Use of Magnets for Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence involves the sudden loss over the control of your bladder, and when this occurs, there is an underlying condition that is responsible. Underlying causes for urinary incontinence include alcohol consumption, excessive hydration, dehydration, caffeine consumption, an irritated bladder, certain medications, infections, constipation, pregnancy, childbirth, and natural aging. Magnet therapy can prove beneficial for some forms of urinary incontinence.

Types of Incontinence

• There are several different types of incontinence, including stress, urge, overflow, functional, and anatomic forms of incontinence. Stress incontinence involves involuntary leakage of urine when you exert yourself through exercise, coughing, laughing, lifting, or sneezing. Urge incontinence occurs when you feel the sudden need to urinate, and experience a lost sense of control over your bladder while running water, drinking, sleeping, or during everyday activities. Overflow incontinence occurs when you are incapable of emptying your entire bladder, which, in turn, causes a need to urinate frequently. Meanwhile, functional incontinence occurs when an individual is incapable of making it to the bathroom to urinate either because of a disorder or from natural aging. Finally, anatomic incontinence occurs when you have a physical and/or an existing neurological abnormality that causes leaking urine.

Magnet Therapy

• Magnet therapy uses pulsed electromagnetic fields to strengthen the bladder muscles; this therapy is successful in some patients with urinary incontinence. The underlying cause and the type of urinary incontinence you have play a role in whether magnet therapy for urinary incontinence will be successful. For instance, if you have anatomic incontinence, the neurological and/or physical abnormality may require surgical reparation before magnet therapy can prove beneficial. In addition, in cases where a person has functional incontinence, the physical impairments will still remain even when the bladder muscles are strengthened: this means that magnet therapy may only be partially beneficial in some cases. Finally, if you have an infection that is causing the urinary incontinence, the infection will need to be fully treated before any benefit from magnet therapy can be derived. Ultimately, magnet therapy must be combined with traditional forms of treatment in order to treat issues with incontinency appropriately.

The Process

• Magnet therapy for urinary incontinence is quite beneficial for those individuals suffering from urges and stress incontinence. If you receive magnet therapy, you will be placed upon a special chair that has a built in magnetic coil responsible for generating electromagnetic pulses. The pulses naturally cause the muscles of your pelvic floor to contract: this action will eventually help to strengthen the muscles, so that urinary control and bladder control can be regained through continued therapy. This type of therapy is generally offered for a period of 56 days for two treatments per day; both which are twenty minutes long in duration.

Risks

• Those individuals that have an insulin pump, a pacemaker, a defibrillator, or a liver infusion pump should not engage in magnet therapy; the electromagnetic pulses can interfere with the device's operation. Additionally, during magnet therapy, some people might experience nausea, dizziness, and slower wound healing. Pregnant females should refrain from magnet therapy, since not enough significant studies have been conducted to determine the effects of the therapy on the fetus.