Urinary incontinence, the fancy term for bladder control, is a frequent problem especially in the elderly. It is estimated nearly 50% of people in assisted living facilities suffer with this issue. There are many medical procedures to help these patients, from surgery to medications. The latest treatment is Botox to stop the muscles of the bladder from contracting. All of these treatments do not come without side effects. They also work like most conventional medicine which treats the body like a machine that just has broken parts and the parts need to be manipulated or forced to work properly.

What if there was a treatment without the side effects that instead focused on making the body and its nervous system work properly so the bladder worked like it is supposed to. If you have been reading the articles I write for any time now you know where I’m going with this and we’re going to be talking about Chiropractic care!

The research study I’m reviewing here is a case study of a 63 year old woman who had suffered with trouble controlling her bladder along with neck and low back pain. She was on several medications to treat her overactive bladder. The medications helped decrease the frequency of her symptoms but did not completely resolve them.

She sought out Chiropractic care for her neck and back pain, as so many do; not realizing allowing her body to function properly through Chiropractic adjustments could help her body in other ways too. The Chiropractic exam showed she had subluxations, or misalignments of her spine, in her neck, upper and lower back. She also had major structural misalignments in her spine. When looking at someone’s posture from the front the head should line up over the torso which should line up over the pelvis and feet. In this patients case her torso was shifted to the side instead of lining up over her pelvis. When the spine is viewed from the side it should have three smooth curves in it. It curves forwards in the neck, backwards in the mid back where the ribs are, and forward again in the lower back. The X-ray exam showed no curve in this patient’s neck. Due to these finding she was placed on a corrective Chiropractic program which included adjustments to her subluxations and therapies like specific exercises to correct her postural changes.

The patient was re-evaluated after about 20 visits over the course of 2months. At the re-exam she had no neck or lower back pain and complete resolution of her bladder incontinence. During the course of treatment she even chose to discontinue her medication for her bladder due to the side effects she was experiencing.

This study is yet again another example of how Chiropractic adjustments allow the nervous system to function properly which then allows the body to heal naturally. Irritation to the nerves which signal the bladder when to empty could have been irritated by the subluxations, or misalignments of her spine. Adjusting the spine and then correcting her structural and postural issues reduced this irritation to her spine and nervous system. Once the nervous system can properly communicate with the bladder it begins to function properly. This is why Chiropractic adjustments have been so beneficial to kids that suffer with bedwetting also.

It’s as simple as that!

By: Dr Scott Szela

Ref: A. Vertebral Subluxation Res. August 25, 2014