Following on from the Quilted Single Mattress Protector, we added the Quilted Double Mattress Protector which has the same quilted top which gives extra comfort compared to other mattress protectors and also extra protection against the stains and dampness caused by incontinence so extends the life of your mattress.

The stretch skirt gives a superior fit to fully cover the top and sides of the mattress whilst the quilted polycotton top makes these both noiseless and extra comfortable as well as giving a low level of absorbency as a back up to an absorbent bed pad. This pad is machine washable and can be line or tumble dried if required (always read washing instructions).

A Single size and Quilted Pillow Cover are also available.

Mens Boxer Style Pants

We’ve now added Extra Small to the size options for our Male Boxer Style Washable Incontinence Pants. Giving more size options, these fit a 28-30 inch waist (71-76cm).

These “Boxer” style incontinence pants are made from 100% cotton in the United Kingdom and are like normal underwear but with the additional security of a built in pad to give comfort, confidence and discretion.

Designed for For light to moderate urinary incontinence, This high quality, full fitting brief is machine washable and long lasting (up to 200 washes).

In this design of incontinence pants the pad extends across front and back of brief for full coverage and security. They are also available in Small, Medium, Large, Extra Large and XX Large sizes.

Those who want a refresher on Pelvic Floor Exercises can watch our video.

This video and more can be viewed at any time on our YouTube Channel – http://www.youtube.com/user/AllAboutIncontinence

Some older people routinely have to wait up to three months for formal checks for painful conditions such as bed sores, according to figures from the health care watchdog.

A quarter were not given a choice of male or female staff to help them use the lavatory and more than a third of care homes surveyed admitted delays in getting medication to residents.

Campaigners blamed NHS bureaucrats showing a “lack of interest” and failing to provide expert assessments for conditions as basic as incontinence.

The findings emerged after almost 1,000 elderly people descended on Parliament in March to lobby their MPs calling for a radical overhaul of the social care system.

Paul Burstow, the care minister, signalled that a widely anticipated white paper of the future of social care had been delayed until next month insisting: “Getting it right is better than rushing it out and getting it wrong.”

Among those who addressed the crowd was the actor Tony Robinson, an ambassador for the Alzheimer’s Society, who said it was an “undeniable fact” that the system of social care is now in crisis with millions of people faced with paying large sums for care unlikely to meet their needs in old age.

The Archbishop of York also threw his support behind the lobby. Speaking during a visit to a care home he called for an overhaul of the care system to provide “dignity and peace of mind” to older people.

Fresh evidence of the failings in the system was detailed as a raft of previously unpublished data gathered by the health care regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC) was released.

It was drawn from the first ever nationwide review of how the needs of needs of care home residents across England are met.

The CQC report discloses that people suffering from incontinence have to wait more than two weeks for an assessment of their condition in almost 40 per cent of homes for the elderly surveyed.

But a separate detailed analysis of the CQC data carried out by the British Geriatrics Society, also found that more than 40 per cent specialist providers set themselves a target as long as 90 days to carry out such assessments.

Such delays have led to elderly people being denied the treatment they need or forced to use inappropriate incontinence products.

The CQC research also says that 30 per cent of nursing homes investigated had no clear policy on when to attempt to resuscitate patients who suffer a serious deterioration in their health.

In a quarter of homes, staff admitted they were unsure about the health care needs of those in their care.

The Geriatrics Society study showed that only 57 per cent of Primary care trusts ensure that all elderly people under their responsibility have access to key services including continence assessments, physiotherapy, pressure sore checks and mental health services. In 40 per cent of cases trusts set no specific targets to ensure the services were being delivered. The society concluded that this showed the PCTs had “limited interest” in services for care homes.

Its president, Prof Finbarr Martin, said: “What it shows is that there is a massive disconnect between what the NHS aspires to and what it actually delivers to people in care homes and they are the most vulnerable group of people. The issue is there is a negative about people in care homes. There is a nihilism about care homes that is completely unreasonable and unjustified.”

Michelle Mitchell, director of Age UK, said: “The majority of people living in care homes have profound and complex health care needs.

“The British Geriatrics Society’s CQC data analysis reveals that many thousands of residents are failing to receive basic geriatric and community health care from the NHS. Older people who live in care homes should have the same rights to NHS care as anyone else.”

A spokeswomam for the Department of Health said: “This report is a snapshot of care in 2010. It gives some important pointers for the 500 dignity inspections CQC will be conducting of care homes this year. “Improving medicine management in care homes is a priority for the Government. The Government is determined to spotlight and root out poor undignified care.”

However it is less well known that high blood pressure can also affect the bladder and incontinence.

