WEBVTT - Short Stuff: The Brain-Bladder Connection 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:06.240 Hey you, and welcome to the shorty short stuff, your 0:00:06.280 --> 0:00:10.119 short short guy, short guys and gals. Everybody so short 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:13.080 because this is short stuff, including us, Josh, Chuck, Jerry, 0:00:13.280 --> 0:00:15.400 we're all short. Are you going to make that same 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:19.640 similar type joke on all ladies? That's no joke, Chuck. 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.599 You know what Randy Newman said about short people what 0:00:23.160 --> 0:00:28.240 I got no reason to live? Remember what? You don't 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:30.560 know that song? You know that that just took like 0:00:30.600 --> 0:00:33.120 such a left turn. I was not expecting that. Shall 0:00:33.400 --> 0:00:38.360 people got no reason? Really, man, that was a that 0:00:38.479 --> 0:00:41.520 was a top ten hit. My friend, You're crazy when 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.760 I'm telling you, I mean, I had to be the seventies. Okay, 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:47.440 look it up. The only top ten hit of his 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:50.000 that I know is um I Love l A, we 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:54.480 love it. That's a great song. All right, So let 0:00:54.480 --> 0:00:58.600 me ask you something. Have you ever gone home? Yes, 0:00:58.760 --> 0:01:01.040 put and felt just all right, and I'm having a 0:01:01.040 --> 0:01:03.600 good day. I'm home. This is great. Put the key 0:01:03.600 --> 0:01:06.319 in the door. And as soon as you start that process, 0:01:06.319 --> 0:01:11.319 you're like, oh m god, I have to be really 0:01:11.360 --> 0:01:14.920 really bad. I cannot express to you how many times 0:01:14.959 --> 0:01:19.040 this happens to me for real. So you have this yeah, clearly, 0:01:19.160 --> 0:01:21.640 and I noticed that it mostly affects women. I'm like, oh, 0:01:21.720 --> 0:01:24.840 hum whatever, Um, but I definitely have a big time, 0:01:24.920 --> 0:01:28.640 so much so that I've trained myself because there's clearly 0:01:28.640 --> 0:01:31.400 something going on with the brain where I'm like, oh, 0:01:31.440 --> 0:01:34.360 I have so much further before I could possibly pee. 0:01:34.440 --> 0:01:36.920 So it's not happening in the next like ten seconds 0:01:36.959 --> 0:01:39.200 for sure, So might as well just calm down there, 0:01:39.240 --> 0:01:42.280 bladder and it actually works. Yeah, So it is. That 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:45.280 is a real thing called key in lock syndrome or 0:01:45.880 --> 0:01:50.360 urge urinary incontinence, And like you said, it apparently does 0:01:50.600 --> 0:01:55.680 affect more women than men. And um, if you really 0:01:55.680 --> 0:01:58.200 have this to a you know, to as decent to 0:01:58.280 --> 0:02:01.160 large degree, you kind of have to plan around it. 0:02:01.240 --> 0:02:05.200 Even Yeah, it's so I didn't understand this. Now I 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:08.120 totally get like those poise ads and depends ads, Like, 0:02:08.160 --> 0:02:13.400 I get it now. Um, Apparently as as women age, uh, 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.960 they tend to become slightly more incontinent, right, But it's not, 0:02:18.040 --> 0:02:20.520 like you said, it's not strictly women. Um. I think 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:23.679 a quarter to a third of all Americans at any 0:02:23.680 --> 0:02:25.760 given point in time have some sort of incontinence problem, 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:28.400 not just this one, but if you start to understand 0:02:28.840 --> 0:02:31.960 what the uh what what's behind it, it actually makes 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:36.600 a lot more sense. But basically, you have what's called 0:02:36.800 --> 0:02:42.359 a um a. The floor of your pelvic muscle, your 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:45.120 pellic muscle or your pellc floor is basically what it is, 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.760 and that is what holds your guts and everything up. 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:53.600 That supports basically everything inside your abdomen, and it's it's 0:02:53.639 --> 0:02:56.520 like a trampoline of muscle that all that stuff sits in, 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:59.639 and it has a few holes in it. It has 0:02:59.680 --> 0:03:03.079 one or your urethra, one for your house and then 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.639 if you're a woman, has one for your vagina to 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:11.720 right um. So normally the that muscle is pretty tight 0:03:11.800 --> 0:03:14.440 and it's holding all that stuff closed. And then when 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:16.360 you need to pee or your poop or something, your 0:03:16.360 --> 0:03:19.160 brain is like, all right, open up, you're going number one, 0:03:19.320 --> 0:03:21.839 You're going number two. Here comes a baby, that kind 0:03:21.840 --> 0:03:27.040 of thing. And over time this muscle can kind of 0:03:27.520 --> 0:03:30.960 get weaker, get looser. Once you have a child, that 0:03:31.000 --> 0:03:33.400 can really stretch your muscles out. And so as a 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.120 result of this, it's harder to hold impea, especially if 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:42.160 you get a sudden urge to go. Yeah, and and 0:03:42.200 --> 0:03:44.440 like you said, it. You know, as you age, this 0:03:44.520 --> 0:03:47.400 can increase um. One of the reasons I think it 0:03:47.520 --> 0:03:51.600 it primarily affects women, uh, is because childbirth and pregnancy 0:03:51.680 --> 0:03:55.800 can play a pretty big role in this. And interestingly, uh, 0:03:55.840 --> 0:03:59.120 that's the same as for C section as just a 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:04.680 good old fashioned vaginal birth. That's really weird. Yeah, because 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:08.240 I would think it has to do with with I 0:04:08.240 --> 0:04:12.480 don't know, I guess section. I think there's pressure no 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:15.800 matter what during pregnancy. But it does say that childbirth, 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.800 even a C section, they're they're impacted. Well, yeah, then 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:22.720 it must just be for the whole um, the whole pregnancy, 0:04:23.240 --> 0:04:26.440 just the baby sitting on that trampoline of muscle. It's 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:29.240 gotta stretch it out a little up and down for sure. Yeah, 0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.960 it's like settled down there jr. All moms say, well, 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:40.080 they're pregnant, so pregnancy, childbirth age, Uh. Some other uh, 0:04:40.440 --> 0:04:43.279 a little more serious causes, although they're not as common 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.400 as those are, like infection or bladder cancer, bladder stones 0:04:48.360 --> 0:04:53.600 for men, prostate problems right, which I didn't. Did you 0:04:53.600 --> 0:04:57.520 know what the prostate does? Do? I know what the 0:04:57.560 --> 0:05:00.839 prostate does. That's my question that's out there on the table, 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:06.400 right now I do, but I don't know right now, Okay, 0:05:06.920 --> 0:05:10.839 I'll tell you. You know at one so you know, semen, 0:05:11.640 --> 0:05:14.400 I am sure well acquainted, all right. So you know, 0:05:14.560 --> 0:05:18.520 like the sperm that's in semen, you know the other 0:05:18.640 --> 0:05:22.760 stuff that's in semen that's made by your prostate, and 0:05:22.880 --> 0:05:28.719 women have something to um called the skeins gland and 0:05:28.800 --> 0:05:33.200 it makes up basically that for women. So semen minus 0:05:33.279 --> 0:05:37.200 the sperm, so your prostrate and your skeins gland are 0:05:37.240 --> 0:05:43.400 are um well male and female stuff makers, thank you. 0:05:43.480 --> 0:05:46.359 So it's we're dancing around this one for sure. But 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.279 so um the prostate and I didn't see it anywhere, 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:52.360 but I would guess if the skeins gland is affected 0:05:52.400 --> 0:05:56.600 to um, it could have an impact on incontinence for sure. 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.840 But also medicines, two different kinds of medications can make 0:05:59.880 --> 0:06:02.720 you be yourself. Well yeah, and it's here's the thing too. 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.200 Like a lot of times they don't necessarily come in 0:06:05.240 --> 0:06:08.800 and say it's this one thing that's causing it. So 0:06:09.120 --> 0:06:12.400 a lot of researchers now think maybe it can be 0:06:12.480 --> 0:06:15.440 a combination of things that it's not just the bladder. Yeah, 0:06:15.880 --> 0:06:20.120 there's clearly a brain connection because you can. You can 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:22.919 tell your brain no, it's not time, settle down, and 0:06:22.960 --> 0:06:25.080 your brain will be like, oh sorry, false alarm. Just 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.440 wait a little longer to your bladder. Unless you've crossed 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:30.720 that threshold, then there's no turning back. And then it's 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.200 just like, I wonder what that's all about, actually to 0:06:34.279 --> 0:06:37.120 the threshold where you're like no, no, no, there is 0:06:37.160 --> 0:06:41.200 no bringing bringing it back. I don't know, like I'm 0:06:41.240 --> 0:06:43.440 about to pee my pants if I don't find a bathroom, 0:06:43.560 --> 0:06:46.240 because really, other than you know, having to take a 0:06:46.240 --> 0:06:50.160 shower afterwards, all your all your breaking is like decorum. 