Rita Black: Studies suggest that approximately 25% to 45% of women experience urinary incontinence at some point in their lives. The prevalence of urinary incontinence tends to increase with age. It's estimated that around 50% of women over the age of 65 experience urinary incontinence. There are different types of urinary incontinence, including stress incontinence, urge incontinence, and mixed incontinence. The prevalence of each type can vary among women. Urinary incontinence can significantly impact a woman's quality of life leading to embarrassment, social withdrawal, and limitations on daily activities. So it's important to note that urinary incontinence is often under reported due to embarrassment or the misconception that it's a normal part of aging. Therefore, the actual prevalence may be higher than reported.

Rita Black: So in today's episode, we have a special guest, a return guest, the renowned Kegel Queen, Alyce Adams. So join us as we explore the often overlooked issue of urinary incontinence as we age. Alyce sheds light on this common yet misunderstood condition, offering insights into its causes and impacts on daily life. From discussing the stigma surrounding incontinence to practical tips on how to manage and even prevent it, this conversation is both informative and empowering. So tune in as we navigate this important aspect of health and wellness with Alyce Adams, the expert in pelvic floor health. And just say goodbye to that sneeze pee. All right, let's get going and come on in.

Rita Black: Did you know that our struggle with weight doesn't start with the food on your plate or get fixed in the gym? 80% of our weight struggle is mental. That's right. The key to unlocking long-term weight release and management begins in your mind. Hi there. I'm Rita Black. I'm a clinical hypnotherapist weight loss expert, bestselling author, and the creator of the Shift Weight Mastery Process. And not only have I helped thousands of people over the past 20 years achieve long-term weight mastery. I am also a former weight struggler, carb addict and binge eater. And after two decades of failed diets and fad weight loss programs, I lost 40 pounds with the help of hypnosis. Not only did I release all that weight, I have kept it off for 25 years. Enter the Thin Thinking Podcast where you too will learn how to remove the mental roadblocks that keep you struggling. I'll give you the thin thinking tools, skills, and insights to help you develop the mindset you need, not only to achieve your ideal weight, but to stay there long-term and live your best life.

Rita Black: Hello everybody. And come on in. You know, sometimes you just like someone so much, you'll wanna have them back and dive in deeper. Well, that my friend is what I have done today. I have brought back one of Thin Thinking's favorite guest, the Kegel Queen Alyce Adams. Now, I suffered urinary incontinence after the birth of my son. So this is a subject very close to my heart and even closer to my bladder. And I want to just dive right in with you. So, Alyce Adams, RN is the Kegel Queen since founding kegelqueen.com. In 2009, she's known as the most sought after Kegel exercise expert around the world, helping women who suffer with vaginal prolapse or urinary incontinence to avoid dangerous surgery and regain health and control of their bodies down there. She is famous for creating the Kegel Success in Minutes a Day program. The only complete No Devices Safe at Home Kegel Exercise program, created and tested by an RN. The Kegel Queen program has reached thousands of women in 30 countries. Alyce has shared her Kegel expertise as a guest blogger for the American College of Nurse Midwives, and as a guest lecturer at Basier University in Seattle and the University of Rochester in New York. Most recently, she has consulted with the Stanford Biodesign Fellowship at Stanford University in California.

Rita Black: Hello, Alyce. Welcome to the Thin Thinking Podcast. Welcome back.

New Speaker: Thank you, Rita.

Rita Black: This is your second time visit here.

New Speaker: Thank you.

Rita Black: Good to have you.

New Speaker: Very pleased to be back.

Rita Black: We had such a great chat the last time you were on. I believe we were talking, we definitely talked Kegels. 'cause you're the Kegel queen, but I think we were talking about prolapse, which is one of your specialties, right? But today we are gonna have the glamorous talk topic of urinary incontinence, which is, you know, I'm sure a favorite amongst all of our listeners. If you haven't had a leaky bladder yet, you probably, well, I don't want to suggest you will, but Alyce is gonna tell us all about this.

