Extra pounds, especially in the belly, are considered a risk factor for urinary incontinence. And some studies have found that when overweight women drop even a modest amount of weight, they can curb their risk of incontinence.

Type 2 diabetes, which often goes hand-in-hand with obesity, is also a risk factor for incontinence, regardless of weight. So weight loss could be especially helpful for heavy women with diabetes, however studies hadn’t looked at the question until now.

In the new study, researchers found that overweight diabetic women who took up diet and exercise changes lost an average of 17 pounds over a year. And with the weight loss came a lower risk of developing incontinence.

Over a year, 10.5% of women in the diet-and-exercise group developed new problems with urine leakage. That compared with 14% of women who had not made lifestyle changes.

“Overweight and obese women with type 2 diabetes should consider weight loss as a way to reduce their risk of developing urinary incontinence,” said lead researcher Suzanne Phelan, of California Polytechnic State University.

The findings, reported in the Journal of Urology, are based on 2,739 middle-aged and older women who were part of a larger diabetes study.

For every two pounds a woman lost, the odds of developing incontinence dipped by three percent.

On the other hand, weight loss did not seem to help women who already had urine leakage problems at the study’s start. “We aren’t sure why weight loss appeared to impact prevention but not resolution of urinary incontinence,” Phelan said.

It’s possible, she said, that weight loss is more effective at preventing, rather than treating, urine leakage. Or there may simply have been too few women with existing urinary incontinence to detect an effect of weight loss, Phelan added.

It’s also unclear how to account for the drop in incontinence risk — it might be related to the exercise or the blood sugar reduction, for instance.

Urinary incontinence is very common among women – mainly because vaginal childbirth is a major risk factor.

One recent study of U.S. adults found that about 53% of women older over 20 yrs old said they’d had problems with urine leakage in the past year. That was up from less than 50%  of women surveyed several years earlier. Researchers commented that the increase was partly explained by rising rates of diabetes and obesity.

SOURCE: Journal of Urology, online January 19, 2012.

Because Alzheimer’s is a neurological disease, patients often have trouble recognizing physical urges or remembering where a bathroom is located, which can contribute to bladder or bowel incontinence and also certain drugs can also relax the bladder muscles or cause increased urination.

Some simple steps to help a loved one cope with dementia and incontinence are:

-Remind the person where the toilet is located, and encourage regular visits.

-Ensure the route to the toilet is clear of obstacles and well lit.

-Provide visual cues by painting the bathroom door a contrasting color and perhaps posting a toilet sign on the door.

-Make the toilet and bathroom safer with grab bars, a raised toilet seat and nightlights.

-Provide clothing that is easy to remove, with no complicated belts or buttons.

-Use an Incontinence Product Finder to choose disposable or washable undergarments by style, selecting a type your loved one can easily get on and off.

-Explain the importance of keeping skin clean, moisturized and protected, using products made to prevent breakdown and infection.

-Protect bedding and furniture with disposable or washable pads.

-Don’t cut down on fluids, which can lead to dangerous dehydration, but encourage your loved one to cut back before bedtime.

A Carer’s Guide leaflet on with more information on how to help a loved one deal with incontinence, can be requested here.

We now offer bariatric sizes on our Ladies Cotton Comfort Plus pants, Men’s Y Front Pants, the more absorbent Unisex All in One pants and our Pouch Pants.

All these are made in the U.K from 100% cotton and are designed to look and feel like normal underwear. All are machine washable as well and available in a wide range of sizes.

As with all washable incontinence products, these items are only suitable for urinary incontinence and not for faecal incontinence.

The new bariatric sizes for washable incontinence pants are 3XL (50-52″/127-134cm), 4XL (54-56″/137-143cm) and 5XL (56-58″/148-153cm). Our full range of size for washable incontinence pants are:

Value Bedding Packs

Save money with our value bedding packs! Our great value for bedding packs containing all the key washable products to protect mattress and bedding from incontinence, by buying all the items together you get lower prices and save money.

