Urinary incontinence affects about 20 million American women and 6 million men, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. Treatments for incontinence include strengthening exercises for your pelvic muscles and weight loss, as well as medication and surgery. Successful treatment of incontinence requires the correct diagnosis of the specific type of incontinence you experience. Consult your health professional for all your treatment options.
Incontinence Treatment
Weight loss offers you a treatment option for incontinence because obesity is a risk factor of this health condition, explains the University of Maryland Medical Center. Reducing your weight takes pressure off your bladder. Achieve weight loss success when you reduce your caloric intake or burn more calories through exercise. In order to lose 2 lbs. a week, you must create a caloric deficit of 1,000 calories daily.
Reduce Incidences of Incontinence with Weight Loss
A six-month weight loss intervention program of consisting of diet, exercise and behavior modification followed immediately by a 12-month weight maintenance program can reduce incontinence episodes, according to a study led by the University of Alabama at Birmingham and published in a 2009 issue of the" New England Journal of Medicine." The participants were 388 overweight and obese women experiencing a maximum of 10 episodes of incontinence per week. The weight reduction program, consisting of a reduced calorie diet and 200 minutes of exercise each week, resulted in weight loss and an average of 47 percent fewer incontinence episodes.
Urinary Stress Incontinence
Many obese women experience urinary stress incontinence, according to information from the New York University Langone Weight Management Program. It explains that typically a bladder valve in your body is overcome by the pressure of the weight of your belly pressing against it. Other causes of urinary stress incontinence include weakening of the muscles that suspend the bladder or control the flow of urine. Laughing, coughing and sneezing can aggravate this health condition.
Fecal Incontinence
Overweight and obese women reported a high prevalence of monthly fecal incontinence episodes, according to a study conducted by the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and reported in the July 2009 issue of the "American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology." The prevalence of fecal incontinence is reported to be approximately 2 percent to 12 percent of the population and 50 percent more prevalent in obese women compared with those of a normal weight. No conclusive data exist to indicate that losing weight helps to relieve this condition.
References
- "New England Journal of Medicine"; Weight Loss to Treat Urinary Incontinence in Overweight and Obese Women; Leslee L. Subak, M.D., et al.; January 2009
- PubMed Central: Fecal Incontinence in Obese Women with Urinary Incontinence
- NYU Langone Weight Management Program: Health Risks of Morbid Obesity
- University of Maryland Medical Center: Urinary incontinence - Risk Factors
- Medline Plus: Tips for Losing Weight
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