Rita Black: But Alyce, you have a little bit of a fascinating story about how you got engaged in all of this being the Kegel Queen and, you know, Kegel royalty, I should say. Tell us a little bit about you and how you got into where you're, you're at today, helping people in the way you do.

Alyce Adams: Well, like so many people, and like you, Rita, my story began with my own problems and I needed to solve 'em. So what happened with me is I was not the same after I became a mom. It started in pregnancy actually for me. And I ended up with a leaky bladder. I ended up with symptoms I did not know were classic symptoms of a prolapsed bladder, which means the bladder has literally fallen out of its proper position. And I had problems with sex and I kind of, at first was like, well, I guess this is what it's like being a mom. But then I realized, you know, it really doesn't have to be like this. There I am, I'm gonna get this fixed. And by get, when I say get it fixed, I don't mean I want somebody else to fix it for me.

Speaker 3: I meant I'm, I'm gonna solve this problem in a healthy, independent way. And I knew Kegel exercises can help with those issues. I didn't know about the bladder prolapse symptoms, this like heaviness and sagging I had. But I knew Kegels could help with the sneeze pee. I knew that Kegels are good for better sex. I had been doing Kegels on and off for years. Totally wrong, totally wrong with no benefit, of course, because if you do something wrong, you're not gonna benefit from the way you would if you were doing it right.

Rita Black: And lots of people are doing it wrong, right? Like that's a common -

New Speaker: Oh my gosh! It's, people probably do Kegels wrong more than, I don't know, more than a lot of things. It's just -

Rita Black: Like nine times outta 10, they're doing it wrong?

Alyce Adams: No! More like, 99 times out of a hundred. I've talked with thousands of women about Kegels and literally a tiny, tiny handful. I can still count on one hand the number of women who have said, I knew already everything you taught me. And some of them follow that up to say, well, you know, I'm a professional health researcher or something. So yeah, women are totally doing Kegels wrong, and I would love to talk about some of the ways they do that, especially Kegel devices. That's kind of a, to say it's a pet peeve would make it seem like it's not nearly, it's more like a, a mortal enemy because it makes me so angry that women are, are sucked into these traps of trying to do Kegels in a way that doesn't work. So yeah, women are doing them wrong, right and left. And I was one of them. And I realized this isn't helping. And I tried to find out how to do them. I started looking around. Everything I found was garbage, essentially. So I went straight to the research and I spent a year reading studies from all over the world, and I put together the best of the best of those programs. I turned it into a simple minutes a day program that I could do. And everything changed for me. And my sneeze pee went away. These saggy feelings that are like the typical bladder prolapse symptoms that went away and, and my sex life came back just fine. So yay!

Alyce Adams: So I've been on this mission now to help other women have that same experience and turn those problems around. And that's been 15 years now. And that's very gratifying. Very, very and it just makes me feel, I don't know, what's the word I'm looking for? It's just very fulfilling to help women with these things.

Rita Black: Yeah, it's an honor, I would imagine, to see women come back to life with that part of their body. 'cause you start to, you start to, I would imagine, well, I have, you know, issues with prolapse because I think you and I have talked about that, but, you know, it's like you feel outta control. You are, and you start to kind of get disconnected from that part of your body, you start to resent that part of your body because it starts to get in the way of things. So to feel reconnected with it and to feel like you have ownership over that, it's so huge. It's really, yeah. That is amazing.

Rita Black: Now, do more people come to you for urinary incontinence? Like, who are experiencing, like, what drives, what is the driver to you? Is it because they are experiencing leaky bladder and sneeze pee? Or are they, you know, the other things that you were saying? It's just like, like, you know, they're, they could fill their bladder coming outta their vagina or their, you know sex life has kind of gone sideways. What's the biggest, what's the biggest driver? Biggest

Alyce Adams: The biggest driver of women to me is prolapse. And I think it's because largely I don't think women realize the power they have to improve their sex life and to, and, and to improve incontinence. Women think because it's so common, women think, well, I had a baby, or, well, I'm 55 or however old I am, and I leak, so do all my friends. So, oh, well, I guess that's just part of getting older. But that's a huge mistake to make, not only because there's something you can do, but also because if you tolerate incontinence without for one thing, if incontinence is new or it's severe or it becomes worse, you really need to get checked out. You really need a doctor to talk to you about it and make sure that it's not a sign of something serious going on. You know? Sometimes urinary incontinence comes about because of maybe it's a medication side effect and you wanna change your meds. Maybe it's a sign of something like a multiple sclerosis that you need to know about. Sometimes it's the first sign of something not right. And so what you wanna do is make sure that what you have is the garden variety urinary incontinence.

