Bladder control nirvana
Low-impact exercise can reduce daily episodes of urinary incontinence for women, a study finds
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Low-impact stretching and strengthening exercises, including yoga, can benefit older women struggling with urinary incontinence, a study published in October 2024 in Annals of Internal Medicine found.
The research on incontinence, led by scientists at Stanford Medicine and the University of California, San Francisco, is part of an effort to identify low-risk, low-cost treatments for common health problems for women as they age.
“It takes away independence,” said the study’s senior author, Leslee Subak, MD, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford Medicine.
The study compared two 12-week exercise programs: 121 participants were randomly assigned to yoga, and 119 to a physical-conditioning control group. Participants were women 45-90 years old with urinary incontinence symptoms at least once a day.
After 12 weeks of a low-impact yoga program, participants had about 65% fewer episodes of incontinence. Women in the control group, who did low-impact stretching and strengthening exercises, experienced a similar benefit in the same period. The results are on par with the effects of medications used to address incontinence, researchers said.
“Our study was testing the kind of yoga that just about anyone can do, with modifications for different physical abilities,” said Subak, the Katharine Dexter McCormick and Stanley McCormick Memorial Professor III.
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