There are no rigorous studies that assess lifestyle changes. I can tell you what health care providers often tell patients or what patients tell us. For example, many people find that cutting down on caffeine and carbonated beverages are helpful. The relationship between smoking and incontinence is unclear, and there are conflicting studies about that. Health care providers may tell women to lose weight but as we talked about earlier, we don't have much information about what you can expect if you do lose weight.
Many women do find that urge incontinence occurs if they are very stressed.
So, like many areas of health, stress reduction is important. Detrusor dysinergia is an uncommon type of urinary incontinence that we haven't mentioned. In this particular condition, when a woman is trying to urinate, the bladder contracts which it is supposed to do, but at the same time, the urethra muscle also contracts when it is suppose to relax. Most commonly, we see this condition in women who have some type of spinal cord problem. However, the diagnosis is not always clear.