Here's one more reason you should step out on the dance floor. If you're dealing with pesky urinary incontinence, busting a move could help put an end to the frequent trips to the bathroom, a new study says.
Researchers had 24 elderly women incorporate a series of dance moves using a video game console into a physiotherapy program for strengthening pelvic floor muscles. Not only did the women notice less urine leakage, but they were also more likely to participate in the program.
"Compliance with the program is a key success factor: the more you practice, the more you strengthen your pelvic floor muscles...we quickly learned that the dance component was the part that the women found most fun and didn't want to miss," lead researcher Chantal Dumoulin of the Institut Universitaire de Geriatrie de Montreal said in a release.
Approximately 25 million adults have urinary incontinence, with the majority of them being women. Pelvic floor exercises are often prescribed by doctors for people suffering from urinary incontinence, helping women not only improve their incontinence but their quality of life.
Dumoulin says integrating dancing into the physiotherapy program is successful because it gives women confidence. "They now know they can contract their pelvic floor muscles when they perform any daily activity to prevent urine leakage," she said.
Who would have thought?
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