Stress Incontinence During Exercise

stress-incontinence

So it’s the last week of January. Did ou set any weight loss goals for this year? If so, I may have another reason to encourage you to lose a few extra pounds. Stress incontinence during exercise.

What Is Stress Incontinence During Exercise?

By now you probably know that I help women (and men) with pelvic issues. One of the most common is urinary incontinence (leaking urine). There are two types of incontinence: stress and urge. Today I am referring to stress incontinence. This occurs with increased pressure on the pelvic floor (intra-abdominal pressure) from lifting, jumping, sneezing, etc. causing some people to leak urine.

Another Reason To Hit The Gym!

There are studies that found losing 5-10% of your body weight can make a large impact on urinary incontinence.

Think of it, if someone is 200 lbs and loses 10-20 lbs, her embarrassing leakage may drastically decrease. I’m not saying being overweight is the main cause of incontinence, but combine the extra weight on the pelvic floor with let’s say, two vaginal births and a head cold with frequent coughing and this woman is bound to be rushing to Target for incontinence pads!

So the next time you need a little extra motivation to increase your heart rate and lose a few pounds, think of how happy you will be when you won’t have to worry about the smell of urine after picking up your toddler or your bag of groceries.

Call me at (518) 632-4944 to make an appointment at our Queensbury office to discuss urinary incontinence or other pelvic issues.

References:

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa0806375

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1557356/

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