Bladder Health—Knowing the Basics

Figure 1.  Dr. Eric Berg's cheat sheet on how to fix frequent urination

Your kidneys are part of your urinary tract – along with your bladder and the tubes that connect these organs (the urethra and ureter). The main purpose of your kidneys is to clean the waste from your blood. The good news is that kidney infections aren’t common. They’re essentially a much more serious urinary tract infection.^[1]

Video 1.  Frequent bladder infections are tied to breast cancer (YouTube link)

Bladder Infection vs Kidney Infection

Bladder infections very rarely progress to kidney infections.

You will be pretty sick if you have a kidney infection, and it’s important that you seek treatment right away.

Symptoms of a bladder infection are:

• Urgency and frequency in using the bathroom
• Burning with urination

while symptoms of a kidney infection are much more severe and include:^[1]

• Fever and flu-like symptoms
• Lower back or side pain
• This can be on the left or right side of your back depending on which kidney is infected. “It may feel like you were hit in the back with a baseball bat,” Dr. Vasavada says.
• Nausea and vomiting
• Urine that is cloudy, has blood in it and is foul smelling
• A general sense of malaise

Video 2.  How to Fix Urination Frequency at Night (Nocturia) for Good (YouTube link)

Overactive Bladder

Overactive bladder, also called OAB, causes a frequent and sudden urge to urinate that may be difficult to control. You may feel like you need to pass urine many times during the day and night, and may also experience unintentional loss of urine (urgency incontinence).^[3]

Medications are available for people with bladder control problems:

You can take a look at medications commonly prescribed to treat urinary incontinence and their possible side effects in [2]. 

Keep in mind that medication combined with behavioral treatment, healthy diets (watch video 1), and stop snacking at night (watch video 2) might be more effective than medication alone.  Also, noted that:^[4]

Drinking mass quantities of any liquid will inevitably send you to the bathroom, but beer, booze and wine amplify the effect. The reason? Alcohol is a diuretic, which – in the simplest of terms – increases the production of urine.

References

1. Urinary Tract Health, From Bladder to Kidney Infections
2. Bladder control: Medications for urinary problems
3. Overactive bladder - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic
4. Is ‘Breaking the Seal’ a Real Thing When Drinking Alcohol?