Rita Black: And, and that would come from what? Like what are the major things that might cause urinary incontinence?

Alyce Adams: Well, one of them, interestingly to you and your audience is excess weight. Excess body weight is a big one. It's a real -

Rita Black: Is that because of excess fat that lines the organs, or?

Alyce Adams: It's a body mechanics thing that the, we are, we're audio only, so I'm gonna sit on my hands so that I can just use words here. But it, it has to do with there are, there are a lot of different ways that the tissues can be stressed incorrectly. And a lot of it has to do with, so the pelvic floor is the pelvic, let's, let's back up a little bit. We'll, we'll zoom out to a higher bird's eye view. So the pelvic floor is your hold your pee muscles. That's not all they do. That's part of what they do. But we're talking about urinary incontinence. So these are the muscles that decide when you pee and when you hold your pee. Those muscles are like a sling. They're like a, a half of a sphere. It's a bowl of muscle between your pubic bone and your tailbone, essentially. That's a very oversimplified description. But if you can picture that, like if you put your hand right now between, find the edge of your pubic bone by your vagina and follow all that squishy flesh all the way back to your tailbone, everything in there just on the other side of your skin is this bowl of muscle, the pelvic floor. That bowl of muscle does not like a whole lot of pressure against it from the inside of the body. And when you're carrying a lot of excess weight, you are putting mechanical stress on those muscles day in, day out against the pelvic floor from like the inside. So if you imagine the pelvic floor, like it's, it's half, it's a bowl, right? And if you imagine it's sort of like, like a child's party balloon. If there's pressure from the inside of the body against the inside of that bowl, it pushes on the bowl. It stresses those muscles and it causes the pelvic floor to not work as well. So extra weight is a really significant factor, and for some women, simply achieving a healthy weight is enough to stop incontinence.

Rita Black: Interesting. [inaudible]

Alyce Adams: A treatment for urinary incontinence for some women simply to achieve a healthy weight.

Rita Black: That's amazing. I'm letting that land, Alyce.

New Speaker: Yeah, it's powerful.

Rita Black: It's, it's powerful. Is that the same reason why, like, so when you're carrying a baby inside you, the baby is pressing against the pelvic floor, and is that why it can cause incontinence? Is that the reason?

Alyce Adams: That is, that is part of it, yes. Now, additionally well in my case with pregnancy there was a lot of vomiting in the beginning.

Rita Black: You were one of those poor women who had hormonal issues and had to throw up the entire time. Yeah.

Alyce Adams: It was only the first trimester, but I, I had to have an IV, I threw up so much, it was really, really bad.

Rita Black: Oh my goodness.

Alyce Adams: And that, that's what started my problem. So like, by the end of, of the vomiting stage I would just had a stack of towels. And if I had to vomit, I was in bed because I was so sick that I was just in bed, but I'd had my towels by me. And I would get ready to vomit, shove a towel between my legs and just vomit and pee. It was horrible. It was so bad.

Rita Black: Goodness.

Alyce Adams: So yeah, vomiting. Then there's simply the body mechanics of that weight, especially if you are like almost every woman in our culture, and your body mechanics are not optimal because we sit all the time and chairs are glutes are weak. We have all kinds of body mechanics that contribute to problems with the way the, our everyday weight is carried. Then when you add the weight of pregnancy or the weight of being overweight, that just exacerbates the situation. And then of course, there's giving birth, which can stress the pelvic floor as well. It doesn't necessarily become a problem. And I wanna be clear that some women think about cesarean as a way to prevent pelvic floor issues or, you know, avoid those problems. But cesarean of course, comes with its own risks to the mother and babies. And you have to do 10 cesareans to prevent one case of urinary incontinence.

