As part of this month’s Continence Awareness Week two nurses are sending the message that there is no shame to incontinence, as they attempt to break down the stigma attached to the condition.

Continence advisors Helen Pursch and Elizabeth Shaw said bad continence problems will affect one in four Australians at some point in their lives, but 60% do not seek medical help.

Which is mostly due to the embarrassment factor. But often the problem can be easily fixed with a few simple life changes or by using some of the excellent products now available.

They say it is important to note that incontinence is not just a part of ageing that one must accept. There are various types of incontinence and various causes, ranging from nervousness to stress incontinence after childbirth.

The theme of Continence Awareness Week this year was carers, focusing on the impacts of those around patients with continence problems.

If you require any other incontinence help & advice or are looking for excellent products to aid your condition please visit the Allanda website.

Dr. Danny Keiller, a San Diego-based urologist says men and women are different in dealing with incontinence.

Dr. Keiller says that whilst it is not so common for men to experience urinary incontinence they do not always deal with it as well as women.
 
Men are reluctant to admit incontinence. They often do not seek treatment in a timely manner.

Keiller says: “Men don’t sit around and talk to other guys when they have this problem. As a result most guys don’t always recognize symptoms or know the various options to solving incontinence.”

The most common causes of the condition are being overweight, heavily smoking or diabetes. It is also one of the most common side effects of prostate cancer treatment.

Some men choose incontinence pads long term. But this solution is slow in coming. The products must be made for men, to fit the male pelvis.

So it’s lucky that here at Allanda we are ahead of the game in providing a full range of Male incontinence products.

For more information on our disposable and washable products, as well as help & advice please visit the Allanda website.

Townsville Hospital in north Queensland is leading the way in treating women with urinary stress incontinence.

The hospital is one of the first in Australia to use a MINIARC – a non-invasive miro-sling fitted during day surgery.

Professor Ajay Rane, the hospital’s director of urogynaecology:

“The surgical procedure is quite a small procedure – it takes about two to three minutes, it involves making a small cut where the bladder is and then we insert this little sling.”

The structure is so robust that we believe it will hold on even if you were to say go for a run after 48 hours or lift some heavy shopping bags.”

He added: “Our oldest patient is 95-years-old and our youngest patient is 17. In fact, the operation is so minimally invasive it can be done in some instances under local anaesthesia and therefore it can be actually used for patients of any age group whatsoever.”

Whilst these sorts of treaments are suited to some people, others prefer the completely non-invasive option.

If this is you, then Allanda provide all the products and advice required to deal with your incontinence.

Please visit the website for more information.

A new Cochrane review found that disposable insert pads are most effective in the management of light urinary incontinence in women.

The review’s findings, reveal that for leakage prevention, overall acceptability and preference, disposable inserts were best for light urinary incontinence.

Of the 85 women taking part in the study the majority preferred the disposable insert pads, but some preferred the other cheaper designs.

The review’s authors concluded that allowing women to choose their preferred design of absorbent product would be more cost-effective and would provide better patient satisfaction than the provision of disposable insert pads alone.

The authors said that light urinary incontinence can be difficult to define because urine volumes, flow and frequency rates may vary while still being considered ‘light’. A practical definition is urine loss that can be contained within a small absorbent pad.

For more information on urinary and other types of incontinence and the products available here at Allanda, please visit our website.

Northamptonshire will receive £800,000 over the next two years to support carers.

The county is one of 25 places in the country to receive funding as part of a new initiative by the Department of Health to find the best ways to support carers.

The money is being given to NHS Northamptonshire to help the county’s 59,000 carers.

NHS Northamptonshire director of safeguarding said: “Carers perform a vital role in looking after their loved ones, but we know this can take a toll on their own health and quality of life.

This project looks to help carers by providing additional support such as respite breaks and health and wellbeing checks.”

It aims to provide better access to good information and a range of different types of support for carers.

NHS Northamptonshire will also introduce a new role, the carers’ health lead, which will involve raising the profile of carer issues.

Speaking at the Carers UK conference, Care Services Minister, Phil Hope said: “To say carers are unsung heroes and heroines is an understatement.

He adds: “We must help them maintain their own health and well-being and find better ways for the NHS to support them.”

Here at Allanda, we aim to provide the products and advice required to aid carers of someone with incontinence, in the hope that it will make their work lives easier.

For more information on our products and delivery services, please visit the Allanda website.

Everybody is different, and what people want from an incontinence product can differ significantly as well. So when using the right product, whether for urinary incontinence (stress incontinence or urge incontinence) or fecal problems, having a large selection to choose from is important. A large incontinencechoice enables you to find the right mix of size, absorbency, re-usability, fixation etc.

