When it comes to MS and bladder function, a few
different kinds of problems can result.
Multiple Sclerosis is known for attacking and damaging the nervous
system, especially with damaging the myelin sheath along the spinal
cord and with attacking and causing scarring through out the brain.
The brain is the master controller for the body, which normally sends
instructions through nerve signals through out the body to tell the
different parts of the body how to function.
The effects of Multiple Sclerosis on the nervous system often results
in the nerve signals becoming scrambled, blocked or
over reactive in one way or another, so that the nerve signals do not
reach the part of the body that was the original intended destination .
Many different parts of the body can function less or develop many
different kinds of symptoms, depending on where the Multiple Sclerosis
attacks the nervous system in the body.
MS bladder function problems can be one of the many problems
that can result in the body.
MS bladder function problems can include trouble with the bladder not
draining as it should, problems with the bladder leaking when it should
not (frequently wetting yourself), loss of
bladder control at night, urgency getting worse when you are under
stress (stress urgency) or problems with
frequent bladder infections.
Because Multiple Sclerosis is known for weakening the immune system in
the majority of the cases of Multiple Sclerosis, this sets up those
with Multiple Sclerosis for
frequent infections, of which MS bladder infections appear to be a
problem more often.
Multiple Sclerosis can also result in nerve pain in different locations
throughout the body, numbness, pins and needles, or odd
sensations that come and go.
When there is numbness in the bladder region, this can cause much more
of a problem when the MS bladder infections are present, since this
prevents the typical pain from occurring, which often accompanies the
majority of
bladder infections, that signals that a bladder infection is present.
This means that a person with Multiple Sclerosis can have a
bladder infection for 1 or 2 months before they find out that
they even have it,
which can allow the bladder infections to become so out of control that
even with antibiotics that the bladder infections can be very difficult
to get under control.
Problems often result from the effect of Multiple Sclerosis on
weakening the immune system, making it difficult for our bodies to
fight off infections of all kinds. One of the more common
infections that is seen in most of the cases of Multiple Sclerosis that
doctors are seeing includes frequent bladder infections, which can be
mild to severe.
Often when those of us who
have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis have a bladder infection,
they are typically difficult for our bodies to be able to fight off the
infection. Because bladder infections can occur quite frequently with
Multiple Sclerosis, there are too many times that doctors feel the need
to prescribe
antibiotics for us to take to help to kill the bladder infections too
often.
If
the use of antibiotics occurs too many times within a shorter period of
time, this often just weakens our immune systems even further, making
it so much easier for us to end up with one infection after the other,
that can extend the period of time that we have bladder infections for
1
to 6 months at a time.
Multiple
Sclerosis is
known for weakening the immune
system and making it so much easier for us to come down with so many
more
infections, than the average person will ever seem to know.
Any type of infection can influence
how out of control the rest of our MS
symptoms can
become.
Surprisingly,
not
all of the infections that those of us with Multiple Sclerosis do end
up with can cause the long list
of potential symptoms
of MS to
flair up and
cause MS
exacerbations to
become much worse than they could be otherwise.
MS and bladder
problems are a direct result of the MS attacks on the body, which can
contribute to nerve function problems and increase the number of
bladder infections, which can result.
Bladder infections also tend
to set up the body for more MS relapses, than most
other types of
infections.
Many of the people
that I have talked to, who also have Multiple Sclerosis,
have told me that when they have bladder infections, this can scramble
their brain (as far as how well they can think, how well they can form
sentences, how well they can speak or spell, or the bladder infections
can make remembering things much more difficult to name a few) or
aggravate many of their MS symptoms by over stimulating the
nervous
system.
I have experienced many of these
problems too, off
and on,
whenever I have a bladder infection. These things don't
always happen
to me, when I have a bladder infection, but they do occur a majority of
the time, when I do have a bladder infection.
Since
those of us, who have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, already
have an over stimulated nervous system, this just adds to the
real
possibility of having more ms relapses, attacks or exacerbations.
MS
symptoms that
can be affected by bladder infections can include:
*
Fatigue -- can become
overwhelming.
*
Cognitive problems
-- can become worse - thinking things through logically, or figuring
things out
and solving problems can become almost impossible.
* MS
speech problems
-- everything can become a word
scramble or the
bladder infections can
cause more problems with slurring your words when you try to talk.
This
means that often dyslexia can take over and writing, speaking and
interpreting
things can become much more difficult.
*
Incontinence -- loss of
bladder control can become so bad that you starting wetting yourself
frequently
without having enough warning that you can even attempt to make it to
the
restroom to empty the bladder.
A severe bladder infection can also
cause you to
have to
empty the bladder much more often.
* vision or eye problems
-- are increased; vision
can become blurry, out of focus, become dimmer and make it much more
difficult
to read or even to see.
*
bladder pain -
bladder infections are typically
very painful and the pain can be so much worse for those with MS,
because just about any type of pain can cause the nervous system to
become over
stimulated and add to how intense the nerve pain can become.
