Question: How can I prevent bladder control problems?
Answer: You can’t always prevent bladder control problems such as urinary incontinence (UI), but good habits can keep your bladder as healthy as possible.

Follow a healthy eating plan

Healthy eating may prevent factors that raise your chances of developing UI, such as obesity and diabetes. No direct scientific evidence links nutrition to making UI better or worse.

Many people find that alcohol; spicy foods; chocolate; artificial sweeteners; caffeinated, carbonated, and citrus beverages; and high-acid foods, such as citrus and tomatoes, may contribute to bladder irritation and inflammation, which can sometimes lead to UI. You may want to avoid these foods and drinks for a time to see if your symptoms improve. A registered dietitian can help you plan meals if you’re trying to avoid certain foods that make your UI worse.

Drink enough liquids

Drink enough liquids so you need to urinate every few hours. Learn what’s normal for you and avoid becoming dehydrated. Your urine should be pale yellow if you are drinking enough liquids. Talk with your health care professional about how much liquid you should drink based on your size, activity level, and where you live. Water is best. However, if you have kidney failure or heart failure, you should not drink too much water.

Keep a healthy weight

If you’re overweight or have obesity, losing weight may improve your UI, and keeping a healthy weight may prevent UI. If you’re overweight, talk with your health care professional about how to lose weight by eating healthy and being physically active. Your chances of developing UI and other diseases and conditions, such as diabetes, increase if you have obesity. Managing obesity and diabetes may lessen UI, especially in women.7

Change your bathroom habits

Go to the bathroom when you need to go. Often, people hold their urine in because it’s not a convenient time to go to the bathroom. However, regularly holding urine in can wear out your bladder muscles. You’re also more likely to develop a bladder infection if you hold urine in. Bladder infections can cause UI.

Women should try to relax the muscles around their bladder when they urinate to make it easier to go. It’s best to sit on the toilet seat or in a full crouching squat. Hovering over a toilet seat to avoid touching it does not allow the muscles to fully relax, and urine may be left in the bladder. Take as much time as you need to urinate and fully empty your bladder.

Quit smoking

Quitting smoking at any age is good for your bladder health and overall health. Smoking raises your chances of developing stress incontinence, because smoking causes coughing. Smoking also causes most cases of bladder cancer. Some people say smoking makes their bladder irritation worse.

Avoid constipation

Constipation can make urinary tract health worse and can lead to UI. To prevent constipation, eat plenty of high-fiber foods such as whole grains, vegetables, and fruits; drink enough water; and be physically active. Medicines that health care professionals use to treat UI, such as anticholinergics, have side effects that include constipation.

Do pelvic floor muscle exercises

Pelvic floor muscles help hold urine in the bladder. Pelvic floor exercises, also called Kegel exercises, can make those muscles stronger and help keep urine from leaking out when you laugh, cough, sneeze, or lift. Both men and women can benefit from pelvic floor muscle exercises.