Alyce Adams: So the math doesn't really work out on that.

Rita Black: Oh, wow. That's amazing.

Alyce Adams: Women really should do pelvic floor exercise, AKA Kegels after giving birth to help the pelvic floor come back to its pre pregnant state. So those are some causes. Another thing is our, the, the tissues in our culture too. I, I'm always very curious about what things would be like if we all did everything optimally for our health from childhood. And one of the things that's changed in human history compared to like every culture all over the world for forever that's different from now, is we don't eat a whole lot of collagen. That's coming back, especially as a supplement. The whole bone broth thing, that's part of the conversation now. But you know, my great-grandmother probably had soup made from bones all the time. As has pretty much every human all over the world from the dawn of time. But I, and probably you Rita, grew up, you know, we had soup like that sometimes it mostly came outta can, right? Most of the soup came out from Campbell's can and did not have collagen, and you can only build collagen till you're about 30 years old, and then you're just preserving it. And so when we haven't had the, the option to really optimize our collagen, then by the time we get to be 50, 60 years old, our collagen is not as strong as it could be. And all kinds of things happen then with our tissue integrity. All over the body actually. You know, we get wrinkles. That's what, that's what that is, for example. But if you have wrinkles on your face, it means that the collagen elsewhere in your body, from your blood vessels to your pelvic floor the, the collagen is not what it could be. So everything after menopause also becomes less elastic. And the pelvic floor really can suffer from not having as much blood flow, especially if you don't exercise.

Alyce Adams: Urinary incontinence also is there, there are pelvic floor factors, but there are also bladder factors. So women who, women are a special risk for pelvic, for, for bladder related urinary incontinence, if they have been teachers or in the military or nurses or otherwise, have not been able to just pee when they need to. Someone who's spent years not able to pee when she needs to can end up at risk for incontinence.

Rita Black: Fascinating. Wow. Is that because they've had to hold it in and that's done weird things to their bladder?

Alyce Adams: I think I, I'm not sure of the exactly how that works, but it's a neurological thing.

Rita Black: So it is partially your pelvic floor incontinence. It, and that could be only your pelvic floor. Like it could be that. It could be just your bladder or it could be a combination of both.

Alyce Adams: Well, so incontinence is really never just the bladder, because if your pelvic floor is working really well, it should be able to fight back enough to stop actual incontinence, even if the bladder sort of goes rogue and gets its own ideas about peeing at an inappropriate time.

Rita Black: Is there, like, 'cause you see so many women and or deal with so many women in your courses and you know, I know you used to do this as a practice is how wide is the range of incontinence? Like you talk about sneeze pee, like maybe that seems like a minor or, I mean, it's not minor to anybody who's sneezed peeing, but more than like somebody who just can't even hold it in for any length of time. Like there's like very wide range of increments.

Alyce Adams: Oh yeah. Oh yeah, absolutely. And yes, you're right. For, for many women it's, you know, just sneeze pee. So you might have a spot on your underwear if you sneeze. And then yeah, it's the full continuum to women who dribble constantly or women who you know, maybe if they sneeze, they lose everything in the bladder, not just a little spot. And women who suffer with urge incontinence, I don't like the term overactive bladder because the pharmaceutical industry invented that term.

Rita Black: Oh, interesting.

Alyce Adams: To sell drugs. I prefer to use terms like urinary urgency and urge incontinence, which are related but different. But some women get really, really bad urgent continence. And it's worst for most women who have that. Many women get what's called key in the lock syndrome. So when you get home, here's a tip for bladder training, which is something we can talk about bladder training. But an easy bladder training prevention tip is when you and I do this, when I come home from somewhere, even if I have to pee, unless I'm just desperate, which doesn't happen that often, but I don't go straight to the bathroom. If I come home with my groceries or whatever, I intentionally put away groceries or I go and do some little task before I pee. Because if you get home and pee every time, the minute you walk in the door, you will train your bladder that the minute you get home, it's time to pee. And many women have this key in the lock syndrome where they pull in the driveway or they go to their front door and they lose bladder control because the bladder is just like a pet dog. It's learned one what to expect, and it's like, oh, home now time to go.