Our Single Bed Basic Bedding Pack contains 2 Washable Bed Pads (Kylies) (Product Code WBS02) and an Allergon Mattress Cover (ASM01). Value of items sold singularly is £53.97 (+VAT if applicable) but we are offering all these items for only £44.99 (+VAT if applicable), a saving of over 15%!

Our Double Bed Basic Bedding Pack contains 2 Washable Bed Pads (Kylies) (Product Code WBD04) and an Allergon Mattress Cover (ADM01). Value of items sold singularly is £71.97 (+VAT if applicable) but we are offering all these items for only £59.99 (+VAT if applicable), a saving of 20%!

He said he often has to go the roundabout way of getting women to talk about their urinary incontinence, but a good percentage of his patients are dealing with it.

“I’d say about 40 percent of them won’t say anything about it if I don’t ask,” he said.

Various types of incontinence — stress incontinence, urge incontinence or a mixture of the two — can be caused by poor genes, weak muscles, unhealthy lifestyles and/or an overactive bladder muscle, among other things. Most commonly, a leaky or bulging bladder has something to do with vaginal prolapse, which is a splitting of the muscles in the vaginal wall, allowing the bladder to sag internally.

Multiple pregnancies, hysterectomy and menopause can also contribute to the causes of female incontinence. However, that is not always the case.

Many women put up with the symptoms, but Hutchison said nearly all types of incontinence can be fixed, resulting in a better quality of life.

“There’s a social stigma associated with incontinence,” Snyder said. Putting up with the symptoms over the years, however, will not cause permanent damage.

Weight loss can sometimes help in the case of stress incontinence, which happens when coughing, sneezing, jogging or other activity leads to a loss of control of the bladder. But oftentimes, women must endure the inconveniences of urine leakage while losing the weight as most types of exercise can spur it on.

Men don’t typically have the same issues with incontinence because their bladder is supported by the structure of the pelvis, Hutchison said.

He hopes women aren’t just living with the constant annoyances incontinence causes, dealing with absorbent pads or diapers. Most cases, he said, can be prevented by “just taking care of yourself.”

Chronic constipation, consumption of caffeinated or carbonated beverages, as well as those with artificial sweeteners, can irritate the bladder, leading to more trips to the restroom and an inability to completely empty the bladder, Hutchison said. Smoking, which breaks down the body’s collagen supply, and chronic coughing that puts stress on muscles can also lead to incontinence

Snyder, a specialist who deals with kidney, bladder and prostate issues, said he’s seen patients ranging from 17 years of age to 81, but urinary incontinence symptoms are most common in women during their late 30s and early 40s.

Achieving normalcy is the goal of any treatment, which can include medications, surgery and nonsurgical procedures.

“The secret is a good relationship between the patient and her doctor,” Snyder said, adding that an open dialogue helps to arrive at the best possible outcomes, which is an informed decision.

New TENA Lady Maxi NIGHT

TENA Lady MAXI Night is the latest product to be added to the Allanda Range of Incontinence Pads.

The newest product in the TENA Lady range, TENA Lady Maxi NIGHT is specifically made for use at night. Specially designed to give you a good night’s sleep, these soft and comfortable towels give you additional protection due to their specific shape – they’re wider at the back for extra coverage and absorbency when you are lying down.

These incontinence pads are body shaped to give a close fit to ensure comfort and leakage security. They are designed to fit into your own underwear securely using a self-adhesive strip. When necessary they can be easily removed and should be hygienically disposed of.

Other benefits of the TENA Lady products also include:

• Odour Neutraliser to keep you protected for up to 12 hours.
• “Fast Dry Core” absorbs liquid quickly into centre core to keep you feeling dry.
• “Air Dry”Waterproof backing lets air circulate, improving comfort and reducing skin problems.

The TENA Lady range is available in Lights by TENA Liners, Mini, Normal, Extra, Extra Plus, MAXI Night and Super absorbencies.

