary Incontinence." (August 14, 2017). Retrieved from http://www.healthcmi.com/Acupuncture-Continuing-Education-News/1779-acupuncture-beats-drugs-for-urinary-incontinence