• HIS THERAPY PT and PELVIC HEALTH
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By Sabina Kapasi Bladder Problems, Incontinence

Urinary Incontinence

Urinary incontinence (UI) is the inability to control urine. An estimated 13 million adults (men and women) of all ages suffer from UI. Dysfunctional voiding patterns and leakage also occur in children of all ages. There are four basic types of incontinence.

Stress incontinence is when urine leaks out when stress (pressure) is put on the bladder, for example when someone sneezes or coughs.

Another type of leakage is called urge incontinence which is sometimes known as “overactive bladder.” This leakage occurs when there is a strong urge to urinate occurs and someone is not able to make it in time to urinate.

The other type of incontinence is called overflow incontinence which occurs when the bladder does not empty normally and becomes very full. Then dribble occurs out of the bladder.

Finally mixed incontinence is also another form which means basically that someone suffers from more than one type of incontinence which are described above.

If you or someone you know is suffering from urinary incontinence, please know that there are options for treatment. You do not have to live everyday wearing depends pad and you can learn to gain the control you need to live an enjoyable life. Some options that people have are medication, surgery and pelvic floor physical therapy. After discussing these options with your doctor, you should make the best treatment for yourself.

In terms of pelvic floor therapy, it does help to teach people new ways to control their bladder and train those muscles that are involved in controlling and stopping the leakage. These are the pelvic floor muscles.    

Pelvic floor therapists can help patients with the following interventions:

1) Education on proper food and fluid intake
2) Retraining of voiding habits
3) Strengthening and muscle re-education of the pelvic floor muscles
4) Strengthening Core muscles 
5) Biofeedback used to help retrain the muscles
6) Electrical Stimulation
7) Proper postural control and body mechanics
8) Education on proper home program

Benefits of Physical Therapy
* Increased bladder control
*Increased bowel control
*Decreased pain or pressure
*Restore or improve function with : less pad usage, eliminate pad usage, improve sleep, decrease or eliminate accidents, improve ability to function in the community, decrease adult isolation

Please contact us at HisTherapy if you have any questions regarding pelvic floor PT and how it can help with bladder control. 864-534-1780 or Sabina@histherapy.net

By Sabina Kapasi Water

Have You Drank Enough Water Today?

66% of your body is water, so replenish yourself with the best: pure natural water. If you feel thirsty, you are all ready dehydrated – drink water regularly and your body will thank you!

By Sabina Kapasi His Thearpy

Using My Heritage to Teach About the Importance of Functional Squatting

My family is originally from Gujarat, India. My parents migrated to the US in 1972. Me and my four older brothers were very young when we moved here to the US. I was only 2 years old.  When I was in middle school my father decided to take me and one of my brothers to India to visit my grandmother. This was my first time ever traveling to our home country. I spent all summer there with my grandmother who was widowed. She lived in a very small village with a very small home. We had very little running water. Most of our water came from a well, which I remember having to go get for her in big barrels. No central air and an outhouse with no westernized toilet seat.

My most memorable memory of this trip was when my father took me to the toilet at the airport.  When I walked in, I looked for the toilet seats and everything looked very different.  I was very scared and then a women next to me kindly showed me the toilets.  She took my hand and showed me the holes in the ground that had a water basin next to them. She showed me how to squat down to use the bathroom and use the water to wash. I was so embarrassed and but did what she showed me. That summer I learned so much. Squatting was something that was normal for every function of daily life.  Not only did we have to squat to use the bathroom, we had to squat to bathe our bodies, squat to help wash our clothes in the creek, squat to cook, and squat and bow down to pray. I learned such a great deal about life during that summer and many more summers that I had the privilege to go visit my grandmother. 

It is amazing to me how God has brought me full circle. I use those things I learned that summer and my past experiences as a pelvic floor therapists today on a daily basis. Functional squatting and the importance of keeping our neutral spine for ADLs is a crucial part of my teaching. I reflect back to my days in India as I try to educate my patients on squatting and pelvic floor training and am so thankful that I have my past to be able to do this with.

By Sabina Kapasi Pelvic Floor

Pelvic Floor Dysfunction

The pelvic floor consists of several layers of muscles that cover the bottom of the pelvic cavity. These muscles have 3 distinct roles:

1) To support the pelvic organs, the bladder, uterus and colon within the pelvis
2) To assist in stopping and starting the flow of urine or passage of gas or stool
3) To aid in sexual appreciation.

When performing a proper contraction of the pelvic floor muscles, you should feel a sensation of pulling up and in. A functional stop test can be done to know if you are contracting the right muscles. This is done by trying to stop the flow of urine during flow. Attempt to completely stop the flow of urine by contracting these muscles. You should not hold your breath or contract the abdominals or other hip and leg musculature while contracting the pelvic floor. Take note of whether you can completely stop the flow of urine stream.

