Yoga and Low Impact Exercise Helps Older Women with Incontinence

Incontinence is one of the most common health issues for women as they age. Yoga and low impact exercise for at least 12 weeks significantly reduced incontinence episodes, according to a study in the Annals of Internal Medicine (2024) Researchers from leading universities including University of California, San Francisco, and Stanford University, investigated whether yoga exercises focused on conditioning the pelvic floor or a 12-week low impact stretching and strengthening exercise program was effective in reducing incontinence. Study data showed that both exercise types provided subjects with about a 65% reduction in incontinent episodes.

“I’m impressed that exercise did so well and impressed that yoga did so well,” says senior study author Leslee Subak, MD, chair of obstetrics and gynecology at Stanford Medicine. “One of the take-home messages from this study is, ‘Be active!’” Urinary incontinence affects more than half of middle-aged women and up to 80% of 80-year-olds.

“Part of the problem is that incontinence is stigmatized; we don’t talk about it,” says Subak. “Or we hear folklore about this being normal when you get older. In fact, it’s very common but it’s not inevitable, and we have very effective ways of treating it.”