Chiropractic and Bed Wetting

… And you thought chiropractic was only for headaches and low back pain!  You may ask yourself how in the world can a chiropractor possibly help with bed wetting? Before delving into this topic, let me clear up one thing…Low back pain and headaches are well known to have high success rate when using chiropractic, however, the fact of the matter is not all chiropractors ‘fix’ all back pain.  Spoiler alert –chiropractors don’t have 100% success rate with bedwetting either.  The same principles apply to ‘fixing’ back pain as it does to bed wetting.  Let me explain.

Chiropractic is based on its effect on the nervous system.  Long story short, the brain communicates with every single cell in your body.  Excluding the cranial nerves, that communication operates through the central nervous system to the peripheral nervous system via the spinal cord. Basically, think of all the wires going to a fuse box.  Those wires go everywhere in your house.  If you lose power at an outlet, your first thought most likely is to check the fuse box.  Welcome to chiropractic – we look at the spine as that fuse box, and every segment in your spine like an individual fuse.  Sure, the outlet itself could be faulty or a mouse could have chewed a wire at some point, but logically we look to the fuse box first; something simply isn’t right.

Did you know that when it comes to pain, only 5% of all the nerves (wires) in your body (house) are responsible for pain?  That means over 90% of your nerves are what we call FUNCTION nerves.  They tell your stomach to secrete acid and your right bicep to contract when you want it to.  The nerves control reflexes, balance, etc.  You get the point.  Here is how that ties into bed wetting – stay with me!

Some of those nerves control the bladder.  There are nerves that allow certain muscles to relax to allow urine to leave the body.  Some of the nerves connect the brain to the stretch receptors in your bladder. Once the bladder reaches a certain point of fullness, suddenly, your brain gets a signal that says “Hey – is there a bathroom close by?  Cause we need to empty this soon!”  

Well what happens when that signal isn’t properly being sent to the brain?  The rest of the body has a job to do, and blood continues to be filtered through the kidneys, and regardless of the situation, the bladder continues to fill.  If not attended to, the bladder will void – almost as a protective mechanism.  Our job as a chiropractor is to make sure that the brain knows EXACTLY how full the bladder is.  Once the child now is getting the right signal to the brain, they know to look for a restroom.  

I just finished a 3 week treatment plan with a 5 year old who was wetting his pants during the day time.  At his last visit (early 2021) his dad said “My son is 300% better!  Thanks!”

Of note, when we have completed 3 weeks of care and the child still has bed wetting episodes, we will recommend the parent remove dairy from the child’s diet.  If you are reading this, there is nothing wrong with trying that first for a period of time.

Also of note, I have treated boys as old as 15 years old who wet the bed nightly. These boys are embarrassed and can’t often participate in overnight activities.  We approach this topic with them gently and look for solutions.  If you think chiropractic may help your child, please reach out to us!  I’d love to visit! Please know, I gave examples of males, but this applies to females as well!