Rita Black: Interesting. So it the, I know that's one example. I'm sure there's many examples. So it's kind of like Pavlov's dogs. It, it, once it's trained, then it will have an expectation.

Alyce Adams: Yes. And, and appropriate to, you know, your interests in your audience. The, the bladder, there's a lot of nervous tissue in the bladder. And the bladder brain connection is a huge part of continence. When you have bladder issues, when, when the bladder is contracting at the wrong times, whether you have the pelvic floor strength to hold it in and it or not, and it becomes incontinence either way. When the bladder is contracting at the wrong times, there's a lot you can do with your mind to train your bladder and behaviorally to train your bladder out of it. So like, not peeing the minute you get home, or a lot of women in in my program talk to their bladder. Like if you feel like you have to pee anytime you walk in the bathroom, the bladder's like, all right, time to go. Even if you don't actually have to go and it's not time. You can talk to your bladder. I have women say, some women say it has to be out loud. Some say it works just in your head. And women say different things. Like people say, hold thank you.

Rita Black: Oh, I love that.

Alyce Adams: Yeah. But you, you really have to, if the bladder is misbehaving, it really does need to be trained like a misbehaving dog.

Rita Black: Give a little bladder treats! Sit, stay.

Alyce Adams: You have to, you have to teach it that your brain is the alpha.

Rita Black: Very interesting. It's so intricate. The bladder. It really is. 'cause I think of my own like trickle syndrome. I had bladder surgery when I was five to correct a this what is the muscle around the top, the urethra when it was, and it was overactive. So I had to go pee literally every hour. Like I felt, felt like I needed to, even though I didn't, and I had corrective surgery. But yeah, so it's so intricate and all you don't think about like, oh yeah. Brain bladder connection, bladder talk. I love that little dialogue with your bladder. That is very cool.

Rita Black: So, so if somebody, like, I know you help people with this. What other than like, I wanna hear all about what you do, but like, if I know you said, so they're, they're kegel devices and, and like, what's, what's out there that's wrong? Like, what's out there for incontinence that we should be avoiding? If we, other than, you know, are you a fan of the diapers in the diaper store? I mean, like in the adult diapers? Well, I mean, they're, they're necessary, aren't they?

Alyce Adams: Yes! They absolutely are. So let, let's talk about diapers and then let's talk about Kegel devices. So I obviously, I rather women don't need briefs or pads. But they're very important. And just in case anybody, I don't wanna leave any minutes hanging here without people hearing devices bad. We'll talk about that in a minute, but you know what, I think it's really, really important for women who need pads or briefs to use them. I, nothing breaks my heart more than women who stay home, who don't travel, who don't exercise when they could throw on a brief and go out. I know nobody wants to wear one. I know nobody wants to get caught wearing one. I know nobody wants to travel with a, you know, putting that stuff in the trash somewhere. But if your choice is to get out and live your life imperfectly that way versus just stay home Mm-Hmm. You gotta just do it. Life is for living. And until you can get better control, live your life, it's, it's key.

Rita Black: Yeah. I think they've done a really good job with marketing and, and bringing it out of the darkness and the shame into the light, you know, with the ads and such. I mean, I think they've done a really good job and it looks like there are really great products on the market that they are, you know, they don't look bad. They don't look like you know, Pampers. They're like, you know, they look like a pair of underwear. Right.

Alyce Adams: And they're, they're not noisy, you know? They, they don't, they they don't have pretty cold a big profile under your pants.

Rita Black: Yeah!

Alyce Adams: They're good. I used to get really heavy periods and I've actually used them sometimes.

Rita Black: Me too.

Alyce Adams: I'm all done with periods now, but I have actually worn adult briefs for my period and they were comfortable. Very easy. It's really,

Rita Black: That's smart actually, that I never thought of that as an idea, but that is a good idea. So, yeah. Now let's talk about, so other, like, if I was going to my doctor, what is he gonna tell me to do? Is he gonna tell me to pop a pill? Is he gonna tell me to out in the real world.

