Foods Linked To Urinary Incontinence In Middle-Age (& Foods That Avert It)

Incontinence is an inconvenience associated with aging, especially for women. Indeed, as the study we’re going to talk about today noted:

❝Estrogen deficiency during menopause, aging, reproductive history, and factors increasing intra-abdominal pressure may lead to structural and functional failure in the pelvic floor.❞

~ Dr. Mari Kuutti et al.

However, that was just the “background”, before they got the study going, because…

❝Lifestyle choices, such as eating behavior, may contribute to pelvic floor disorders. The objective of the study was to investigate associations of eating behavior with symptoms of pelvic floor disorders, that is, stress urinary incontinence, urgency urinary incontinence, fecal incontinence, and constipation or defecation difficulties among middle-aged women.❞

~ Ibid.

How the study went

The researchers examined 1,098 Finnish women aged 47–55. It was a cross-sectional observational study, so no intervention was made, just: gathering data and analysing it. They examined:

• Eating behavior (i.e. what one’s diet is like; their questionnaire was quite comprehensive and the simplified conclusion doesn’t do that justice)
• Food consumption frequency (i.e. temporal patterns of eating)
• Demographic variables (e.g. age, education, etc)
• Gynecological variables (e.g. menopause status, hysterectomy, etc)
• Physical activity variables (e.g. light, moderate, heavy, previous history of no exercise, regular, competitive sport, etc)

With those things taken into account, the researchers crunched the numbers to assess the associations of dietary factors with pelvic floor disorders.

What they found

Adjusting for possible confounding variables…

• those with disordered eating patterns (e.g. overeating, restrictive eating, swinging between the two behaviors) were 50% higher chance of developing urinary incontinence than the norm
• those who more frequently consumed ready-made foods got 50% higher chance of developing urinary incontinence than the norm
• those who ate fruits daily enjoyed a 20% lower chance of urinary incontinence than the norm

So, in practical terms:

• practice mindful eating
• avoid ready-made foods
• enjoy fruit

You can read the paper in full here (it obviously goes into a lot more detail, and also covers other things beyond the scope of this article, such as fecal incontinence or, conversely, constipation—needless to say, the same advice stands in any case):

Association of eating behavior with symptoms of pelvic floor disorders in middle-aged women: An observational study

As for why this works the way it does: the study focused on the association and only hypothesized the question of “how”, but they did write a bit about that too, and it is almost certainly mostly a matter of gut health vs inflammation.

We really only have room for that kind of one-line summary here, but do read the paper if you’re interested, as it also talks about other dietary factors that had an impact, with the above-listed items being the topmost impactful factors, but for example (to take just one snippet of many possible ones):

❝In particular, saturated fatty acids (SFA) and cholesterol increased the risk for symptoms❞

~ Ibid. ← so do read it, for many more snippets like this!

What else does and doesn’t work

We covered a little while back the question of whether it is strengthening to hold one’s pee, or better to go whenever one feels the urge, and the answer is clear:

To Pee Or Not To Pee

Meanwhile, supplements on the other hand are a mixed bag; there are some that probably help, and others, not so much:

What’s in the supplements that claim to help you cut down on bathroom breaks? And do they work?

Want to do more?

Check out these previous articles of ours:

Pelvic Floor Exercises (Not Kegels!) To Prevent Urinary Incontinence

and

Keeping Your Kidneys Happy: It’s About More Than Just Hydration! ← important at all ages, but especially relevant after 60

Take care!