Urinary incontinence (UI) is bladder out of control, which is most common in the elderly.
Although this is a problem for both men and women, women have twice as many urinary incontinence as men.
Leaks occur when women exercise, laugh, cough, sneeze or get pregnant.
Although some people occasionally encounter minor leaks, others often wet their clothes.
Incontinence is not a disease, but it may indicate potential pathological problems requiring intervention.
Nearly one third of women aged 40 and over experience urinary incontinence with related diseases, including depression, falls and fractures, social isolation and lack of physical activity.
What causes urinary incontinence? Urinary incontinence occurs when bladder muscles become too weak or hyperactive.
The bladder is a balloon like, reservoir like muscle organ used to store and release urine.
It is supported by the pelvis and held in place.
The channel that carries urine from the bladder is called the urethra.
Circular muscles called sphincters help keep the urethra closed, so urine won’t leak out of the bladder until you’re ready to release it.
Several body systems must work together to control the bladder: pelvic floor muscles keep the bladder in place, sphincters keep the urethra closed, bladder muscles relax when urine accumulates in the bladder and squeeze when urinating, a group of nerves carry signals from the bladder to the brain to know when the bladder is full, and efferent nerves send signals from the brain to the bladder when urinating.
Urinary incontinence occurs when any of the above functions cannot work in the best way.
Types of urinary incontinence include: stress urinary incontinence: “stress” is the pressure on the bladder when an individual coughs, sneezes, laughs or lifts a heavy object.
If the pelvis and sphincter are strong, they can withstand additional pressure.
However, when these muscles weaken, sudden pressure pushes urine out of the bladder, causing leakage.
Urgent urinary incontinence: if you have involuntary urinary incontinence after a strong and sudden urge to urinate, you have urgent urinary incontinence.
Urgent urinary incontinence may be caused by minor diseases (such as infection) or more serious diseases (such as nerve injury, stroke or infection).
Overflow urinary incontinence: because the bladder is not completely empty, individuals experience frequent or continuous urine dripping.
Functional urinary incontinence: a physical or mental condition that prevents an individual from reaching the bathroom in time to urinate.
Mixed urinary incontinence: a mixture of stress and urgent urinary incontinence.
Although there are many clinical treatments for urinary incontinence, many have limitations, especially for elderly women who are most likely to suffer from this disease.
Drugs, including anticholinergic drugs, are moderately effective in reducing urgent urinary incontinence, but they can produce some side effects.
For stress urinary incontinence, surgery is an effective choice, but most women do not want or are not suitable for surgical intervention.
Pelvic floor muscle exercise and bladder training may be very effective, but without personalized guidance, some women may be difficult to learn.
Therefore, effective alternative treatment is needed, which is not only easy to obtain, but also well tolerated by a large number of incontinence individuals.
Yoga can be used to help incontinents recognize and strengthen their pelvic floor muscles without traditional pelvic floor rehabilitation.
There are several yoga poses that may help improve the stability, flexibility, and alignment of the hip, waist, and pelvis.
Studies have shown that yoga can help control urinary incontinence.
Not surprisingly, there are quite a few evidence-based studies on yoga in the treatment of incontinence.
But I was particularly impressed by the rationale and results of a particular study, a group based yoga intervention for female urinary incontinence: a pilot randomized trial.
(1) Despite the small sample size, the study was published in a peer-reviewed journal, indicating that reviewers saw the advantages of the results.
I would also like to add that although it is a small pilot study, the results are very significant, and the difference between the yoga group and the non yoga group is very small.
The basic principle of this study is to examine the feasibility, effectiveness and safety of yoga therapy for middle-aged and elderly women with urinary incontinence.
The exclusion criteria are strict and detailed, excluding individuals who show serious mobility impairment or have received Yoga guidance in the past year, especially those who treat incontinence.
Other exclusion criteria include, but are not limited to, pregnancy in the past six months, persistent urinary tract infections, neurological problems, including stroke, multiple sclerosis or Parkinson’s disease, congenital diseases leading to incontinence, bladder or rectal fistula and pelvic cancer or radiation.
Women were randomly assigned to two groups by computer: yoga group (n = 10) and non Yoga candidate group (n = 9).
The non yoga group received gift certificates for local yoga studio courses at the end of the study.
(I think it’s a new way to motivate them to do yoga, especially after encouraging results.) The yoga group participated in a six week Yoga treatment program, which includes two group courses / week, led by an experienced certified coach as an assistant and weekly family practice.
Designed by Judith Lasater and Leslie Howard, the Yoga course on how to practice yoga to promote pelvic floor health focuses on providing formal guidance and practice of various yoga postures and techniques.
The program is mainly based on Iyengar yoga and includes a set of eight postures for women of all ages, including women with reduced flexibility or mobility.
The postures in the study are as follows.
(the exact support may be different from the picture below..
