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Home/Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain

Self-help strategies for patients struggling with bladder, urethral, vulvar and pelvic floor muscle pain, including diet modification, flares, pain management, acupuncture, anxiety, stress, muscle tension, hormone fluctuations, work, traveling, driving, sitting, disability, SSDI, SSI and more

Colonoscopy Tips For IC Patients – IC flares rarely happen!

It's a reality we all eventually face, the dreaded colonoscopy. This vital test is recommended after the age of 50 and can help detect early cancers in the GI tract. Despite its potential life saving effect, many patients go out of their way to avoid the test for a variety of reasons. For some, it's [...]

By |2019-07-23T14:21:33-07:00July 23rd, 2019|Front Page Feed, Our Blog, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on Colonoscopy Tips For IC Patients – IC flares rarely happen!
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Valentines Day, Intimacy and IC

I apologize in advance if this column offends anyone but we do, on occasion, need to talk about intimacy and how IC can impact that. For those of you who know me, you know that I'm very direct about the issues that we struggle with. I believe that IC can strengthen rather than weaken our [...]

By |2019-02-13T12:56:33-07:00February 13th, 2019|Front Page Feed, Jill's Journal, Our Blog, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on Valentines Day, Intimacy and IC
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Self Help Tip – Don’t Let Fear of Physical Therapy Stop You

We’ve long passed those days when we believed that IC was an incurable bladder disease. Today, we consider IC/BPS a pelvic pain syndrome that can involve structures beyond the bladder, often the pelvic floor muscles. Dysfunctional pelvic floor muscles can trigger all of the symptoms we normally associate with the bladder, including frequency, urgency, pressure [...]

By |2018-11-28T00:23:56-07:00November 3rd, 2018|Front Page Feed, Jill's Journal, Our Blog, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on Self Help Tip – Don’t Let Fear of Physical Therapy Stop You
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Self-Help Tip – Turning Self Doubt Into Self Confidence

Though my IC (i.e. bladder pain) officially began when I was 32, I spent much of my 20's struggling with many of the conditions we now know are related to IC. I had vulvodynia in high school and college that felt like a painful yeast infection. Despite many trips to the doctor, they rarely found [...]

By |2018-08-10T21:47:59-07:00August 10th, 2018|Awareness, Front Page Feed, Jill's Journal, Self Care, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on Self-Help Tip – Turning Self Doubt Into Self Confidence
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Are Medications Making You Constipated? Ten Smooth Move Tips

While IC patients are frequently in the bathroom to urinate, sometimes the very medicines recommended to help the condition cause another bathroom-related problem: constipation. And constipation causes increased discomfort in the pelvis, which is the last thing ICers need. According to the Harvard Medical School, some of the medicines that can cause constipation, especially in [...]

By |2018-06-03T16:57:26-07:00June 3rd, 2018|Front Page Feed, Our Blog, Self Care, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on Are Medications Making You Constipated? Ten Smooth Move Tips
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Ten Tips For Talking IC With Friends & Family

Talking about IC with friends and family who don’t know anything about it can be hard. I struggle to find the right words to say to best describe how I feel without sounding like I’m whining or looking for pity yet also not downplaying how I feel and the impact it has on my life. [...]

By |2018-01-16T22:59:14-07:00January 16th, 2018|Front Page Feed, Self Care, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on Ten Tips For Talking IC With Friends & Family
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Cold & Flu Strategies For IC/BPS Patients

Flu season is in full force and particularly severe in North America leaving interstitial cystitis, bladder pain and prostatitis patients to wonder just what can they use to control and reduce their symptoms without aggravating their IC and bladder symptoms.  Remember that influenza is VIRAL, thus antibiotics will not help. An estimated 50,000,000 million antibiotic prescriptions [...]

By |2019-01-31T00:29:28-07:00January 25th, 2017|Our Blog, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|2 Comments
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What’s the Worst Drink For IC/BPS Ever?

IC & IBS Patients Share Many Diet Restrictions Heather Van Vorous, author of First Year IBS, has written some fabulous articles for her website www.helpforibs.com. In one of her "Ask Heather" columns, she answered the question "What's the Worst Drink for IBS Ever?" Given the fact that IC and IBS are common in patients and [...]

By |2017-01-18T12:01:36-07:00May 13th, 2016|Diet & Food, Our Blog, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on What’s the Worst Drink For IC/BPS Ever?
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What Your Potty Posture Says About Your Bowel Health

The Real Cause of Straining If you've struggled with constipation, IBS and a host of other bowel and bladder related issues, you may have found yourself using all sorts of techniques to empty your bowels. Some say squatting is the most natural position because it helps to straighten the lower bowel to ease the way [...]

By |2017-01-18T12:01:55-07:00January 27th, 2016|Our Blog, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on What Your Potty Posture Says About Your Bowel Health
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Could IC Flares Be Caused By Candida?

New Research Study Finds Higher Rates of Candida Rather Than Bacteria During IC Flares One of the biggest challenges that both patients and physicians struggle with are the sudden, often unpredictable, flares which occur in most IC patients. Why do they occur? How do they occur? Are bacteria involved? Are they caused by eating the [...]

By |2019-02-07T19:47:14-07:00January 26th, 2016|Our Blog, Related Conditions, Research, Self-Help Tips for IC, Bladder & Pelvic Pain|Comments Off on Could IC Flares Be Caused By Candida?
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