Daily Mail - 30.07.2019

Daily Mail, Tuesday, July 30, 2019 Page 43

A

s a presenter on ITV’s

Loose Women, no topic

is off-limits for Nadia

sawalha. The daytime

TV show is famous for

the full and frank exchanges

and confessions of its panellists

on everything from divorce to

bullying and boob jobs.

‘I’m a professional oversharer: I share

absolutely everything,’ says Nadia, 54,

who lives in London with her husband,

Mark adderley, 47, a television producer

and director, and their two daughters,

Maddie, 16, and 11-year-old Kiki-Bee.

‘However, when I agreed to be an

ambassador for an incontinence aware-

ness campaign called Let’s Pee Honest,

I did have to think about it for a minute,

as there’s still a taboo about talking

about bladder problems.

‘When I decided to be open about my

own problems, there was a little bit of

me that was saying: “When anyone sees

me now, are they just going to think

that’s the woman who wet herself?” ’

she adds: ‘Like most women, when I’m

with my female friends, we’ll go as far as

saying: “Don’t make me laugh or I’ll wet

myself,” but what we’re not good at is

taking that conversation a stage further

and saying: “Well, yes, it can be funny

when we’re with all our friends, but,

for a lot of women, it can be incredibly

embarrassing and isolating.”

‘some people are so bad that they

won’t go out until they know where all

the loos are, as they are so worried

about wetting themselves — it’s so sad.’

Like one in three women in the UK,

and one in ten men, Nadia suffers from

bladder weakness — which causes

involuntary leaks. In Nadia’s case, she

experienced stress incontinence due

to a weak pelvic floor, a sling of muscles

inside the pelvis that supports the

bladder and which is often damaged by

the strain of carrying a baby.

another common type of incontinence

is urge incontinence, where there is a

sudden, intense need to pass urine, with

the person sometimes failing to make it

to the loo in time. This is often caused

By JO WATERS

... but is a pair of £249 muscle

training shorts really the answer?

by a bladder infection, diabetes or

neurological problems such as

multiple sclerosis.

some people suffer from a mix-

ture of both types.

N

aDIa, whose symptoms

started after her young-

est daughter was born,

admits she’s had her fair

share of embarrassing accidents

over the past decade.

‘One time, about three years ago,

I was sitting in a hospital corridor

with my daughter, waiting for an

appointment. something made

me laugh and I felt a leak and

thought: “How the hell do I get up

from here?”

‘I was sitting on one of those

grey NHs plastic chairs and I

was so mortified. I had to get up

and go in for the appointment

and all those people who had

been looking at me were still there

when I came back.’

a survey carried out in general

practice in Leicestershire found it

takes women an average of around

ten years to seek medical help for

incontinence, either because they

are too embarrassed to discuss it

with a doctor, or they simply don’t

know that their bladder problems

are fixable.

Many just accept it and wear

incontinence pads, without ever

addressing the underlying cause.

‘Childbirth, periods of weight

gain and menopause are all times

when stress incontinence can

become a problem, due to hormo-

nal changes and bearing extra

weight, as well as straining due

to constipation,’ says sudhanshu

Chitale, a consultant urological

surgeon at Whittington Health

NHs Trust and the private Princess

Grace Hospital, both in London.

‘Men often suffer in silence with

incontinence, too — especially

after prostate surgery. Too many

people accept it as a way of life

and don’t get help.’

For women, potential solutions

include muscle-strengthening

pelvic floor exercises (guided by

a physiotherapist) and vaginal

weights (progressively heavier

smooth cones equipped with a

string or wire, which, when

inserted into the vagina, like a

tampon, are held in place by con-

tracting the pelvic floor muscles),

as well as lifestyle changes such as

weight loss and improving diet in

order to avoid constipation.

If these don’t work, patients can

have injections of bulking agents

or botulinum toxin, or surgery to

lift up the bladder.

Vaginal mesh techniques, which,

until recently, were widely used,

are now unavailable due to safety

concerns — an issue highlighted

by Good Health.

Nadia tried self-help measures,

such as weight loss and Pilates,

to strengthen her pelvic floor, but

she has been struggling on and

off ever since. ‘I didn’t properly do

the pelvic floor exercises you’re

told to do after giving birth,’ she

says. ‘I suppose it’s because I

didn’t really believe they would

make a difference.

‘I was stressed after Kiki-Bee

was born — I was working a lot,

doing a lot of travelling and ended

up gaining 4 ½ st. My weight gain

exacerbated my bladder problems

— it was all that extra weight on

my pelvic floor.