Alyce Adams: Yes. Let's talk about that. We have to talk about devices though. 'cause We said we would.

Rita Black: Yeah, I know. So let's do that.

Alyce Adams: So Kegel devices are, there are two categories essentially. They're unnecessary devices and harmful devices, so and they're all inconvenient. I have a blog on my website called Six Reasons Not to Buy a Kegel Exercise Device. I have another blog all about a particular one with a brand name that I just think is an enormous waste of money and time. So -

Rita Black: And what is your website right now? So if somebody wanted to go, I wanna go check that out. What is your website?

Alyce Adams: Yes, kegelqueen.com.

Rita Black: Okay. That's easy.

Alyce Adams: You'll have a link. I'm sure for me, Rita?

Rita Black: Yes. We will put a link in our show notes for sure. But it just in case, you know how people now are like, I'm gonna go look that up now. So, so there's a couple of, so tell us a little more about these device. Like, I can't picture what a Kegel device would look like. Like what?

Alyce Adams: Well, there's a range and they, it's, it's almost like sort of comical almost how many different kinds, different different approaches There are, the ones that I get asked about the most though, are the electrical stimulation devices. I mean, there are other ones too. Like they're ones that connect to your phone and you can squeeze them and you get a little thing on your phone. It's just completely unnecessary and expensive and inconvenient. You've got this thing you have to put in your vagina, you have to wash it, you have to store it, you have to plug it in. I don't. But the, the ones that I hear about the most that women have a lot of questions about are the electrical stimulation ones where it's like we do Kegels for you. So you attach this thing to you, whether it's like a pair of shorts, like Innovo, or there's like a kind of a, like a sticker thing, like [inaudible] is another one.

Alyce Adams: And these deliver an electrical impulse to the pelvic floor muscles and cause them to contract. And there are, so talk about the, the brain connection to other body parts. You completely ignoring it. Yeah. When you are doing that, right, your brain is checked out, you're causing contractions, but you're not learning how to contract and release the pelvic floor. You're not connecting with that part of the body. You were talking about that the pain of disconnection from your, your pelvic anatomy. If you're trying to reconnect with that part of the body and bring it back home, you wanna be engaged with your muscles. It's, it's as silly as putting a, an electrodes on your arm to build your biceps instead of just get up, wait and do some curls. Right, right. It's just silly. And then there are other devices, and again, I have a whole blog post about that.

Alyce Adams: If you'd like to hear more about all the ways those electrical devices are really not though, so great. Another category of devices that the ones that are actually harmful is any kind of vaginal weights. So sometimes doctors prescribe these, there are many you can buy independently on the internet. The idea is you put a weight inside your vagina and hold it in while you're vertical, and this is very harmful because again, you're not connecting with your brain, but what's harmful is that you're training the muscles to just tighten What's healthy is to train your pelvic floor to contract and release. We don't want a tight clenched pelvic floor that is no more fun than having tight clenched shoulders or a tight clenched jaw. We want the pelvic floor to be strong, but supple and re relaxed when it's relaxed. And, you know, a tight muscle not only feels bad, it can be very painful, but it doesn't work as well. So if your pelvic floor is too tight, that can contribute to incontinence as well. So vaginal weights really, really bad idea. A really bad idea.

Rita Black: I Wonder how that all got started? And do they have different levels of weight for them? Like there's, you know?

Alyce Adams: They come in a set.

Rita Black: Oh, wow.

Alyce Adams: But it's really not constructive.

Rita Black: So how, like if, if there was a, you know, if, if you were going to like approach incontinence with somebody, or if, you know, how are, how would you approach this if you're not, you know, obviously it's through exercises, right? But what, what, what's your philosophy? Like -

Alyce Adams: So kegel exercises and lifestyle. So lifestyle is going to include getting to a healthy weight as you can help people to achieve. It's going to include exercising correctly so that you're not unintentionally doing damage by putting the wrong kind of pressure against the pelvic floor from the inside of the body.

