Understanding your Waterworks
The Urinary Tract includes the kidneys, the ureters, the bladder and the urethra. When you eat or drink, your body absorbs the liquid. The two kidneys filter out the waste products from the body fluids and make urine. Urine moves down the two tubes called ureters into the bladder that stores the urine. The bladder is a muscular sac. As the bladder fills, nerve endings in the wall of the bladder send signals to the brain to let you know that it is close being full. When you are ready to go to the bathroom, your brain tells your bladder to contract and your urethral sphincter and pelvic floor muscles to relax. The urethral sphincter is a group of muscles that tightens to hold urine in and loosens (relaxes) to let urine out. The urine flows out a tube called the urethra. The Lower Urinary Tract includes the bladder, the urethra and the pelvic floor muscles.
Normal Bladder Function
Bladder control is a complicated series of events. The bladder has two functions-storage and emptying.
Storage:
- The bladder fills slowly with low pressure.
- The urethral sphincter muscle (like a valve) and the pelvic muscles remain tight to keep urine in the bladder.
- When the bladder is full, nerve endings in the wall of the bladder send signals to the brain.
Emptying:
- When you are ready to go to the bathroom, your brain tells your bladder to contract and your urethral sphincter and pelvic floor muscles to relax.
- The urine flows out a tube called the urethra.
- After the bladder is empty, the urethral sphincter and the pelvic muscles tighten again.
The whole process then starts all over again.
Urinary Tract Facts
The bladder holds about 2 cups (½ Liter) of urine.
You empty about 6 cups or 1 ½ liters of urine daily.
Most people empty their bladders 4–8 times a day.
As you get older it is not uncommon to get up 1–2 times a night to empty your bladder.
Pelvic Muscles
The pelvic floor muscles are also known as the Levator Ani muscle. The Levator Ani is composed of three muscles that are intertwined. These are the deepest muscles and are also referred to as the pelvic diaphragm. These muscles and other tissues provide support for our pelvic organs (bladder, uterus/vagina, bowel).
The pelvic muscles are like a hammock. They keep our organs from falling out! They start at the pubic bone (in the front of the pelvis) and go to the tailbone (in the back of the pelvis). If you were to look down at the pelvis, it would be like a bowl.
The muscle group that attaches the pelvic muscles to the side of the pelvis is another muscle, called the Obturator Internus. The pelvic muscles that aid in bladder and bowel control are like the rotator cuff in the shoulder and we call this group the pelvic rotator cuff.
The large leg muscles of the thigh (adductors) and the sphincter muscles (bladder and bowel) are also an important part of the pelvic rotator cuff. There is another layer of muscles below the pelvic diaphragm called the urogenital diaphragm. This muscle group assists with quick tightening actions, like when you sneeze, laugh or cough.
All these muscles are voluntary muscles, like those in your arms or legs, which means that you can control them. Special pelvic muscle exercises are used to improve their function.