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:53.440 You know. Yeah. I think what it is is your 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:59.159 brains weighing the violation of decorum versus the horrible feeling 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.839 that is having endurance. Just like I'm going with this one, 0:07:02.360 --> 0:07:06.800 so long decorum. But um, it is a it's a 0:07:06.960 --> 0:07:12.120 it's enough of a an embarrassing problem that people do 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.120 seek treatment. But unfortunately, from what I understand and from 0:07:15.160 --> 0:07:19.160 what the article that you sent um says is that 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:23.760 there's real, like low level attention paid to solving this. 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:26.920 But luckily there's kind of like this rising school of 0:07:26.960 --> 0:07:29.880 thought that's like, no, we we need to study this more. 0:07:29.960 --> 0:07:32.400 This is not enough. You can't just tell women to 0:07:32.440 --> 0:07:35.600 go do kegel exercises and don't worry about it, or 0:07:35.680 --> 0:07:37.520 that they have to wear poise pads for the rest 0:07:37.520 --> 0:07:40.120 of their life. That's not a solution. That's not an answer. 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:41.800 So let's take a break and we'll come back and 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:44.280 talk about what you can do when you're about to 0:07:44.320 --> 0:08:15.280 pee yourself, because you are opening your door alright, So 0:08:15.920 --> 0:08:19.040 the bladder, I'm curious we should maybe do a full 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.640 one on the bladder at some point, because it's really 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:24.440 interesting to me. I've always been a person that I 0:08:24.480 --> 0:08:29.679 feel like I p more than your average person. Me too. 0:08:29.840 --> 0:08:31.960 You definitely do, but yours is for one reason. It's 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:34.120 because you have a constant flow of liquids coming into 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.959 your body. Not just liquids, but coffee too. Chuck Wich 0:08:37.040 --> 0:08:43.520 is a diuretic. Yeah yeah. Emily also is a frequent urinator. 0:08:43.880 --> 0:08:48.600 And I've always just suspected that, um that it's not 0:08:48.679 --> 0:08:51.040 like people say I have a small bladder. I don't 0:08:51.040 --> 0:08:53.040 know if that's true or not. Like I think it's 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:55.760 not so much the size of the bladder, but maybe 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:00.040 how it relates to the brain. That's kind of And 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:05.720 it seems to be the the The prevailing wisdom that's 0:09:05.760 --> 0:09:08.440 developing now is that there's something going on with the 0:09:08.480 --> 0:09:12.000 brain bladder connection. Yeah, so that's what happens when you 0:09:12.040 --> 0:09:15.319 need to when everything's going great. The bladder sends a 0:09:15.400 --> 0:09:19.679 signal to the brain and says, hey, brain, you might 0:09:19.720 --> 0:09:21.880 want to find a might want to get this meat 0:09:21.920 --> 0:09:25.480 bag to a toilet soon because I have to release 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.680 and it's going to happen at some point no matter what. Right. 0:09:28.960 --> 0:09:32.600 There also seems to be possibly some connection to vassip pressing, 0:09:32.720 --> 0:09:37.960 because the brain floods the um bladder with vasippressing um 0:09:38.000 --> 0:09:42.560 to keep it from peeing while you're sleeping um as 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:45.400 a child, as you're developing, and um, you're not peeing 0:09:45.440 --> 0:09:47.720 the bed any longer. It's because you're vassip pressing levels 0:09:47.720 --> 0:09:52.000 are right rising throughout your lifetime. UM, and I wonder 0:09:52.520 --> 0:09:54.920 if they start to go down after you age and 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:58.200 that actually has an an impact on it as well. 0:09:59.280 --> 0:10:03.920 It's possible, chuck. Uh. So all right, your brain gets 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.160 this signal that your bladder says it's full. Um, if 0:10:07.200 --> 0:10:09.280 you're if you're dude, you can run to the urinal, 0:10:10.360 --> 0:10:11.640 which I would love to have one of this in 0:10:11.640 --> 0:10:14.160 my house by the way, But Emily said, no way. 0:10:14.760 --> 0:10:16.800 She was like, you live in a house full of women. 0:10:17.280 --> 0:10:19.560 We're not building a urinal for you. Well, you're like, 0:10:19.679 --> 0:10:21.560 we can have both one right next to each other. 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:24.960 So you run to the urnal and when you get there, 0:10:25.000 --> 0:10:28.480 your your brain sends a signal back that says, all right, 0:10:28.559 --> 0:10:33.320 we're here, release the urine. Or if you can't get 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:37.600 to a urinal or a bathroom, your brain says, sorry, bladder, 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:39.439 but you're gonna have to hang in there for a bit. 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.560 That's it. That's peeing, Yeah, pretty much. Do you remember 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:51.480 we talked about mix mixturition syncope and I call this syncope. 