Combating an Overactive Bladder, Invite Health Podcast, Episode 617
Please see below for a complete transcript of this episode.
COMBATING AN OVERACTIVE BLADDER, INVITE HEALTH PODCAST, EPISODE 617
Hosted by Amanda Williams, MD, MPH.
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InViteⓇ Health Podcast Intro: [00:00:04] Welcome to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast, where our degreed health care professionals are excited to offer you the most important health and wellness information you need to make informed choices about your health. You can learn more about the products discussed in each of these episodes and all that Invite Health has to offer at, www.invitehealth.com/podcast. First time customers can use promo code podcast at checkout for an additional 15% off your first purchase. Let’s get started.† [00:00:34]
*Intro Music*
Amanda Williams MD, MPH: [00:00:40] I’m sure if you think about it for just a moment, you can probably recall a time in your life where you maybe you were traveling in a car and you think, oh my goodness, am I going to make it to my destination, because I really have to go to the bathroom. And you feel like your bladder is going to explode I think everyone can probably relate to that. But can you relate with the fact that this is very common in terms of daily occurrence for folks who are dealing with overactive bladder? And the statistics on OAB is incredibly alarming, and I want to talk about that today. I want to talk about what you can be doing in terms of different nutrients to support your bladder function as you get older. There are many different causative reasons that overactive bladder can occur, but what we do know is that it can be incredibly disruptive to your everyday life. So I’m Dr. Amanda Williams, scientific director at Invite Health. And let’s get right to it. Let’s talk a little bit about overactive bladder. The statistics are really quite amazing, they used to always look at this as being a female issue, that women who had children, for example, that the wear and tear that has on the bladder. But we actually can now recognize that there are many other factors that can cause overactive bladder. And we’re seeing this to be more common even in men now.† [00:02:06]
[00:02:07] We have to look at obesity carrying around that extra weight, how that can put extra pressure on the bladder, which can cause urge, incontinence. Certainly hormonal fluctuations in both men and women have been linked to this, nerve damage is, you know, clearly a physiological reason as to why someone could experience this. But statistically speaking, we know that this affects millions of Americans, and it’s estimated that upwards of 30% of men and upwards of 40% of women, and they expect that that number is actually quite larger than that because many people are embarrassed and they don’t want to talk about this with their doctor. They don’t want to address this elephant in the room, one could say, and we know that this is a major burden because they have done major epidemiological studies looking at the overactive bladder problem that is occurring in this country. There was an interesting study that was done in the early 2000s called the Noble Study. This was the National overactive bladder evaluation study. And in this study, what they were doing as they were assessing the data from over 5000 individuals, and they found statistically that the National prevalence of overactive bladder to be upwards of 15%, and so that’s the whole society as a whole. So we know that this is a very common thing.† [00:03:30]
[00:03:30] There was another follow up study called the Epiluts study, and this is a large population based study that was done not only in the United States, but also pooled data from the UK as well as Sweden, and we can once again see this very strong correlation when it comes to the percent of folks who were dealing with overactive bladder. In this particular study, the Epiluts study, they found that number to be up closer to the 35, 40% of the population that they were assessing and they were looking at the data from over 30,000 men and women. So what do we do about this? We know that this is a problem when you look at, you know, the actual symptoms of overactive bladder, it can be the urge to have to go in uncontrollable need to have to urinate are frequent, going to the bathroom, obviously getting up in the middle of the night, which that we always have to address with prostate related issues in men. But we know that this is a major problem. We know that hormonal conditions certainly can exacerbate this. Women going through menopause and the loss of estrogen, as well as the loss of testosterone, have been highly linked to the weakening of the pelvic floor muscles as well as the bladder. So we can look at different nutrients and say, well, how can these things help? And we can see from the scientific research that there are many things out there that nature provides us that can be incredibly beneficial when it comes to supporting our urinary health, the bladder specifically. So you’ve got, you know, urinary frequency issues, urinary incontinence, that’s more of that involuntary loss of urine. This is, you see this more commonly in women than men. And this is because of the, the potential of damage done due to childbirth. And then you’ve got the overactive bladder which we know that is certainly incredibly problematic affecting one in six adults over the age of 40 years old in this country. So those underlying causes need to be addressed.† [00:05:41]
