Meditation Effective In Treating Urinary Incontinence in Women

Meditation or cognitive therapy may be an effective management strategy to control the frequent urge to urinate among women, according to a study.

Loyola University Health System (LUHS) have employed cognitive therapy to treat overactive bladders.

Stress Incontinence About
Stress incontinence is the most common type of urinary incontinence. Women are more prone to it than men.

The therapy employs deep-breathing and guided-imagery exercises that train the brain to control the bladder without medication or surgery.

"The mind-body connection has proven to be particularly valuable for women suffering from incontinence. Cognitive therapy is effective with these women, because they are motivated to make a change and regain control over their body," said study investigator Dr. Aaron Michelfelder, vice chair, division of family medicine, Loyola University Health System.

After enrolling for the program, the patients had to attend an initial office visit, where they were introduced to cognitive therapy.

Stress Incontinence - Management-Diagnosis-Treatment-Advancement-Message
Encyclopedia section of Medindia explaining about the various tests done for stress incontinence

The patients then listened to an audio recording with a series of relaxation and visualization exercises at home twice a day for two weeks. They tracked the number of incontinence episodes that they experience in a pre- and post-therapy diary.

The researchers observed that the majority of patients experienced a substantial improvement in symptoms.

Benefits of Meditation / Meditation Therapy
Meditation therapy is one of the best Alternative Therapies. It is a Mind-Body Medicine.

The study evaluated a subset of 10 patients with a mean age of 62, who were eligible to participate in the study, if they had a diagnosis of overactive bladder (OAB), which is the sudden and unstoppable need to urinate.

The patients also had to be stable on all OAB treatments for the past three months before entering the study.

Yoga For Health
Animation for yoga asanas. Yoga helps to maintain a healthy balance of the body,with its set of movements or exercises

The data revealed that the average number of urge incontinence episodes per week decreased from 38 to 12.

The findings of the study have been published in the Journal of Urology.

Source-ANI
SRM