0:10:51.480 --> 0:10:54.840 Know what was that? It's where you faint after you pee, 0:10:55.280 --> 0:10:58.000 right right, because they think there's like changes in your 0:10:58.080 --> 0:11:00.640 level of either vast oppressing or nor up and ne friend, 0:11:00.640 --> 0:11:04.760 there's some chemical that tells your muscles to relax around 0:11:04.760 --> 0:11:09.600 your bladder causes you to to faint. So what can 0:11:09.640 --> 0:11:12.680 you do? You can do kegels. If you're a woman 0:11:12.800 --> 0:11:16.880 or a man, um you can do you could basically, 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:18.480 I think from what I understand, the first thing you 0:11:18.520 --> 0:11:21.120 want to do is go to your doctor and this 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:25.320 specialist his name was um Dr Philip P. Smith, and 0:11:25.440 --> 0:11:28.120 he's one of these new thinkers about this kind of thing. 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:30.240 And he said, if your doctors tells you to do 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.040 kegels or get used to wearing pads, give yourself another doctor. 0:11:34.080 --> 0:11:37.080 Go see somebody else, because there's other stuff you can do. 0:11:37.240 --> 0:11:39.400 But if your doctor is worth you know, their salt, 0:11:39.400 --> 0:11:43.880 they're gonna say things like, um, yes, do kegels. Try 0:11:43.920 --> 0:11:48.880 to follow a basically a p regiment schedule. Yes. So 0:11:48.960 --> 0:11:52.360 I didn't realize this and this this person had like 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.760 the greatest quote. Um, we have all heard that voiding 0:11:55.760 --> 0:11:57.760 on a schedule rather than just when you have to 0:11:57.800 --> 0:12:00.800 go is better. I never heard that had me there. 0:12:01.160 --> 0:12:03.080 I think the specialist needs to get out of the 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:05.440 clinic once in a while. I remember when my dad 0:12:05.480 --> 0:12:07.319 sat me down when I was ten and said, you 0:12:07.360 --> 0:12:11.320 know it's on you pe at nine, noon, three, seven 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:14.520 and ten and everything will be great. That's supposedly what 0:12:14.520 --> 0:12:18.079 you want to do is go every three hours, um, 0:12:18.400 --> 0:12:20.480 whether you have the urge or not, and you're training 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:22.480 your body to be able to hold it. And then 0:12:22.640 --> 0:12:26.520 paradoxically you want to hold it for an extra five minutes, 0:12:26.559 --> 0:12:29.959 then maybe an extra ten minutes, because, as this article 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:33.400 says it not for the opposite, Stretching your bladder actually 0:12:33.440 --> 0:12:37.440 allows it to hold more, so you'll have the urgency 0:12:37.520 --> 0:12:40.280 less frequently over the day. But I don't know about 0:12:40.320 --> 0:12:42.280 that one. I'm not I'm not banking on it. Did 0:12:42.320 --> 0:12:44.360 you ever go to one of those dumb college bars 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:49.720 that had the thing where beer is free until you pee? No? Yeah, 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.480 it was a thing at some bars from like five 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:55.280 to seven. Beer was free for everybody until the first 0:12:55.320 --> 0:12:57.800 person in the bar p That's a lot of stress, 0:12:57.960 --> 0:13:01.600 and so of course there's always, you know, some stupid 0:13:01.679 --> 0:13:04.199 frat boy peeing in a beer pitcher under the table 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:08.079 just so we can drink a little more. Where was this, 0:13:08.120 --> 0:13:10.240 I mean, we both went to college in the same town. 0:13:10.400 --> 0:13:12.200 I don't I don't think. I think they had them 0:13:12.200 --> 0:13:14.480 at Georgia Southern. I never I never went to one 0:13:14.520 --> 0:13:16.520 in Athens because I wouldn't have wanted that pressure, because 0:13:16.520 --> 0:13:18.720 I would have been, like, I gotta be guys. Yeah 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:22.040 enough said with Georgia Southern. Yeah, so train your bladder. 0:13:22.320 --> 0:13:23.920 If you have to pee, try and stave it off 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:26.760 even longer. Five minutes at a time, then maybe ten 0:13:26.800 --> 0:13:28.920 minutes and before you know it. You get to that 0:13:28.960 --> 0:13:32.040 front door and you're just fine, You're just gonna poop yourself, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:37.920 which is a whole other short stuff episode. All tickets right, uh, 0:13:37.960 --> 0:13:39.840 And that's it. If you want to get in touch 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:41.920 with us, you can go to onto our website. It's 0:13:41.920 --> 0:13:44.400 called stuffy Shado dot com. You can find all of 0:13:44.440 --> 0:13:46.880 our social links there and you can also send us 0:13:46.880 --> 0:13:50.000 an email, send it off to Stuff podcast at how 0:13:50.080 --> 0:14:07.079 stuff works dot com.