“Medications can affect the bladder muscles and cause urinary retention and overflow (urge) incontinence,” says Dianna Malkowski, physician assistant, “If heart disease is present, it can cause excessive urine buildup and decreased mobility that makes it difficult to reach the bathroom in time.”

“There are two important elements to controlling and lowering high blood pressure: taking prescribed medications as directed by your doctor, and adopting a healthier lifestyle,” says Malkowski.

Here are some healthy lifestyle tips that even those with normal levels can follow to prevent high blood pressure

1. Maintain a healthy weight. Those whose doctors advise them to lose weight should aim for a rate of 1/2 to 2 pounds per week. Losing 1 pound per week requires eating 3,500 fewer calories, or 500 fewer calories per day, or burning an extra 3,500 calories per week.

2. Stay physically active. Even 30 minutes of moderate-level physical activity on most days of the week can help control high blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease. Moderate-level activity includes housework, gardening, using stairs instead of an elevator, bicycling, swimming and walking.

3. Follow a healthy eating plan. Ask a registered dietician for help creating a diet plan low in sodium, saturated fat, total fat and cholesterol, and high in fruits, vegetables, low-fat dairy, whole grains, poultry, fish and nuts.

4. Keep alcohol consumption low. NHS recommendations are  3-4 units a day if you’re a man, 2-3 units a day if you’re a woman.

5. Quit smoking. Smoking can thicken the blood, leading to increased plaque buildup in arteries and damage to blood vessels leading to the brain.

6. Regularly check blood pressure. Blood pressure can be checked at home with monitors and cuffs designed for personal use.

Mobility impairments (64%), memory loss (64%) and medication side effects (63%) ranked top among their list of concerns. Vision loss (61%), hearing loss (52%) and falls (51%) followed in second place.

Paradoxically, health practitioners appear not to be providing older men with adequate health information on the issues of greatest concern to them. With the exception of addressing medication side effects, men reported that only a minority of them had received counselling on strategies to prevent, screen, and treat health-related conditions that could threaten their physical and mental health. For example, respondents reported that risk factors and screening for mobility impairment and memory loss were only discussed with 13% and 9% of them respectively.

The survey reveals important information gaps for depression (only 9.5% declared that their health care provider had discussed this with them), end-of-life care (12%), osteoporosis (13.5%), Alzheimer’s disease (16%), anxiety (17%) and incontinence (18%). Additionally, because of stigma surrounding incontinence, patients are reluctant to bring up the issue on their own.

The good news is that health problems such as stroke, heart disease, diabetes, pneumonia and prostate disease appear to be well managed, since more than 80% of respondents said that they had been provided with information, screening or treatment for these conditions.

Dr. Tannenbaum, the geriatrician in charge of the investigation, was struck by the disparity between what older men want and what they seem to be receiving from health care professionals. “It is time for the health care system to invest in strategies for older adults to preserve their autonomy, mental health and well-being. As older men and women’s health priorities become better understood, a shift in the way health care is delivered and reimbursed will be required. More time is needed during the patient’s health care encounter to provide individualized counselling about exercise, nutrition, bladder, and brain health in old age. Incontinence post-prostatectomy is becoming more frequent and has a devastating impact on a man’s self-esteem and sexual function. Depression and anxiety, resulting from sensory impairments or the loss of loved ones, and the resultant social isolation that can ensue, are also important issues for men that need to be addressed in order to promote continued independence and quality of life”, states Dr. Tannenbaum. “Increased awareness of these issues through public health campaigns or accredited information on a website for seniors will have to be developed to inform the population of age-related health challenges and how they can be appropriately managed”.

Although women worry more based on results from the 2005 Canadian survey on older women’s health priorities, men appear to share many of the same concerns as women for healthy aging. What stands out for every health issue is that more women worry than men. For example, 88% of older women identified mobility problems, memory loss and medication side effects as their top three health concerns, while only 64% of men admit to being concerned about these issues. Differences can be explained by women’s tendency to be more preoccupied by health issues, possibly as a result of the caregiving roles they traditionally assume for their parents, spouses and children.

A medicine inspired by it could have fewer side-effects than existing treatments, which can cause problems from incontinence to impotence. Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in British men, affecting 37,000 a year and killing more than 10,000.

It may not be low in calories, but pizza does contain an element that could help fight prostate cancer. Researchers from Long Island University, New York, studied carvacrol, a chemical in oregano. Added to prostate cancer cells in the lab, it rapidly wiped them out.  Left for four days, almost all the cells were killed, the Experimental Biology conference in San Diego heard. Tests showed it triggered the cells to kill themselves. The oregano chemical could now be used itself as a treatment against cancer, or as the blueprint for an even more powerful drug.

