Urinary Health for Women: 5 Questions and Answers with Dr. Jamie Lowe

Dr. Jamie Lowe, a graduate of the Medical College of Georgia, has served patients at the Rocky Mountain Urology Center at Valley View for more than 15 years as a board-certified urologist. She focuses on caring for patients with incontinence, kidney stones, pelvic reconstruction, prostatitis, benign prostatic hyperplasia as well as pediatric urology care ranging from birth to early adult age.

Question: Is there any harm in long-term usage of drugs that treat overactive bladders?

Dr. Jamie Lowe: You develop tolerance. Overtime they just don’t work as well as they use to. The other problem with those is, as you age, you are at higher risk for cognitive impairment because they cross the brain blood barrier and cause confusion, fuzziness, slowness. They are not recommended for patients over the age of 75. I like to use them in the short term, but they are treating symptoms, not the underlying problem.

Q: Aside from pelvic floor physical therapy, when it comes to overactive bladder, are there any other behavioral changes or exercises that will prevent or improve urinary inconsistence?

Dr. Jamie Lowe: Yes, 100 percent. Anything that strengthens your core (Pilates, CrossFit, etc.) will aid in treating urinary incontinence. As your core gets stronger, you will see less problems with leakage.

Q: Why does sex itself lead to urinary tract infections?

Dr. Jamie Lowe: When women have sex, you are stirring up all the organisms that live along our perineum, therefore we are at higher risk for urinary tract infections. Not every woman has problems with sex-causing UTIs, but many do.

Q: Is there possibility of a vaccine for UTIs on horizon?

Dr. Jamie Lowe: (Researchers) are doing work on this, but nothing mainstream that is successful and available just yet.

Q: Do you recommend the Elurra supplement to prevent UTIs?

Dr. Jamie Lowe: Elurra is a concentrated cranberry component that in pediatric trials has been proven to be as good as low-dose antibiotics for treating UTI. They are doing studies on adults now to see if it will be as effective. We have been using it in our practice, my nurse practitioner and I, and some patients love it, but again it’s not a panacea, not everyone gets the same benefit. It’s not just a supplement, not just adding something you don’t have, it’s all the behavioral changes to make too – making sure you have adequate estrogen levels, making sure you haven’t been stripped by all the antibiotics you’ve been taking, there’s other factors to why recurrent UTIs happen.