Rita Black: Do a lot of people do that, like exercising correctly?

Alyce Adams: Yes. And the worst offender is all manner of crunches and sit-ups, whether they're in Pilates class or just like straight, you know, the, the sit-ups we were doing in 1970, whatever, you know,

Rita Black: All those, yes

Alyce Adams: Yeah. Really, really unhealthy for your pelvic floor. And I just heard today I mean, they're not good for any part of your body, but I just heard today that they, doing those classic situps actually creates micro tears in the discs of your spine.

Rita Black: Oh, yes. I've heard that. Because I had a, I've had a osteoporosis diagnosis and, and, so I've, I've become very aware of like, oh, you cannot sit up in these particular ways or, or do situps and stuff. Right? Yeah. So interesting. But yeah, it is, it's like so those situps are, you know, those old situps are bad news.

Rita Black: Terrible. There's diet, there's diet, so you wanna watch out for many foods that might be perfectly healthy and nutritious and wonderful, but could still contribute to incontinence or cause incontinence like green tea, cabbage, family foods like broccoli, citrus fruit, tomatoes. Sometimes those things, different women are sensitive or not. But you know, something like lemon juice as high acid can really aggravate incontinence, even though it's, it's not junk food, it's not unhealthy.

Rita Black: And this is because it's impacting the quality of your urine or the, the, the pH balance of your urine

Alyce Adams: Often. Yes. They're, they're increasing the sensitivity of the bladder or irritating the bladder. And there also junk does that too, like sugar will do that as well. Alcohol. And then other things like carbonated drinks can do it. Oh wow. There, there's a lot and there's personal, you know, it's, it can be different for everybody. So women should test themselves, but changing your diet to avoid the things that are really and it, and there are then idiosyncratic things too. Like for somebody, it might be soy for another person, it might be whatever. They happen to be sensitive to fish or gluten or whatever it is. So really testing and knowing how different foods affect your body is key. But sugar's a big one. And I know you, you can help women with that too.

Rita Black: Yeah. and then the exercise part, like, so taking the time, like if somebody was working on their incontinence, how, how much time per day do they need to be, you know, focusing on that. Is that a big timeframe? Minutes?

Alyce Adams: So, and you know, of course the exercise for the rest of your body, you wanna spend more than a few minutes on that. You wanna do your walking and moving and all of that good stuff. But to do Kegels correctly is minutes a day. It's not really a big commitment. Now, I will say many pelvic floor physical therapists will prescribe a whole program, which includes additional body parts. And that can take a long time. That can be 20 or 30 or 40 minutes a day. And it may be that what, what I really like for women to do though, is start with Kegels. Keep it simple. Start with Kegels. Once you get that under your belt, ha ha. Once you get that going, then you can add the whole body alignment work that might really help you sort of address the root of the problem more. But to begin with the whole 30 or 40 minutes a day, like no one is going to maintain that.

Rita Black: Yeah. It seems like just starting, I mean, can people see relief from incontinence just by doing a couple of minutes a day and, and making these other lifestyle changes?

Speaker 3: Well, and in as little as a week, actually some women with incontinence because of that brain connection, if, if you, if all you learn it is just simply how to contract the pelvic floor effectively and release effectively, if you have that skill, you can, many women do, of course, it's different for everybody. But this research shows this, and I, my experience bears it out that many women will see improvement with incontinence in as little as a week.

Rita Black: Wow. That's is extraordinary. That's amazing!

Alyce Adams: And it's just because you're using your brain, you're just learning how to reengage with that part, part of the body that we can become so disconnected from.

Rita Black: Oh, yes. Well, this has been so fascinating. Now, if somebody was going to, like, if somebody was, you know, totally like, Ugh, I've got sneeze pee or ugh, I can't, you know, take it anymore, what would be the first step that you would have them to take? In addition to going to your website of course and learning all about it -

Alyce Adams: - because I have it all mapped out for you when you get there. I think the first step is particularly with incontinence, is recognizing that it's not normal. Just because it's common doesn't mean that it's normal. And acknowledging that this is something that, number one, you have the power to change that you don't need to feel helpless about it. You don't need to figure it out all alone. You don't need to ignore it. You don't need to put up with it. This is something that you can take on and heal. And it doesn't have to be a thorn in your side. It, it is something. And, you know, not everyone's going to be a hundred percent cured. You know, then not, there's, there's nothing that is a hundred percent cured by anything in, in the body.