* bladder
numbness or
numbness of
urethral canal or urethral
opening-
if you have
numbness instead of bladder pain, the numbness can actually
increase when a
severe
bladder infection is present, which increases your chances of ending up
with a much more severe bladder infections, the pain often signals that
you have the beginning of a bladder infection.
Bladder
infections and/or bladder inections
are frequent problems for many who have been diagnosed
with Multiple Sclerosis.
As far as the bladder
infections
go, helping to boost the immune system can help the body of
even
those with Multiple Sclerosis to be able to fight off bladder
infections more easily.
Several herbs and
other supplements
can help with boosting the immune system and fighting off ms bladder
infections.
The
herbs and other supplements that I found that help (and that I still
use when I find the need to) include the following:
* Vitamin
D can help to boost the Multiple
Sclerosis immune system and
help reduce bladder infections and other infections, along with helping
to
reduce the frequency and severity of most infections.
* Uva
Ursi - an herb that helps to naturally kill the organism
called E-coli, which is one of the main causes of bladder infections.
* D-Mannose
- this is the active ingredient in cranberry juice that helps to fight
off bladder infections by making the bladder wall slippery to the
bacteria, preventing it from taking hold in the bladder and becoming a
full blown infection.
This can be purchased as a powdered
form in
most vitamin stores.
If taken as soon as the initial
symptoms
of
a bladder infection is noticed, this prevents the infection from taking
hold and becoming a very severe bladder infection.
This
supplement can be taken as a preventative measure too, to avoid bladder
infections more often if taken on a more regular basis.
D-Mannose powder can be mixed with
water or juice of any
kind. I tend to mix it using a small shaker with cranberry
juice.
* Vitamin
C - can help to fight off infections by boosting the
immune
system and helping the body's own natural defense mechanisms to fight
off the infection much sooner.
Vitamin C also helps the body
to
fight off most of types of infections too.
Vitamin C can be
purchased as a crystalline, powder, capsule or tablet form.
I
find
it much easier to absorb the larger quantities of vitamin C if I take
the ascorbic acid crystalline form and mix it with water or juice to
take it.
If vitamin C tends to bother your
stomach, you can take a buffered form of vitamin C that is often called
Ester-C or calcium-vitamin C or something like that.
To determine how much vitamin C your
body needs to help to boost the immune system to fight
off infections, I gradually
increase how much I take until I get close to bowel tolerance (loose
stools, but not diarrhea) and then I decrease the amount I'm taking
just a little from here.
Vitamin C absorbs better if taken in
divided doses throughout the day. I usually take 5,000 to
7,000 mg 2 to 3 times per day to start with, when I have an infection.
The presence of an infection can
increase the amount of
vitamin C you body needs, as well as increase the amount of vitamin C
that your body can tolerate taking each day.
* Horsetail
- another helpful herb for helping the body to fight off bladder
infections.
*
Frequency
generator
- there a few different type of devices fall under this category, with
some differences in functionality and use. The devices that
fall
under this category are FDA approved medical
devices, that
have many other names and different forms of the device that helps to
reduce how severe the bladder infections can become.
I
actually
have a form of this device that helps, more often than not, with
killing the organism, that causes the majority of the bladder
infections that I tend to have because of my weakened immune system
because of the effects of Multiple Sclerosis on my body. My
form of the device is called a "Rife machine".
If
all fails, for the very severe bladder infections, that I can't seem to
fight off, my doctor does resort to using prescription antibiotics for
the bladder infections. The reasons my doctor minimizes using
antibiotics for me is because I develop resistance to the antibiotics
if taken too often in a shorter period of time and they don't work when
I really need them to work the most.
Because
of Mutiple Sclerosis greatly reduces my immunity at times, MS and bladder
infections can
be a very big problem for me.
I can have such a big problem
with
bladder infections weakening my immune system that I can get one
infection after the other for 4 to 6 months at a time, before my immune
system bounces back some and then I don't have a bladder infection
again for at least 3 to 6 months.
Boosting
immunity can also be accomplished by taking the herbs Echinacea
and
Astragalus.
The one thing you need to keep in mind with these
type
of herbs is that they can only be taken for 2 weeks straight before you
will need to take a 2 week break from taking them so that this can
actually help to keep from overstimulating the immune system too much
all at one.
There
are other alternative and natural ways that can help to either boost
your ms immune system to help fight off infections or
to
actually help to kill the organism that is the culprit for causing the
bladder infection in the first place, but these are the natural ways
that I try to use at first when I have a bladder infection,
before
I resort to the possibility of taking antibiotics again.
Often
taking antibiotics for a prolonged period of time actually weakens
the
(since taking
antibiotics tends to weaken the ms immune system even more and
set up
our bodies for a vicious cycle of one bladder infection after
another). To prevent this from occurring, we need to take
probiotics or acidophilus.
Antibiotics don't
know the difference between "good" bacteria and "bad" bacteria and they
just end up killing everything at one time, even the "good" bacteria
that helps to strengthen the immune system.
During the time
that
antibiotics are taken (and probably for 2 to 4 weeks after stopping
taking the antibiotics), the probiotics or acidophilus supplements
should be taken to help rebuild and strengthen the immune system again.
