Bladder problems and diabetes

When people age common health problems as well as bladder problems may occour. Having diabetes can mean an earlier onset and increased severity of these bladder problems. This is because diabetes can damage your nerves. The best way to prevent this is by keeping the diabetes under control with medication. Faliure to do this means increased risk of bladder problems and Urinary Tract Infections (UTI). People with diabetes have more often and more severe bladder problems!

Nerve damage and Bladder Problems

The brain sends signals to muscles and internal organs through nerves. Some signals are under your direct contral, like the signals to your arm-muscles. Some signals, like the signals to your bladder, is autonomic signals sent through your autonomic nerve system. Uncontrolled diabetes or poorly controlled diabetes will damage all nerves, including the autonomic nerves that tries to control your bladder. This means problems for you - Bladder Problems!

Diabetes and Bladder symptoms

Bladder dysfunction can be a result of diabetes. This is because the diabetes has damaged the nreves that controls the bladder function. Symptoms of this may be a OVERACTIVE BLADDER - feeling of urinary urgency, urinating at night, leakage of urine (incontinence), or a NEUROGENIC BLADDER - difficulty to urinate, comlete failure to empty bladder (retention).

Neurogenic Bladder

A Neurogenic Bladder means that your nreves to your bladder has been damaged. This results in either that you have trouble with holding your urine - leakage, or that you have trouble releasing your urine. If you have troule with releasing your urine the urine can travel back to your kidneys. This can damage your kidnays and/or cause a Kidney Infection/Urinary Tract Infection. If you have a neurogenic bladder with leaking urine medications or surgery may help you. Having a neurogenic bladder can also mean that you are unable to feel when your bladder is full. If you have this problem you may have to insert a catheter - a thin tube - into the urethraand the bladder to drain the urine from the strained bladder. Medication and training could also help.