by Jaimela King

Created on: October 18, 2008

It can interrupt your day, your plans, your work and your leisure time. You may lbe forced to limit your activities and scour your surroundings for quick escape routes amd bathroom signs when outside the home. Knowing the location and the quickest and easiest path to a bathroom can be a major preoccupation when in unfamiliar territory.

Urinary incontinence is an embarrassing and distressing medical problem that severely limits the patient's freedom and quality of life. If you suffer from incontinence, you no longer have voluntary control over excretory actions as it relates to urine or feces. You are most likely in your adult years, possibly overweight, a smoker or a regular coffee of alcohol drinker. These are just some of the risk factors associated with incontinence.

To understand the causes of urinary incontinence, which is the focus of this article, it is necessary to understand how your body functions. In your body's urinary tract system, you have the kidneys where the urine is formed, the bladder which stores the urine and a network of tubes connecting them to the outside of your body. It is when this network for urinary storage is stressed due to damage or weakness of the pelvic floor and other conditions, that incontinence occurs.

Now there are two types of incontinence with related causes. You may have already experienced situations where you have a good laugh only to realize that you wet yourself in the process. Incontinence brought on by laughter coughing or sneezing is described as Incontinence of Stress. The other type of incontinence is the Incontinence of Urge, where you just have to go and ignoring the urge is not an option. Incontinence of Stress is not as serious as Incontinence of Urge as it can be treated with proper pelvic exercises.

There is also a difference drawn between the causes of temporary incontinence and ongoing incontinence. If you have ever had a urinary tract infection, you know what incontinence feels like a severe urge to urine over which you have little control. It is, however, a temporary condition and disappears when the condition is rectified. Other causes of temporary incontinence are constipation, heavy alcohol consumption, certain beverages like tea and coffee and some medications taken for high blood pressure and heart disease.

Ongoing incontinence is more troublesome as it is always with you and can result from a myriad of conditions. If your nervous system is affected as a result of an injury or disease or if you have

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