57.5% of chronic cystitis patients, 3 or more combined urine symptoms...How to restore bladder function?

May 20, 2025

Chronic cystitis is a condition in which cystitis recurs repeatedly more than two or three times a year or the disease persists for a long time. Long-term antibiotics make it more difficult to treat due to resistance, and when stress and overwork overlap, they easily recur and the treatment response weakens, causing the majority of patients to suffer from anxiety. In particular, chronic bladder inflammation decreases the bladder's original function of storing and discharging urine as the medical history is older, resulting in complex urination disorders with stimulating symptoms and increasing the number of urine.

◇ 85% of patients with chronic bladder inflammation, 2 or more combined urine symptoms...On average, 12 times a day, nightly symptoms of frequent urination

Iljung Oriental Clinic (Director Sohn Ki-jung, Ph.D. in Oriental Medicine), which focuses on bladder and prostate diseases, recently announced the results of urination analysis, including the eight major urine symptoms experienced by chronic bladder inflammation patients and the number of urinations per day and night.

In a survey of 273 patients with cystitis who received treatment from 2024 to April 2025, the incidence (multiple responses) of each urine symptom was in the order of daytime frequent urination (63.3%), nighttime frequent urination (53.7%), residual urination (53.0%), urgent urination (44.1%), urinary pain (32.8%), hematuria (13.5%), and turbidity (10.3%).

Characteristically, 85% (232 patients) of all patients complained of two or more combined urine symptoms, and more than three patients also accounted for 57.5% (157 patients). As for the type of complex urine symptoms, the combination of 'day and night frequent urination + night frequent urination' was the most common at 44.3% (121 patients), and the average number of urine per day of patients was 9.9 times per week and 2.3 times at night.

The average prevalence period of the patients surveyed was 3.3 years, and the average age was 54.8 years, and most of them were middle-aged, but the age group varied from their 20s to 60s and 70s.

◇Repeated bladder inflammation...Once the bladder function drops, it is difficult to recover on its own, so early response is important

The fundamental reason is that patients with chronic bladder inflammation suffer from urination disorders and urine irritation symptoms.

The bladder is an organ that stores and discharges urine in a muscle urine storage bag. The ureter and urethra are connected to store waste filtered from the kidneys and then discharge it out of the body when a certain amount rises.

However, if inflammation is caused by bacterial infections and recurrence is repeated, the bladder's unique function of storing and discharging urine gradually declines. The bladder is stretched, which weakens the force of contraction, and the elasticity of the bladder muscles is reduced due to the addition of aging. Urine cannot be squeezed cool and tightly, and the storage function decreases, causing frequent urination. Patients' pain is similar to interstitial bladder inflammation, chronic prostate adenitis, and prostatic hypertrophy in men, and if you have a habit of holding urine for a long time, your bladder may function less and suffer. Rarely, bladder function may be weakened due to problems with the central nervous system that goes to the bladder after waist disc or obstetrics and gynecology surgery.

If the recurrence of cystitis or holding urine for a long time is repeated and the unique function of the bladder is deteriorated, urine symptoms such as frequent urination and night urination, residual urination that remains unfresh even after urination, urgent urination that suddenly feels urinary, and thinning urine stems appear.

Son Ki-jung, chairman of Iljung Oriental Medicine Clinic (Doctor of Oriental Medicine), explained, "Severe patients go to the bathroom dozens of times a day every 15 to 30 minutes, and in some cases, a 53-year-old female patient with chronic bladder infection suffers enough to urinate 30 times a day."

The combined urine symptoms of chronic cystitis patients are inextricably linked to each other and are a strong signal that bladder function has deteriorated. Early response is important for frequent urination not to fall into a vicious cycle in which the urine stem rapidly thinns and urinary urination.

In addition, once the bladder function drops, it is difficult to recover by itself. This is because bladder muscles do not move according to human will, but contraction and relaxation are repeated by autonomic nerves. Anticholinergic drugs or smooth muscle relaxants to reduce urination are aimed at temporary symptom relief and are not fundamental solutions.

Director Son said "In the end, the key is to smoothly restore the elasticity of the bladder contraction and relaxation along with the treatment of causative diseases such as chronic bladder inflammation, irritable bladder, and interstitial bladder inflammation."The bladder giver is a relatively well-treated disease in oriental medicine, and if acupuncture and thermal therapy are combined with unique prescriptions that strengthen the function of the urinary genital system, bladder function can be restored relatively quickly and urine symptoms can be improved." he said.