This Year’s Cough Deserves a Gold Medal (Your Bladder Disagrees)

Cold and flu season is here, and this year's cough gets an A+ for tenacity and endurance. 

At the clinic, I keep hearing about coughs lasting over three weeks! Every cough and sneeze pushes down hard on the bladder, and a cough that lingers for weeks can turn an occasional leak into a daily one. Hard or long-lasting coughs can also worsen pelvic organ prolapse. 

So this season, it pays to do two things: prevent or shorten your cough, and take care of your pelvic floor. 

Fighting off the cough 

A strong immune system means fewer coughs, and shorter ones:

• Sleep seven to nine hours a night.
• Take vitamin D. In BC we make very little from the sun between October and March.
• Move your body most days, ideally outside when the rain lets up.
• Hop in a sauna for 30 minutes. Research shows it temporarily boosts the immune cells in your blood. If a cough does take hold, we have excellent options at the clinic. 

Some of my favourite treatments are:

• Nebulized glutathione, great for knocking out a new cough or clearing a stubborn one
• Viral-busting IVs at the Vital IV Suite, high in vitamin C and minerals for a powerful boost
• Andrographis, a fabulous herb for viral coughs
• Our own herbal cough tincture, a patient favourite

As If the Cough Wasn’t Bad Enough... Here’s the Good News 

Leaking when you cough or sneeze? You don't have to just live with it. Laser treatment can be very helpful for this kind of bladder leakage (IncontiLase), and for pelvic organ prolapse too (ProlapLase). Both are gentle, effective, and non-surgical, with little to no downtime, and I perform every treatment myself. 

Whether you're fighting a stubborn cough or laughing hard with your friends, you shouldn't have to worry about leaking. It's a real quality-of-life issue, and women deserve better than just putting up with it. I'm here to help. 

To book, call Integrative Naturopathic Medical Centre at 778-308-0101.

Dr. Michelle Willis, ND