The Forgotten Floor

The Pelvic Floor

We all know that we should maintain a healthy diet filled with plant-based products, stay active throughout the day, shouldn’t smoke, and get 7-9 hours of sleep per night. But there are other small actions that can have a large impact on our long-term health that we should start today. This month will focus on a neglected set of muscles.

The Pelvic Floor

The pelvic floor is a band of muscles that help your internal organs defy gravity and internal pressures such as when you sneeze, laugh or lift something heavy. These muscles also help to support the spine.

When they become weak through ageing and atrophy, obesity and disease, it can have very serious repercussions such as urinary incontinence and a prolapsed bowel.

A weak pelvic floor is correlated with lower back pain. Although this weakness is normally associated in the media with child-bearing women, men experience this too. Simple steps taken early in life can prevent this, but has the added benefit of aiding you in sexual function.

The prevention of pelvic floor weakness

The pelvic floor weakness can be prevented with some easy exercises every day. No one will even know you are doing them. You can do them while doing the dishes, whilst bored in a lecture or meeting, in the bus or just about anywhere. The technique is rather easy – pretend you are holding gas in an elevator. You don’t want to ‘let go’ with all those people trapped around you. Try not to squeeze your glutes at the same time. Hold 10 seconds, relax for 10 seconds. Repeat this exercise 10 times. You should also perform some quick reps. These should be a squeeze for 2 seconds, and then relax for 2 seconds, 10 times. This number of reps and duration are established for a healthy adult.

There are several free smartphone applications that can guide you through the timing. If you have just had a child, or have a known weakness, start as simple as 2 repetitions for 2 seconds and gradually increase each day.
If you have already experienced urinary incontinence, please ask your general practitioner to refer you to a specialist physiotherapist or physical therapist. It may be a long road, but there are successful interventions that don’t include medication or surgery. Surgery for the pelvic floor has been in the news this and last year, with the serious consequences of the poorly tested mesh that was commonly used and has now been withdrawn. The success rate for this type of surgery, the difficulty of removal if it goes wrong and the long-term implications if it fails, means it should be a last resort option.

References

– Chiarelli, PE., Women’s Waterworks: Curing Incontinence (Revised Edition), London, 1995, ISBN 0964071908
– Miklos JR, Chinthakanan O, Moore RD, Karp DR, Nogueiras GM, Davila GW. Indications and Complications Associated with the Removal of 506 Pieces of Vaginal Mesh Used in Pelvic Floor Reconstruction: A Multicenter Study. Surg Technol Int. 2016 Oct 26;29:185-189. PMID: 27780347.
– Senior doctors call for public inquiry into use of vaginal mesh surgery in UK, The Guardian, 18th July 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/18/senior-doctors-call-for-public-inquiry-into-use-of-vaginal-mesh-surgery-in-uk [accessed on 14.12.2021]