had a significant positive effect on urinary control in the women.

It seems that obesity increases the risk factor of practically every single ailment known to man. The latest bit of information to reach the Ukmedix newsroom is that obese women, (and it probably applies to men too) can reduce the chances of suffering from urinary incontinence as they grow older if they lose weight.

The study that was done jointly by the University of Alabama, the University of California, San Francisco, Brown University and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences saw that the weight loss was a significant factor in improving the problem of incontinence in older women.

The researchers examined a group of 226 women who were either overweight or obese and asked them to undergo a weight loss program which included an exercise routine. A further 112 women were used as the control group to compare the results and were given advice on healthy eating and exercise. Both groups of women were given information about special exercises which they could do to control urinary flow.

When both groups of women were looked at 6 months later the larger group had lost an average of 8% of their previous body mass and the control group had lost an average of 1.6%. The researchers noted that the average amount of weekly incontinence episodes had reduced by almost half in the larger group compared to only 28% in the control group leading them to conclude that losing the extra weight had a significant positive effect on urinary control in the women.

Overall the weight loss also seemed to produce less ‘stress incontinence episodes’ which are defined as involuntarily losing urine when doing something like sneezing, laughing suddenly or when exercising. The women who lost the most weight also said they considered incontinence to be less problematic than previously.

The research was the subject of a report in the New England Journal of Medicine.