Overactive Bladder
With overactive bladder, David and Birgitta are on the toilet three to five times per hour, around the clock. Desperate to stem the tide, Birgitta sees an osteopath and David consults a doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine and revisits his childhood through hypnotherapy.
In this episode we meet:
David, a visual artist who urinates, by his calculation, almost four times an hour, regardless of how much liquid he consumes. (The average person goes 6 to 8 times a day.) This condition, which has gradually become more severe in the past five years, causes a lot of anxiety for him. It’s always on his mind. It keeps him up at night. Each night it’s a race to fall asleep before he has to get up and go to the bathroom again.
David has tried limiting his fluids, self-directed herbal remedies and visited his family doctor but to no avail. The urge to urinate more frequently than normal remains. David doesn’t want to take one of the conventional medications for overactive bladder; he would like to find a natural solution. He also suspects his anxiety over his ailment may be making it worse. It’s causing David to slowly become more and more depressed thinking that he’s going to have this problem his whole life. “I would very much appreciate any sort of help with how to go about treating this. It's ruining my life.”
Birgitta, a visual arts student who was rear-ended in a car crash several years ago and shortly after began experiencing the symptoms of an overactive bladder. While she has fully recovered from the other injuries from her accident, her bladder problems have remained and become a daily frustration. She has two primary symptoms: first, she experiences leakage when she sneezes, coughs, or laughs, so she wears panty liners and often carries extra underwear with her, just in case. Second, she often feels the frequent urge to urinate (sometimes right after she has gone) but when she goes to the bathroom it is “non-productive.” Birgitta finds her bladder problems both annoying and embarrassing. She doesn’t like having to wear pads all the time and is always aware of the fact that she could have a slight accident or need to get to a bathroom quickly. “It’s frustrating because despite my accident I’m in good health and relatively good shape, so I should be able to control my bladder.”
The CAM practitioners they consult are:
Xiaolan Zhao, Traditional Chinese Medicine/Acupuncture (David’s practitioner)
Born and raised in southwest China, Xiaolan Zhao attended medical school to study Western medicine toward the end of the Cultural Revolution. After graduation in 1977, she worked for a year as a surgeon at a hospital where the focus was on traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). It was an eye-opener for her to see that as many as 80 percent of patients were suffering from chronic illnesses that generally responded more effectively to Chinese herbal remedies than to Western medicine. She went back to medical school and completed a degree in TCM. Before coming to Canada in 1988, she spent eight years working at a hospital in China, combining her training in Western medicine and traditional Chinese medicine.
Xiaolan decided to open her own clinic in Toronto, which today has over 7,000 patients and a staff of six. She is deeply committed to healing and easing holistically the suffering of those in need. “I really believe in empowering people, especially to understand that the body and the mind are connected. To empower yourself is to take charge of your health.”
Debbie Papadakis, Hypnotherapist (David’s second practitioner) Debbie Papadakis graduated as a Board Certified Hypnotherapist and a Spiritual Psychotherapist from the Transformational Arts College in Toronto. She is also a Reiki Master, a Past Life Regression Trainer/Therapist, Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner/trainer, and a Licensed Holistic Practitioner. She teaches numerous courses in the fields of Hypnosis (Professional NGH Hypnosis Training), Pain Management, Past Life Regression, and all levels of Reiki. In her practice, she uses a wide variety of modalities and innovative techniques to focus on healing the body through the mind.
Debbie received the Hypnosis Achievement Award by the National Guild of Hypnotists in 2005 and was an inductee to the Hall of Fame and Memorial Wall by the International Hypnosis Hall of Fame in 2002. She has authored several books—The Relationship Code (2007), World Hypnotism Day E-Book (2005 and 2006), Decording: The Art of Healing Relationships (2005), and Consumer Guide to Hypnotism (2004)—and was featured in the July 2007 issue of Oprah Winfrey’s O Magazine, October 2008 O’s Big Book of Happiness, January 2009 CNN.com & Oprah.com. Website: www.hypno-healing.com
Brad McCutcheon, Osteopathic Manual Practitioner (Birgitta’s practitioner)
Brad McCutcheon attended the University of Guelph to complete a degree in exercise physiology, Sheridan College for a diploma in sports injury management, Kikkawa College for a diploma in massage therapy, and the Canadian College of Osteopathy for a doctorate in osteopathic manual practice. He was awarded the William Garner Sutherland Award for excellence in clinical research from the Canadian College of Osteopathy in 2003. He is Vice-President of the Ontario Osteopaths Association, and director of admissions and pre-admissions for the Canadian College of Osteopathy in Toronto, Halifax, and Vancouver. He is also a faculty member of the Canadian College of Osteopathy, the Wellington College of Remedial Massage Therapists in Winnipeg, the Western College of Remedial Massage Therapies in Regina, and the Osteopathic College of Ontario, which has campuses in Toronto and Halifax (he teaches at both locations).
Brad sees about 30 patients a week. He subscribes to the “whole person” philosophy as defined in the Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine: “doctors of osteopathic medicine (DOs) endorse an approach that treats the entire person, rather than a specific complaint. Attention is given to prevention, wellness, and helping the body to heal itself.” Website: www.osteopathy.ca