The Fat That Greatly Increases Your Urinary Incontinence Risk

Various degrees of urinary incontinence become increasingly common as we get older, especially for women especially over a certain age.

But why?

It’s not just a matter of “getting old”, although it is often a case of the pelvic floor muscles weakening through atrophy, which is why pelvic floor muscle exercises are often recommended.

As to why this atrophy occurs, the largest single reason is that muscular atrophy all over the body is occurring, and it simply becomes more noticeable when one of the muscle groups is responsible for holding one’s pee back. If you struggle to open a jar, you might just think “this jar is stuck”. If you leak urine, however, it’s not likely you’ll blame an external factor, so you’re certain to notice that “something wrong is not right”.

We’ve previously explored some dietary factors, too, for example:

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

Another risk factor has generally been described very loosely and unhelpfully as “obesity“, so let’s look into that:

At the center of the problem

Researchers (Dr. Ana Jéssica dos Santos Sousa et al.) assessed 99 women aged 18–49 using Dual-Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) to measure total, abdominal, pelvic, and visceral fat distribution, and also surveyed those same women about urinary health issues.

Urinary incontinence is more common than most people suppose: 39.4% of participants reported urinary leakage, which is quite a normal figure. It’s just something that typically goes underreported and little-discussed.

As it turns out, where fat is stored appears more important than overall weight or BMI, with visceral (intra-abdominal) fat being the most influential. In particular, visceral fat showed by far the strongest association with stress urinary incontinence (SUI), increasing the likelihood by about 51%, which is rather higher than yielded by total body fat or fat in other regions.

The difference was stark:

❝Increases in total, android, gynoid, and visceral adipose tissue (VAT) fat mass were associated with higher odds of SUI by 0.4%, 4.4%, 2.6%, and 31.4%, respectively.

VAT fat mass was particularly influential, increasing the likelihood of SUI by 51%.❞

For this reason amongst many, waist circumference is often a critical indicator of health. See for example: Better Than BMI and The Other Waist Ratio.

As for visceral fat, see: Visceral Belly Fat & How To Lose It

Good news: Can We Do Fat Redistribution? ← the answer is “yes” and this article explains how

You might have noticed the age range of the study participants was a little on the young side (18–49). This is important, because although often linked to older age, SUI can affect women of all ages, partly because pelvic floor muscles are rarely trained (see the “learn more” section for how to do that, and no, it’s not about kegels!).

You can read the paper in full, here: Which body region’s fat accumulation increase the risk of stress urinary incontinence?

Want to learn more?

Check out:

Pelvic Floor Exercises (Not Kegels!) To Prevent Urinary Incontinence ← for a less fat-focused angle, if body recomposition isn’t on your to-do list

Take care!