Experts warned, though, that when oregano is eaten, it could be that carvacrol is digested  before it can do any good.Researcher Supriya Bavadekar, a pharmacologist, said: ‘Some researchers have previously shown that eating pizza may cut down cancer risk. This effect has been mostly attributed to lycopene, a substance found in tomato sauce, but we now feel that even the oregano seasoning may play role.’

Lycopene, the pigment that gives tomatoes their read colour is credited with a host of health benefits, including warding off cancer and cutting the risk of heart disease. Tests have shown Oregano, which is common in pizzas, causes cancer cells to die, and research is now focusing on why this is.

Dr Bavadekar said: ‘If the study continues to yield positive results, this super-spice may present a very promising therapy for patients with prostate cancer.

‘A significant advantage is that oregano is commonly used in food. We expect this to translate into a decreased risk of severe toxic effects.

‘But this study is at a very preliminary stage and further experiments need to be conducted to get a better idea of uses in the clinic.’

Possibilities include using carvacrol itself or using it as the blueprint for an even more powerful treatment.

However many professionals stressed that it is too early for men to start stocking up on pizza.
Margaret Rayman, a Surrey University professor of nutritional medicine who has compiled a cookbook of recipes designed to keep prostate cancer at bay said that much more work needs to be done. For instance, any oregano-inspired treatment would have to be much less harmful to healthy cells than cancerous ones.

Doctors “need to do a careful history and exam, and if you do that you probably don’t need an expensive, uncomfortable and invasive test,” said lead researcher Dr. Charles Nager of the University of California, San Diego.

About 260,000 women have surgery each year in the USA for stress urinary incontinence, urine leakage that can be triggered by coughing, sneezing or other physical movement. That type of incontinence affects up to half of women at some point in their lives.

A combination of tests is sometimes ordered before surgery, one measures urine flow while voiding. Another involves filling the bladder and measuring both the pressure inside the bladder and the abdominal pressure on the bladder with the help of a separate tube in the rectum.

The goal is to identify the best surgical technique for correcting the problem. Although good estimates are hard to find, “it seems like these tests are done most of the time,” said Nager. “In some countries testing is almost universally done.”

To see if the test results affected the success rate for surgery, participants first had an office evaluation where doctors looked for signs of leakage when a woman had a full bladder. Then, half the women with a confirmed diagnosis of stress incontinence were subjected to the additional tests.

Those types of patients, who demonstrate stress incontinence in the office but empty their bladder fine and haven’t had surgery before, account for most women with stress urinary incontinence, Nager said.

Based on a variety of questionnaires, the researchers found that after 12 months, surgery was successful in about 77% of women who did or didn’t get additional testing.

They also found the extra testing made no difference when it came to quality of life, patient satisfaction, voiding problems or other measures.

And although findings from the extra tests often led doctors to change their specific incontinence-related diagnosis, that didn’t affect how they managed patients surgically, according to findings published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.

“We therefore question the clinical importance of such diagnostic changes,” the researchers concluded.

Dr. J. Quentin Clemens of the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, a urologist who wasn’t connected to the research, said that although this type of study hadn’t been done before, the findings are consistent with what urologists would anticipate and with guidelines from the American Urological Association.

“I think it’s what people would have expected given the type of patients they were studying,” said Clemens.

He noted that the research involved women where the diagnosis was clear and the symptoms of stress incontinence were unambiguous.

“There are many patients where, after doing the basic workup, the diagnosis isn’t certain,” he said. And in those cases the follow-up testing can be “extremely important to make sure we’re doing the right thing,” said Clemens.

“Unfortunately, many physicians don’t even look for leakage,” Nager said. Some, he added, probably find it “easier and more lucrative” to just do the more advanced and expensive testing.

Automatically ordering that extra testing on all incontinence patients wouldn’t be consistent with guidelines, according to Clemens. The new research “helps to reinforce the message, so I think (the study) will have some effect,” he added.

The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK has also recommended against such pre-surgery tests for women who clearly already have stress incontinence.

SOURCE:  New England Journal of Medicine, online May 2, 2012.

Mr Young said he enjoyed making a difference since many men avoided seeking help from health professionals and few people worked in the field.

“It’s not a happy topic but when blokes pee on their pants they don’t like it, and if you can help them it means they can be out and more social. It helps them with self-esteem,” he said.

He said the challenges included keeping abreast of latest developments in the field and completing at least 20 hours of learning a year.

Mr Young said key attributes a physiotherapist needed included a deeply inquiring mind, a commitment to developing skills and being able to work with people who are under huge amounts of stress.

Mr Young’s practice, Pennant Hills Physiotherapy Centre, focuses on male and female incontinence, muscle and joint problems, knee and neck pain, sprained ankles and on elderly people, including running exercise programs in the local community centre.