That’s why we are constantly adding new products to our range and in the last few weeks we added Tena Pants Discreet Extra (Medium and Large), the cost effective Lille Supreme Pull-up Incontinence Pants, and great value Lille Classic Form Incontinence Pads, a wide range of Tena Hygiene Accessories, plus larger value pack counts of Tena Comfort Extra, Tena Comfort Plus, Tena for Men Level 1 and Tena for Men Level 2. Not to mention smaller packs counts of Tena Fix.

When it comes to Incontinence Choice, Allanda aim to give you the best selection around, backed up by our reknowned great value and fast delivery.

A new solution to women’s stress urinary incontinence TVT-Secur tension-free tape has been tested.

A total of 32 hammock-shaped tape interventions were performed on patients who had stress urinary incontinence. Each patient underwent urogynecological assessment with urodynamic evaluation and performed a quality of life questionnaire.

None of the 32 women had any surgical complication, postoperative pain or blood loss greater than 100 cc following the treatment. A few minor complications were recorded and the sling eroded in 1 case.

Urinary continence was achieved in all patients after surgery and at assessments 12 to 18 months later. All the patients confirmed immediate satisfaction with continence and pain on the questionnaire.

TVT-Secur is a minimally invasive surgical technique for stress urinary incontinence in females.

Although procedure has proven to be effective, there are other ways of managing your incontinence that do not involve any surgery.

For further advice and information on stress urinary incontinence, as well as a variety of product, please visit the Allanda website.

The most common cancer in men, other than skin cancers, is Prostate cancer; about one in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during their lifetime. The good news is, men who are affected by the disease have a wider selection of effective treatment and very high survival rates if detected early.

However, after men finish their treatment they are often faced with an additional treatment side effects, such as urinary incontinence.

Scott Williams, vice president of the Men’s Health Network, says…

“Dealing with the post-treatment side effects of prostate cancer is tough, men can regain a sense of control during their recovery period by learning more about conditions like urinary incontinence — one of the most common treatment side effects — so they know what to expect and how they can manage it.”

There are a number of helpful online resources available for men, such as Allanda; we provide men, including those suffering or recovering from prostate cancer, with straight-talking educational information on urinary incontinence as well as offering advice on incontinence products, should you wish to ask a personal question in private then ask our Nurse Shona, who specialises in incontinence care.

For men who are recovering from Prostate Cancer and urinary incontinence, Shona recommends the following:

* Talk to your doctor, as understanding the side effects of Prostate cancer treatment will help you come to terms with the condition and manage incontinence more effectively.

* Join a local prostate cancer support group to exchange valuable tips, advice and experience on dealing with the side effects of prostate cancer treatment.

* Be patient and give yourself time, some side effects of prostate cancer treatment like urinary incontinence are often temporary.

For more information and advice on male urinary incontinence contact Allanda.

The Age Concern and Help the Aged medical research teams are joining forces with the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) to fund new research into incontinence.

The collaboration has already seen four research projects receive funding into a wide range of studies including projects addressing the basic biology of the bladder and bowel.

According to the Department of Health, incontinence is one of the main reasons why older people enter residential care. Many people can become house bound which can lead to isolation and depression. But due to the nature of the condition and ‘taboo’ surrounding it, it receives hardly any awareness and subsequently little funding for research into possible preventions and cures.

So this unique collaboration between the older people’s charity and the Government research council aims to both raise awareness about incontinence, as well as providing funding for key medical research.

The medical research arm of Age Concern and Help the Aged, said:

“The collaboration between Research into Ageing and the BBSRC is an important step in the right direction as it will fund some really exciting research projects, but perhaps more importantly also raise awareness about incontinence, which can so severely affect a person’s quality of life.”

This is an exciting move forward for incontinence. Here at Allanda we concentrate on providing the best incontinence products and advice to you, because we know how important quality of living is!

For more details on what we retail, please visit the Allanda website.

With India having one of the largest cases of incontinence in the world, The International Continence Society organised a conference as part of the first World Continence Week observed by the society.

The organisation is planning to hold several seminars and camps across the state to generate public awareness on the issue.

Event organiser Kamal Gaira said: “We are also in talks with various girls’ colleges such as Maharani’s to conduct sessions on patient education and help them understand the symptoms of the disorder.”

Incontinence affects 200 million people worldwide. In India, 12% women are affected by it, while 14.5% suffer from this disorder across Asia.

A presentation was given by Dr Sapna Basandani she said that it was not just women, but men too experience incontinence.

She said: “Forty percent incontinence cases can be cured, but very few report it to their family and doctors due to embarrassment. By the time it is diagnosed, the cases turn acute.”

Incontinence is a condition experienced by many people worldwide, that is why Allanda understands the importance of good incontinence care.

We provide help & advice, as well as all the various incontinence products you need to live a happy and normal life.

For more on our range of products please click here.