Painful bladder syndrome

Painful bladder syndrome, Bladder, Alternative medicine

The Painful Bladder Syndrome (PBS) is usually diagnosed after exclusion of anything more serious, or when nothing else can be found and is basically symptom based. These symptoms can include;

Pelvic Pain
Urgency
Bladder Instability
Nocturia

Most painful bladder syndromes can be roughly divided into three categories based on the clinical course:

People who symptoms subside spontaneously with relatively infrequent, self-limited flares
People with chronic symptoms but steady objective findings.
People with chronic symptoms & a progressive disorder that results in an "end-stage" physically & functionally smaller bladder..

Both stress and/or urge incontinence may be present to varying degrees, especially in people in groups 2 and 3.

These three categories may represent separate diseases or different manifestations of the same underlying problem. The development of reliable serum or urine markers of inciting pathology & or correlates of disease severity, pathology & prognosis would represent significant progress in understanding & treating painful bladder syndromes.

Well-designed clinical studies of painful bladder syndromes may also provide information on which to base studies of etiology and pathobiology.

Patients with Painful Bladder Syndrome often find following the IC diet helpful as acids and caffeine can trigger flare ups of symptoms.

Cystoscopy and biopsy results can reveal non-specific inflammation without the characteristic glomerulations (pin point bleeding) of an IC bladder, many patients find relief from symptoms after using anti-inflammatory medications such as Ibuprofen and low dose anti-depressants such as Amitriptyline (Elavil).
Symptoms can also be decreased by keeping your stress levels down and using alternative therapies such as Reflexology, Acupuncture, Stress Management and Reiki.