Urinary Incontinence

According to the National Association for Incontinence, 25 million adult Americans experience transient or chronic urinary incontinence. They estimate that 75-80% of those sufferers are women and that information on healthy bladder function can help promote the understanding that incontinence is not a normal part of aging but a symptom of another problem.

The boney processes of the pelvic girdle provide the anchors for the muscles of the pelvic floor. The pelvic floor is the only thing holding your viscera (guts) inside your body. In order for the pelvic floor to be taught like a trampoline (rather than slack like a hammock) all the bones of the pelvis need to be as far apart from each other as possible. When you tuck your pelvis, you bring the tailbone closer to the pubic bone. This causes you to lose tension in the pelvic floor.

In the absence of pelvic floor support, the job of holding your viscera in goes to the sphincters. You clamp down with your urethral, vaginal and anal sphincters. These become overworked, tired out and eventually lose tonicity. Our muscles need to have periods of innervation, stretch and laxity to maintain their tone. Otherwise . . . ACHOO---Woops!