What can make the pelvic floor muscles weak:

*Childbirth
*Constipation
*Sustained coughing or sneezing
*Heavy incorrect lifting
*Obesity
*Hormones associated with menopause

Types of Dysfunction:
* Stress or Urge Urinary Incontinence
* Constipation or Bowel leakage
* Prolapse
* Painful intercourse or penetration
* Pelvic Pain
* Coccydynia

Pelvic floor therapy can help to provide conservative treatment options for both men and women who are experiencing any type of pelvic floor dysfunction and laxity. Appropriate exercise, muscle awareness, electrical stimulation, biofeedback and massage can reduce the symptoms that may occur with pelvic floor dysfunction.

For more information please contact His Therapy at 864-534-1780 or email at sabina@histherapy.net

By Sabina Kapasi Bladder Problems, Incontinence, Physical Therapy

What Does a PT Do for Urinary Incontinence

As many of you may know that a physical therapists can help people to exercises with weights to help with strengthening or they can teach someone how to use crutches after surgery to help them walk. But how can physical therapists help with bladder or bowel problems like incontinence?

The pelvic floor muscle is a skeletal muscle just like other muscles in our body and they respond to

the same training techniques. Some physical therapists have developed special skills in

training the pelvic floor muscles. These therapists are called pelvic floor therapists.

If someone wants to strengthen their biceps arm muscle they have to learn the correct

exercises. Then they perform the exercises with the correct difficulty (not too hard, not too

easy) for the correct duration of time (it takes 4 to 6 months to increase the size of a

muscle). Pelvic floor muscle training is the same. First you have to learn the correct

exercise. This is challenging as it is an inside muscle and sometimes hard to find. In

fact, 40% of people are doing the exercise wrong. The best way to tell if you are doing

the exercise correctly is by palpating inside the vagina or rectum. A trained physical

therapist can measure the muscle by palpating just inside the vagina or rectum and asking

you to squeeze. This usually not painful but gives a lot of information about the muscle

How big is the muscle?

 Can you feel the muscle?

 Is the muscle painful and tense? – it is very important to relax and this may be the primary reason exercises do not work.

 Can the muscle elevate and support the organs – especially important when the organs are sagging?

 Can the muscle squeeze tight – to stop urine leakage?

 Can you hold the contract – long enough to get to the bathroom?

 Does the belly muscle work with (or against) the pelvic muscle?

 Does the breathing work with the pelvic floor muscle?


All these things are helpful in developing the correct exercise program. In many cases

the exercises are difficult to learn and additional information is needed. EMG

biofeedback can help. This device allows you to see the muscle contraction just like the

EKG allows you to see the heart contraction. To monitor the pelvic floor muscle a sensor

is placed inside the rectum / vagina or stuck to the outside of the rectum. If the

contraction is strong the line goes up (and stays up). If the contraction is weak the line

does not go up very high and fall quickly. Seeing this can help you to activate the correct
muscles and keep them activated increasing the effect of the exercises.

A proper exercise program includes the answers these questions:

 How long to hold the contraction?

 How long to rest between? – rest is as important as hold

 How many to do at a time and how many times to do them in a day? – studies tell us that you must do more than 45 per day to get results

 What position should the exercises be done in?

 How do you breathe during the exercises?


If you want more information about this or any of our services please call us at 864-534-1780.

By Sabina Kapasi Pelvic Floor, Physical Therapy

Pelvic Floor Therapy and Prostate Cancer

Men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer or have other medical problems related to their prostate may have some symptoms that a pelvic floor therapists can help them with. Many men suffer from urinary incontinence, urgency and retention issues and many more things that affect their way of life and every day function. Both pre and post therapy is very beneficial to these patients. Treatment may include:

1) Education on the anatomy of the pelvic floor and physiology of micturition process

2) Bladder retraining including assisting patients with proper bladder voiding schedules and avoiding bladder irritants

3) Education on proper posture and body mechanics

4) Manual cueing and biofeedback training on proper pelvic floor contractions

5) Biofeedback for pelvic floor training

6) Core stabilization exercises

Outcomes are fantastic! Patients gain the control they need of their bladder. Many men decrease the amount of pads they have to use secondary to leakage, wake up less at night to void, have less urgency and overall feel better with a more active daily lifestyle!

Please call His Therapy for more information. 864-534-1780 or visit our website for more information     www.histherapy.net

By Sabina Kapasi Water

Have You Had Enough Water Today?

Everyday,  I am convinced more and more that the average American, including our children women and men, do not drink enough water! It affects every part of your life. Your bowel function, bladder function, skin, eyes, brain, heart, nails, joints, muscles, etc. The list can keep going on. Every part of your body needs water. There is no doubt about it. YOU WILL FEEL BETTER!  I recommend it at lease 80 oz to 100 oz especially on these hot summer days. So please, do not forget to drink your water today!

Give us a call if you have further questions or visit our His Therapy facebook page. We would love to hear your thoughts on this!

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Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing shall be impossible.”