Pumpkin Seeds Help Urine Control in Women
Many women suffer from stress incontinence. The toll of having babies can weaken pelvic muscles resulting in leakage with coughs, laughs, or even in some cases when the person stands up too quickly. People have known about the link between pumpkin seeds, and bladder health for years. The native American tribes ate pumpkin seeds to support the flow of urine in men.
Now, researchers have developed a product containing a mixture of pumpkin seed extract, Equisetum arvense and Linum usitatissimum, that is highly effective on stress urinary incontinence (SUI) and with minimum adverse events.
It was a clinical assessment in 86 women aged from 32 to 88 recruited from 20 urological and gynaecological outpatient clinics in Slovakia over a 12-week period with a diagnosis of stress incontinence grade I and II. The researchers evaluated changes in day-time and nocturnal urinary frequency (bathroom visits) and stress urinary incontinence episodes (leaks) and found at least 30 per cent improvement in urinary leakage episodes.
In addition, 89.4 per cent of women in the study reported no side effects from this therapy and 97 per cent acknowledged improvement of symptoms. Reported side effects were: a headache (3.5 per cent), flatulence (4.1 per cent) and gastrointestinal discomfort (diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting).
Stress urinary incontinence is the involuntary loss of urine on exertion, sneezing or coughing. There are different types of urinary incontinence. The most common type in younger and middle-aged women is stress incontinence. Epidemiological research has revealed several factors associated with an inability to control urination in women. It is caused by obesity, ageing, childbirth and by a weakening of the bladder sphincter and pelvic floor muscles.
The seeds and oil from pumpkin seeds have been used for many years for the relief of difficulties associated with an enlarged prostate gland and irritable bladder. The advantage of pumpkin seeds treatment arises from its tonic influence on the bladder and sphincter relaxation.
Despite popular belief that watermelon is made up of only water and sugar, researchers at the University of Ibadan have also found the rind and juice extracts of watermelon helpful for the prevention and management of prostate enlargement.
For more than a century, corn silk has also been a remedy for urinary conditions such as inflamed bladders and painful urination. It was also used to treat the prostate. Some of those uses have continued into modern times; corn silk is a contemporary remedy for all conditions of the urinary passage.
Source – Nigerian Tribune
