When Marie Osmond's on-stage laugh fest with brother Donny caused her to pee her pants (the video's on YouTube), we realized it's time to talk about urinary tract problems, from bladder infections to stress incontinence (it's what makes you leak when you laugh).

More than 8.3 million North Americans a year go to the doctor for urinary tract infections, most of them women (although men get UTIs too). And tens of millions of men and women have urge (got to go...now!) and stress (drip, drip, flood!) incontinence.

UTIs are triggered by bacteria (and sometimes fungi and viruses). The old thinking: Bugs enter the urethra (the tube urine goes through) and colonize the bladder and kidney, after sex or (for women) if you wipe wrong. Now it's true, those things can trigger UTIs, but — news flash! — bacteria (good and bad) live in your bladder all the time. We don't really know what's going on in there, so the real remedy is prevention.

Postmenopausal women may use estrogen cream to restore thinning tissue around the urethra, and decrease stress incontinence and infections. Also, never hold your pee (urinate five to eight times daily); drink cranberry juice; take 500 milligram tablets of vitamin C and probiotics like acidophilus to acidify urine and promote good bacteria; and drink plenty of water.

As for urge and stress incontinence, strengthen pelvic muscles with Kegel exercises. Retrain your bladder muscles how and when to contract properly, and ask your doctor about medications to ease muscle contractions. You don't have to drip; you can get help!


© 2012 Michael Roizen, M.D. and Mehmet Oz, M.D.
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.