‘I did some Pilates, which really

helped, cut down on coffee and

lost the weight, but didn’t see a

physiotherapist. People think:

“Oh my God, why do people wait

ten years to get help?” but it’s a

problem that creeps up on you.

sometimes it improved, but it

never really went away.’

When she hit the menopause at

49, Nadia’s symptoms came back

with a vengeance. ‘One time, I saw

something really funny happening

in the wings while I was on set on

TV and I burst out laughing. I was

wearing gold trousers — and I

couldn’t stop it.

‘People in the front row would

have seen that, but I had to carry

on until the break.’ afterwards,

she started to use pads in

situations where she thought

she might have an accident —

such as when running.

Concerned, however, about the

environmental impact of the

pads, which take hundreds of

years to decompose, Nadia looked

for another solution.

It came in the form of special

shorts (resembling cycling shorts)

that send pain-free impulses to the

muscles controlling the pelvic floor

through a set of connective pads

attached to the upper thigh and

buttocks. Operated by a hand-held

control, the pads contract and lift

the pelvic floor muscles 180 times

in just half-an-hour.

Nadia has worn the Innovo

shorts for half-an-hour a day, five

days a week, for eight weeks, and

says she is now dry — in all

situations. she explains that,

while the motion involved is

the same as with normal pelvic

floor exercises, the contractions

are ‘turbocharged’.

‘It’s fantastic,’ she adds. ‘I could

burst out laughing right now and

not have even a dribble. I could

sneeze and I’m not going to have

to cross my legs.’

The recommendation is that the

shorts are initially worn for half-

an-hour a day, five days a week, for

12 weeks, followed by once a week

for maintenance.

a study of 19 women, published

in the journal Neuromodulation

in 2013 by researchers from the

University of Dublin and North

Georgia state University in the

U.s., found that, after one week of

wearing the shorts, 87.4 per cent

of women asked to perform jumps

and coughs reported a decrease in

leakages. By two months of use,

this had improved to 97.7 per cent.

In another trial across 12 U.s.

hospitals of 180 women with

stress incontinence, half were

treated with Innovo shorts and

the rest with an internal vaginal

probe that was known to work.

Results suggested 87.2 per cent

of Innovo users reported being dry

or nearly dry after three months

of use — similar to the 86.8 per

cent rate with the probe.

M

R CHITaLe said

that, while the results

were impressive, ‘I’d

say these shorts should

form only part of a multi-pronged

approach — if you’re overweight,

for instance, and suffering stress

incontinence, you still need to lose

weight; and if you suffer from con-

stipation, you need to change your

diet to avoid straining. Both will

take pressure off your pelvic floor.’

He also stresses that the shorts

aren’t a fix-all, adding: ‘They won’t

work for urge incontinence [which

has different causes and is treated

with drugs], and I’d recommend

women check their incontinence

is not caused by a vaginal prolapse

[where pelvic organs such as the

uterus or bladder drop down into

the vagina] before they use this

gadget, as they may need surgery.’

sammy Margo, a physiotherapist

based in North London, says the

Innovo shorts, which are not

available on the NHs and cost

£249 a pair, could help improve the

area surrounding the pelvic floor.

However, she adds, ‘they may

not be as effective at isolating and

targeting the pelvic floor muscles

because these muscles are located

inside and so are harder to reach’.

O NADIA is a paid ambassador

for Innovo’s Let’s Pee Honest

bladder weakness campaign.

BEST: Aubergine

ratatouille

SIMMERING auber-

gine with other

chopped veggies,

such as tomatoes and

red peppers, along with

herbs and olive oil, provides a

wide range of plant chemicals

and antioxidants linked to a

lower risk of heart disease and

cancer. An average serving is

three of your five-a-day.

GOOD: Aubergine

parmigiana

THIS Italian dish,

made by layering

up griddled slices

of aubergine with

tomato sauce and Parmesan, is

a low-carbohydrate alternative

to lasagne and counts as two

vegetable portions. It also has

about a sixth of your daily fibre,

plus calcium from the cheese. It

can be high in fat, however.

BAD: Aubergine

tempura

AUBERGINE that’s

coated in batter

and deep-fried

absorbs a lot of

oil, especially if

the oil’s not hot enough, and a

serving of half an aubergine can

contain more than 350 calories.

Frying also lowers aubergine’s

potassium content (needed for

healthy blood pressure).

Millions of

women suffer

mortifying

leaks like

I do, says

TV’s Nadia

BAD, GOOD, BEST

How to get the most out of food

choices. This week: Aubergine

Solution: Nadia Sawalha

Picture: PAUL HAMES