As you can probably guess today marks the start of World Continence Week. The aim of the week is to promote knowledge of continence related issues including the medical conditions which cause them and the various therapies which can help treat incontinence.

Indeed as the International Continence Society who support the event say while incontinence cannot always be cured it almost always be managed, in some fashion, to make life bearable again. Right now 400 million people across the glove suffer from some kind of incontinence.

Causes can really vary. Travelling to another country means you can come up against different bacteria in food and water which may causes diarrhea or constipation. Indeed a friend of mine from university lost 40lb ( around 20kg) travelling in India for just over three months. Other causes could be stress or medications. Incontinence can also be caused by medical conditions such as multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease. Interestingly women are more affected than men. It seems 25% of women over the age of 35 have continence issues while it only impacts 10% of men across the board.

As you may know incontinence comes in two main types which are urinary incontinence where there is involuntary leakage. Faecal Incontinence , on the other hand, is involuntary loss of stools or liquid through the anus.

That being said there are loads of useful tips for dealing with continence issues. Do you have any you would like to share with our readers. If so please feel free to add you suggestions to our comments boxes below.

Many thanks in advance.