Ketogenic diet promising treatment for stress urinary incontinence in obese women, study

"Findings from these cases indicate that a ketogenic diet can fastly reduce intra-abdominal obesity and body weight, thereby reducing intra-abdominal pressure and the motivation for SUI occurrence," the researchers wrote in their study.

"This is the first study on the therapeutic effect of a ketogenic diet on stress urinary incontinence in obese women. We found that the ketogenic diet can significantly reduce body weight, improve urine leakage, improve the proportion of body skeletal muscle, reduce BMI, and decrease visceral fat area."

They noted that the mechanism might be due to a decrease in abdominal pressure and restoration of the urthera's location. However, further research is needed to confirm its mechanism.

The study is observational, comprising 5 case reports, with a small number of cases, so there are some limitations. Through prospective randomized controlled studies, the researchers hope to verify the effectiveness of the ketogenic diet or treating stress urinary incontinence in the future.

"Our study revealed that in the future ketogenic diet may become one of the effective methods for treating stress urinary incontinence in obese women, providing a highly profitable, minimally invasive, and highly compliant treatment for SUI in obese women," the researchers wrote in their conclusion.

Reference:

Sun, Y., Chen, H., Bai, Y. et al. Ketogenic diet may be a new approach to treatment stress urinary incontinence in obese elderly women: report of five cases. BMC Women's Health 22, 402 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-022-01987-5