“I’m 87 years old,” said Gao Yingying, a famous model and the leader of Sunset Glow Model Team. “But I am still busy mountaineering, traveling and participating in social events. It seems I’m not that old, am I?”

Since the first Depend Cup Elderly Fashion Show launched, many elderly people like Gao have responded eagerly. Although their average age is more than 60, the concept of “prizing a happy life” was conveyed by their energy, confidence and happiness.

Depend Cup is an activity organized and sponsored by Kimberly-Clark in China in conjunction with Golden Times – a local magazine.

According to the latest nationwide census by the Chinese government, there are 178 million people who are rapidly approaching old age in China, accounting for 13.3 percent of the total population. As the situation continues, they are becoming progressively more susceptible to the conditions that commonly cause incontinence – including diabetes, Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH), prostate cancer, Alzheimer’s, hysterectomies, neurologic diseases and other chronic conditions, all conditions that affect the elderly in the U.K. as well.

As a result, about 481 million adult products for the management of incontinence were used in China in 2010. As with all wearers throughout the world cost, comfort, convenience and practical use influence customers’ choices, with the main desire of  people being able to maintain their normal life and dignity when using such products.

Lil Pants

We offer the full ranges of both Tena and Lille incontinence pants.

Tena Pants come in a wide variety of absorptions, from Tena Pants Discreet for light stress incontinence, through Tena Pants Normal and Tena Pants Plus to Tena Pants Super for heavier conditions, especially urge incontinence. Tena Pants Super is also good for helping to contain faecal conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) though as with all incontinence products they won’t absorb faecal matter and will need to be changed once any incident occurs. Lil Incontinence Pants come in Extra, Super and Maxi absorbencies. Again the Maxi absorbency is also suitable for managing faecal conditions.

One advantage of the Lille Incontinence Pants is that all three absorptions are available in an Extra Large Size. However the downside is that only the Maxi absorbancy is available in a Small size in the Lil range.

On the other hand both the Tena Pants Plus and Super ranges offer a small size. The Tena Pants Plus range offers not just Small, Medium and Large sizes but also an Extra Large and an Extra Small size. The Extra Small size is ideal for teenagers and small children who benefit from using pull-up’s rather than more traditional all in one style products.

All our incontinence pant products are unisex and are designed to be worn by both Men and Women.

Incontinence Pants

Unfortunately it’s very difficult to find the right product first time and often there is a level of trial and error, (which is why we offer our range of sample packs which enable customers to try a wide variety of products), and the general rule is to start with the least absorbent product, and increase absorbency used if you experience leaks.

However for Incontinence pants we have a slightly different recommendation. As the lightest Incontinence Pants (TENA Pants Discreet) are designed for lighter conditions, then they may not be suitable for many customers. Therefore with Incontinence Pants we recommend starting in the middle of the range (e.g. TENA Pants Plus or Lille Pants Extra). If the wearer finds they are still experiencing leaks then they should try the next absorbency level, Super or even Maxi.

As these items can be quite bulky, then if the starting product is more than adequate then the wearer may well want to try the lighter products such as TENA Pants Discreet, as these offer large benefits in terms of discretion, albeit at the expense of absorption, but this trade off is felt to be worth it for many wearers.

If you are advised to take one dose of diuretics, then it is better to take it as soon as you finish your breakfast. No matter when and how many dosages of diuretics are prescribed to you, make it a point to take the last dose of the day before 4 o’clock in the evening, that way they will have worked to empty the bladder long before night time, reducing the need to get up during the night or reducing incidences of night time incontinence.

Please note that you should take a dose after that if your doctor has advised you to do so. If you are taking over the counter diuretics then you may also like to ask the pharmacist about the dosage. The time between two doses of diuretics also depends on the number of doses and the type of diuretics that are prescribed to you. There are a few more precautions that you may need to take while taking diuretics. For instance, it is mandatory for you to check your blood pressure and kidneys regularly, while on diuretics. It is also essential to check the levels of blood potassium and magnesium, as the diuretics may cause a significant drop in their levels.