Maintaining a Healthy Weight to Control Incontinence

January begins the new year, and with it is the opportunity for people to make resolutions by establishing new priorities and starting the year with a renewed focus. Common resolutions include traveling, eating healthier, quitting a bad habit like smoking or drinking, paying off debt, saving money, and perhaps the most popular, losing weight or getting in shape. You’ll likely see countless advertisements and discounts on gym memberships and workout equipment over the first few weeks of January. Now might be the time to take advantage of these offers, especially if you desire to get into shape or take control of your bladder!

You read correctly… take control of your bladder functions through exercise. Being overweight or obese increases your risk of urinary incontinence. Not only does being overweight increase your risk, but if you currently have incontinence, weight gain can contribute to your incontinence experience and frequency.

For many people, losing 10% of their body weight can lead to a 50% reduction in the risk of incontinence episodes. Alternatively, a 10% increase in body weight can lead to a 20-70% increase in the risk of urinary incontinence. Therefore, a healthy reduction in body weight can have a significant impact on the urinary incontinence experienced.

Take Control of Incontinence

You can take control of your incontinence by taking control of your body! Lifestyle changes like regular exercise, eating healthy and diet changes, sleep habits, and limiting or eliminating alcohol and smoking can help you improve your incontinence experience or reduce your risk of urinary incontinence. Consider asking your Urologist what lifestyle changes can most benefit you.

Regular exercise and a healthy diet are crucial lifestyle changes to develop, and they are important aspects of healthy aging. There is a saying that it takes 21 days to make or break a habit. While there may be debate around this number, making or breaking a habit primarily depends on your motivation and emotional investment in the habit. Some researchers have found that it takes 66 days to form a new habit, while others say if you do something every day for 30 days, it will become a habit. Everyone is different! So maybe starting the habit of exercise will take 10 days, or maybe it will take 66, but if you really want to improve your health and incontinence experience, forming the habits of regular exercise and healthy eating can positively change your life.

Maintaining a healthy weight is about more than just diet and exercise, there is also the importance of sleep and managing stress. Poor sleep and stress can also be a result of incontinence. All these aspects of health interact with each other and your incontinence experience, so making improvements in one aspect can also improve the others. For example, losing 10 pounds and reducing bladder irritants from your diet can help improve your incontinence. This improvement in your incontinence can help reduce incontinence-related stress and help improve your sleep patterns.

How Tranquility Can Help

If you have incontinence and are experiencing leakage, odor, nighttime interruptions like clothes and linen changes, or you feel limited due to your incontinence, Tranquility can help. Our products are specifically designed to manage the most difficult incontinence episodes while reducing odor and eliminating leakage. While you take strides to a healthier and more active lifestyle this year, let Tranquility keep you protected and secure.