well here's another reason to lose a few. if you are having urinary incontinence problems you may find that losing some weight will make the problems less severe or they may go away altogether. many studies have shown a connection between obesity and urinary incontinence in women especially stress urinary incontinence (you leak when you are coughing laughing or putting physical "stress" on your bladder). excess body weight tends to increase bladder pressure (increased weight on the bladder and pelvis) and may also impair blood flow and nerve impulses to the bladder. studies show a positive correlation between high bmi. and urinary incontinence and the correlation is more pronounced in women than in men. research has also shown that very obese women who undergo extreme weight loss due to gastric surgery see a decrease in their stress urinary incontinence symptoms. in other studies women who achieved a greater than 5% weight loss following weight watchers experienced a greater than 50% reduction in their urinary incontinence symptoms. that means that if you weigh 200 pounds and lose just 11 of them you could reduce your incontinence issues by half! losing weight if you are overweight and maintaining normal weight throughout adulthood may be important approaches to controlling or eliminating urinary incontinence symptoms especially in women.
will losing weight help my urinary incontinence problems?