Hello – it has been a while but I figured it was time to get back into letting you know about how your whole body needs to be engaged in your healing!
A little bit about interoception – this is an internal sense – you already know about it- we have the age old phrase ‘my gut is telling me not to do it’ or ‘something just doesn’t seem right’ these are feelings that stem from signals emitted from our internal organs about what is happening either internally or externally.
Your bladder needs your nervous system to be balanced in order for it to be fully functional.
Your storage and periodic elimination of urine depend on the coordinated activity of smooth and striated muscles in your bladder and the area that consists of the bladder neck, urethra and urethral sphincter. This coordination is made by a complex neural control system that is located in the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral ganglia.
This system is different from other structures in your body it is dependent on your CNS being active Your bladder also works differently in its organisation of its neural control mechanisms. For example, the bladder has only two modes of operation: storage and elimination. Thus, many of the neural circuits that are involved in bladder control have switch-like or phasic patterns of activity, unlike the tonic patterns that are characteristic of the autonomic pathways that regulate cardiovascular organs. In addition, going for a pee is under voluntary control and depends on learned behaviour that develops during maturation of the nervous system, whereas many other visceral organ functions are regulated involuntarily.
Owing to the complexity of the neural mechanisms that regulate bladder control, the process is sensitive to various injuries and diseases.
The neural pathways that control lower-urinary-tract function are organized as simple on–off switching circuits that maintain a reciprocal relationship between the urinary bladder and the urethral outlet. Storage reflexes are activated during bladder filling and are organized primarily in the spinal cord, whereas voiding is mediated by reflex mechanisms that are organized in the brain
Throughout bladder filling, the parasympathetic innervation of the detrusor is inhibited and the smooth and striated parts of the urethral sphincter are activated, preventing involuntary bladder emptying. This process is organized by urethral reflexes known collectively as the ‘guarding reflex’. They are activated by bladder afferent activity that is conveyed through the pelvic nerves and are organized by interneuronal circuitry in the spinal cord
Operating in this way, the reflex circuitry would lead to involuntary bladder emptying (that is, incontinence) whenever the bladder volume reached a critical level. However, in continent individuals the firing of the voiding reflex is under strict voluntary control, enabling one to plan to void at a socially acceptable time and place. The decision to void, which is a crucial aspect of human behaviour, is based on a combination of factors, including one’s emotional state, an appreciation of the social environment and the sensory signals arising from the bladder. Knowledge of the extent to which one’s bladder content is comfortable and ‘safe’ is central in this process.
Hypopressives talk not only to muscle and fascia but also to the nervous system – the nervous system is either calmed or engaged through the rhythmical breathing and the breath pause during the apnoea and costal opening actually creates a homeostasis throughout the nervous system – creating a slower exchange of oxygen to C02 and creating a fluid engagement between the diaphragms.
