Bladder Irritants

There are certain things that our bladders generally do not like. For some people, when their bladder is exposed to these ‘irritants’, it may give them symptoms of urgency to urinate. Such things may include (but are not limited to):

✨Caffeine (think coffee, tea, chocolate)
✨Alcohol
✨Carbonated drinks
✨Artificial sugars
✨Excess salt in our diet
✨Smoking
✨Drinking a lot of fluid all at once (our bladders don’t like having to rapidly expand)
✨Not drinking enough fluid (this can make our urine more concentrated and irritate our bladder wall)
✨Being constipated (this puts extra external pressure on the bladder)

Sometimes it’s difficult to work out just exactly what it is that irritates our bladder. A sensation related bladder diary can come in handy. If you’re having issues with urgency contact your continence Physiotherapist to help you learn more about how the bladder behaves and what you can do about it.