Weight Loss Treats Urinary Incontinence
Reported February 02, 2009
(Ivanhoe Newswire) — It prevents diabetes, controls high blood pressure, corrects cholesterol levels and improves mood — and new research shows weight loss can practically cure urinary incontinence in women.
A recent study that involved 338 obese and overweight women with urinary continence shows those who participated in a six-month weight loss program cut their problem nearly in half.
Women in the weight-loss program group lost an average of 8 percent of their body weight and reduced weekly urinary incontinence episodes by 47 percent, whereas women who simply received information about diet and exercise reduced the episodes by 28 percent. In addition, women in the weight-loss program were significantly more satisfied with the improvement in their incontinence than women in the control group, according to self reports.
The trial, called the Program to Reduce Incontinence by Diet and Exercise (PRIDE), provides evidence to support weight loss as a treatment for urinary incontinence.
“Our results suggest that a decrease in urinary incontinence is another health benefit associated with weight loss and that weight reduction can be a first-line treatment in overweight and obese women,” Leslee L. Subak, M.D., of the University of California, San Francisco, and lead author of the study, was quoted as saying.
SOURCE: New England Journal of Medicine, 2009;360:481-490