Rita Black: Yeah.

Alyce Adams: But you know, women can take control, women can improve, and women can most importantly make a shift from feeling powerless to feeling in control and knowing that they're doing everything they can.

Rita Black: I love that. Yeah. I mean, it's so you, you're right, you kind of hit the nail on the head is that I think as we age especially, we kind of start to take a lot of these little downgrades in our physiology and our mental thinking for it's just part of the aging process. And, and it may be, but it doesn't mean that we can't turn it around or improve it Yes. And make it better. Absolutely. So that, that's very cool. And, and or yes, after having a baby, for sure. Yeah. It's those little things we're just like, oh, well that's just the way it is for us gals, you know? It, you're saying it's not, it doesn't have to be, you can be the queen of your kegels and -

Alyce Adams: That's right. And yeah, I agree completely about all of that age related stuff, you know, that it's just part of getting older, it whatever it is, it's not, you know, there, the getting older is many things and you know, we, we need to do it gracefully and we need to accept that we're going to be going through changes. But if you have a health problem, Hmm. Just because you're older doesn't mean that it's normal to have a health problem.

Rita Black: Yeah. And what you're saying is it they should definitely, if it's a problem, they should at least get it checked out to make sure it's nothing that might be more the root of something more serious.

Alyce Adams: Yes. Yeah. You don't, you don't want it to be the first sign of something like, I don't know, of MS or like, Parkinson's disease or a nerve problem. Right. And not know about it. You wanna know about it.

Rita Black: Oh, well this has been so helpful. So now, yes, Alyce, tell us about your fabulous website. 'cause It sounds like it's the Garden of Eden for all information for below the belt. So, so what will we find on there?

Alyce Adams: So there's cool stuff there. If you're interested in learning all about why you should not buy a Kegel device or why you shouldn't use a name brand electrical stimulation shorts that I won't mention unless maybe I already did but

Rita Black: Well, we, we didn't say it. We don't know. It's, we're innocent.

Alyce Adams: Oh. So there's all kinds of cool stuff on the blog, and if you do suffer with prolapse, there's all kinds of information about prolapse as well. That's a very dear to my heart to help women with prolapse. There's a whole thing about pessaries. I've got a blog post about how not to be a victim of your doctor or feel like one. There's cool. Yeah. And there's always, that's free cool. Women's health info, particularly for women over 50 on my email list. So if you come and see me, get on my email and there's always some really cool stuff going on in there.

Rita Black: Yeah. And sometimes you have free master classes and things too, right?

Speaker 3: I Do, I do. I do.

Rita Black: That's so cool. So definitely kegelqueen.com. I'll put the link in the show notes. Alyce, this has been so great. Thank you for coming back. We'll have to have you come back again and talk more about things below the belt, our wonderful female parts. But it's lovely to see you, and thank you for coming back on the Thin Thinking Podcast.

Alyce Adams: Thank you so much for having me, Rita. It's always a pleasure.

Rita Black: Thank you, Alyce. And thank you listeners for tuning in. Now. Make sure to visit Alyce's website, kegelqueen.com for all the amazing resources that she mentioned. And the link is also in the show notes. Listen, have an amazing week, and remember that the key and probably the only key to unlocking the door, the weight struggle is inside you. So keep listening and find it. I will be here hopefully with you next week.

Rita Black: You wanna dive deeper into the mindset of long-term weight release. Head on over to www.shiftweightmastery.com. That's www.shiftweightmastery.com, where you'll find numerous tools and resources to help you unlock your mind for permanent weight release tips, strategies, and more. And be sure to check the show notes to learn more about my book From Fat to Thin Thinking. Unlock Your Mind For Permanent Weight Loss.