Both Urinary and Bowel Incontinence are two prevalent senior diseases and can really affect life styles. The sad part is that some seniors will “just live with it” or will curtail their activities rather than discuss them with their physicians. There are many treatments for both and the medical device and pharmaceutical companies have put many dollars into research.

Urinary Incontinence

• “Leaking” is what many seniors call it.
• There is a growing sub specialty of Urology that is concentrating on women incontinence and are making great advances.
• Solutions include medicine, exercises, medical procedures and possibly surgery.

Fecal or Bowel Incontinence

• Females are more prone to this type of incontinence. The major cause is the effects of childbearing, and can appear 30, 40 or even 50 years later.
• Solutions include medicine, exercise, surgery, biofeedback and minimally invasive procedures that can be performed in the doctor’s office.
• If severe, it can really limit activity and sometimes seniors become “home bound”.

Action Step: If you have urinary incontinence you should see an urologist and a gastroenterologist if fecal or bowel incontinence.

Golden Nugget: Many Seniors get embarrassed when they need to wear Depends or an adult diaper and they shouldn’t. This is a very common affliction for seniors and it has grown into a $600 Million business for Kimberly Clark. They have also made huge strides in design and many times the product looks like regular underwear. No reason to feel ashamed, there are some parts of aging that we don’t like but shouldn’t stop us.