SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) - Yoga is increasingly popular among women, especially "pelvic yoga" designed to improve health problems like urinary incontinence and overactive bladder. But there's been almost no research to evaluate the effects of a yoga program in this population -- until now.
A new study led by UC San Francisco found that pelvic floor yoga isn't superior to a general exercise program at reducing urinary incontinence in older women.
"We were a little surprised," study author Dr. Alison Huang, director of research in the Division of General Internal Medicine at UCSF Health, told KCBS Radio's Patti Reising in this week's episode of "As Prescribed."
"We couldn't really conclude that it was actually uniquely better in improving incontinence than engaging in regular general muscle conditioning exercises for the same amount of time."
Studies have shown that urinary incontinence affects nearly half of women in midlife and older, and can lead to depression, social isolation and functional decline. An increasing number of women, many who don't feel comfortable talking about the problem with a doctor, have turned to pelvic yoga to help improve the condition. The practice focuses on yoga techniques and poses thought to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles.
The UCSF study, published in Annals of Internal Medicine, involved women who were having urine leakage more than three times a day.
"This was a trial in which women were randomly assigned either to engage in this pelvic floor yoga program for three months, or they were randomly assigned to engage in a comparator program, which didn't involve yoga but involved general muscle stretching and strengthening exercises to strengthen the arms and the legs and or body," said Dr. Huang.
At the end of the study, researchers found that women in both groups reported an impressive improvement in urinary incontinence.
"In the pelvic yoga group, women reported that over three months, the frequency of their urinary incontinence improved by more than 60%. As it happened in the general muscle conditioning program, women also reported pretty impressive improvements in incontinence, close to 50% from baseline," said Dr. Huang. "The difference between the pelvic yoga group and the general muscle conditioning group wasn't that large."
The researchers concluded that both groups experienced a clinically meaningful improvement in their incontinence, and that yoga was not clearly better. Instead, the study suggests a multifaceted treatment approach that includes both physical and mental components.
"Most treatments that we have out there, clinical treatments for example, they're very much focused on the bladder or the urinary tract or the pelvic floor. But for older women, I think incontinence can be influenced by a lot of other aspects of women's health," said Dr. Huang. "We do think that changes in women's overall physical functioning, mental functioning, play a role in their bladder control."
Listen to this week's "As Prescribed" to learn more. You can also listen to last week's episode to hear about new research revealing some troubling long-term health effects of screen time, here.
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“As Prescribed” is sponsored by UCSF.