About Incontinence - Contributing Factors - Obesity
Medical Reviewer: Diana Hankey-Underwood, MS, WHNP-BC
People who are overweight are at a higher risk of experiencing stress urinary incontinence.
Why?
The extra weight around the abdomen adds stress and pressure to the muscles of the pelvic floor. Every breath, every cough, every giggle may tear a few threads in the muscle. With time, this adds up. For more information, read about stress urinary incontinence. Obesity can also cause type two diabetes. This can cause damage to the nerves that control the muscles of the bladder.
Prevention
The best way to prevent incontinence that is triggered or aggravated by obesity is to maintain a healthy body mass index (BMI). There are many online calculators that can help you determine your current BMI, as well as explain your target or ideal BMI.
Doing pelvic floor exercises, sometimes called Kegel exercises, while pregnant may help women prevent incontinence, even when they are older or heavier. Doing the exercises at all ages seems to help.
Treatment and Management
Many people who are overweight and lose weight are cured of incontinence or have it much less often. For more information on how to treat or manage your incontinence, please see stress urinary incontinence. You may also want to read about incontinence and type two diabetes if you have been diagnosed with that condition.
Diana Hankey-Underwood, MS, WHNP-BC, is Executive Director of Grace Anatomy, Inc. She was recently awarded two National awards: the Nurse Practitioners in Women’s Health Bayer Health Care 2007 Inspiration in Women’s Health Award and the National Association For Continence 2007 Continence Care Champion (CCC) award.
Her current work includes research on results of pelvic floor surgery, teaching classes on incontinence and working with international surgeons on improving the outcomes for children born with birth defects of the genitourinary and GI systems.
Page last modified 26 July 2009