[00:05:42] Is there a medication that you’re taking that’s perhaps creating this problem? Is there an issue within the nervous system? Is there a problem with hormonal imbalance? These are the things that we always want to zero in on. But we can look to nature and we can say, wow, pumpkin seed extract, which has been utilized you know, for hundreds of years for its different, different medicinal benefits, has been shown all the way back in the 1500s, to be very beneficial for urinary problems, and we start to recognize how it is that that pumpkin seed extract is actually working, and the way that it is enhancing the body’s ability to recognize that pumpkin seed as testosterone and this is really key for both men and women. It allows the body to say, oh, hey, this pumpkin seed, it works just like the testosterone. So it helps to strengthen those pelvic muscles and so for those who are dealing with overactive bladder and they start to use a formulation such as Bladder Hx, which contains that water soluble pumpkin seed extract. They can start to see this profound shift. We also know that isoflavones, those very powerful nutrients, those phytoestrogens, also can be very beneficial when it comes to the estrogen deficit that’s driving the overactive bladder and the issues with urinary incontinence.† [00:07:08]
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[00:07:09] So in the Bladder Hx, we are combining that pumpkin seed extract with that isoflavones and the three leaf caper, the three leaf caper, this is very beneficial, this is a very powerful extract that has been shown to once again kind of mimic testosterone, natural actions. But it’s a high power antioxidant as well so it really leads to a significant amount of support when it comes to the bladder wall as well as for the urethra. So looking at all of these different studies on pumpkin seed extract, on isoflavones, there was a combination study that was highly impressive that combined the two, the pumpkin seed extract with the isoflavones, and they were utilizing this in postmenopausal women who were dealing with stress, urinary incontinence as well as overactive bladder. And after 12 weeks of taking this combo of pumpkin seeds extract with Isoflavones, they saw significant improvement in their symptoms. So these are women who have been struggling with this for a very long time and just adding in this combo of isoflavones plus pumpkin seed yielded all of this significant improvement. There was another study that was done that showed in just six weeks, a very market improvement in nighttime frequency of urination. So for those who are getting up multiple times throughout the night and having to use the bathroom, which disrupts your sleep, which means it’s going to disrupt your recovery and repair mechanisms in the body and it takes away your energy for the following day. They found that just after six weeks, they saw this market improvement, women were not getting up as often. So they thought, well, let’s try this in men. And they were seeing the same benefit occurring in men so at the end of the day, we know that when we are combining these different nutrients, the isoflavones along with that pumpkin seed extract and the power of that three leaf caper, it really helps to enhance the way that the body is reacting to all of these different contributing factors that leads to overactive bladder. And for people who are suffering with different urination dysfunction throughout their life, this is what they are looking for. They want to be able to have something that comes from nature that can give them that added support, because we know that the prescribed medication, things like Oxybutynin for example, very powerful medication, can be very helpful for those who have overactive bladder.† [00:09:42]
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[00:09:43] But it comes with a cost and the cost is it affects the way that your body can actually manufacture acetylcholine because it’s blocking that pathway, which means your memory will be impacted by this, which is not a great thing, and I’ve talked to many folks throughout the years who have had urinary issues and their doctor have put them on oxybutynin and after a few months, they start to feel like they’re memory’s not as sharp or they’re not as clear as they once used to be. And they oftentimes don’t correlate it to the medication, they just chalk it up as normal aging, and it’s not, it’s a side effect to the medications. So when we are trying to improve our overall quality of life and give that support for our bladder, looking at a formulation such as Bladder Hx, is a really good turn to because we see the science behind how these three combined nutrients can really help to kind of fast track our bladder back to a pathway of overall wellness, and that’s what we’re always after. So I definitely encourage you to check the Bladder Hx formulation out. Obviously, for men who are also dealing with any type of an enlarged prostate they would want to partner up the Bladder Hx with the Prostate Hx, and of course, speak with one of our nutritionists as to how to best use this formulation based on your specific needs. And I want to thank you so much for tuning in to the InViteⓇ Health Podcast Remember, you can find all of our episodes for free wherever you listen to Podcasts or by visiting Invitehealth.com/podcast. Do make sure that you subscribe and you leave us a review. You can follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And we will see you next time for another episode of the InViteⓇ Health Podcast.† [00:09:43]
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