Group Travel Tips for People With An Overactive Bladder

AN OVERACTIVE BLADDER DOESN’T HAVE TO STOP YOU FROM TRAVELING WITH A GROUP

Group travel is an excellent way to make new friends while exploring dream travel destinations. But for people with overactive bladder (OAB), these vacations can be stressful and embarrassing. When you’re in a group setting, it’s hard to accommodate a frequent urge to go.

Before you cancel your next group vacation, consider taking steps to regain control over your bladder. With the following tips, you may not need the bathroom any more than your fellow travelers.

Four Tips to Manage and Improve Overactive Bladder Symptoms

1. Start Bladder Training

One of the easiest and most effective ways to reduce how often you have to go is to work on training your bladder. (1,2) With bladder training, you slowly increase the time between bathroom breaks. To train your bladder, wait for five minutes or more after you need to pee before voiding your bladder. Waiting longer between bathroom breaks increases your bladder capacity and retrains your nervous system, helping you pee less often.

To track your progress, keep a bathroom journal where you record when you pee. Add up the times you go to the bathroom every day, and you should slowly see improvements. You may start with intervals of just 30 or 60 minutes between bathroom trips and eventually succeed at waiting three or four hours.

Another way to track your progress is to take our bladder control test. This test helps you identify your bladder problems and see how they change over time.

2. Take Bladder Health Supplements

Various herbs support bladder health and function by improving blood circulation, impacting hormone levels, and supporting muscle tone and strength. BetterMAN and BetterWOMAN are Chinese herbal supplements designed to enhance bladder health.* Both supplements underwent clinical testing, with participants reporting urinary frequency and urgency benefits after sixty days.*

3. Avoid Caffeine, Alcohol, and Carbonation

What you eat and drink influences how often you need to urinate. For people with an overactive bladder, frequent urination culprits can make an already frustrating situation worse. When you’re on your trip, consider limiting or avoiding coffee, tea, alcohol, and carbonated beverages, as these drinks exacerbate urgency and frequent urination. (3,4)

4. Strengthen Your Pelvic Floor

Your pelvic floor muscles play a central role in bladder health, with weak pelvic floor muscles causing many bladder problems. These bladder issues include difficulties holding in urine, dripping or leaking urine, a splashing urine stream, trouble emptying your bladder, and a frequent urge to urinate.

Many adults have a weak pelvic floor caused by carrying extra weight or giving birth. To strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, try Kegel exercises. (5) To perform a Kegel, pull your pelvic floor muscles in for a count of ten, and then relax.

For a complete guide to Kegels, read our article: Bladder Control Problems? These Exercises May Help.

Read Related Articles: Overactive Bladder (OAB), Frequent Urination, Bladder Urgency