Wellness
Device could bring relief to millions suffering from pelvic floor disorders
An innovative pelvic floor device has been developed by University of Porto, Portugal, researchers that could provide relief for millions of women suffering from pelvic floor disorders.
Pelvic floor muscles are vital for supporting pelvic structures such as the bladder, bladder neck and urethra, and in the mechanism of the urethral sphincter, explains the Porto university developers.
Many factors associated with age can impact these muscles and alter their function, such as menopause, vaginal delivery, episiotomy, and high-impact exercise, for example.
This can lead to issues such as urinary incontinence, pelvic organ prolapse, sexual dysfunction and more.
Current pelvic floor exercise devices have limitations, often needing certain parts – such as springs placed in the vaginal canal – to be changed, and also do not have functionality for adding extra weights.
How does the new device work?
According to the Health News research team, the cylinder-shaped device is inserted into the vaginal canal to induce the contraction of the main pelvic floor muscle, called levator ani.
The device, for which a patent application has been filed, includes a monitor that helps to determine the best exercise and weights to be used.
According to the patent application, this newly developed device comprises a set of weights, with variable loads from 5 to 40g, to preferably be used in 5g increments, which can be connected individually or together.
The patent application explains: ” In recent years, clinical treatment, in particular pelvic floor muscle exercising, has proved effective in developing pelvic floor muscle strength.
“Several devices are known for this purpose, including for instance, EDUCATOR® – Pelvic Floor Exercise Indicator, from NEEN-Performance Health, UK. This device consists of an element to be inserted into the vagina, coupled to an external indicator rod.
“This device is shaped forward so that it rests on the vagina and remains there during use. When contracting the pelvic floor, the deep layer of the pelvic floor muscles should shorten and lift. This movement lifts the intravaginal element by moving the indicator rod downward toward the coccyx, indicating a correct contraction.
“One of the main disadvantages of EDUCATOR® is that the movement of the indicator rod always develops in favour of gravity. In addition, its plastic components, such as the flexible external indicator rod, do not make it possible to add any external weight that would impose resistance of different magnitudes on the contraction of the pelvic floor muscles.
“Additionally, it is not possible to quantify the displacement of said external indicator rod.”
The application explains that the device over comes the limitation of other available devices as the resistance applied through the device increases the cephalic and anterior displacement of the urethra, vagina and rectum, which promotes the closure of the structures, improving incontinence of urine and bowel movements and preventing accidental gas passing.
The application reads: “This invention aims to overcome the aforementioned disadvantages of said techniques, proposing for that purpose, a device to exercise the pelvic floor muscles, which allows the addition of external weights, the monitoring and quantification of the resistance imposed on the muscles to exercise, rendering its removal during the exercise session unnecessary.”
Mental health
Poor mental health, poverty and pollution significantly raise women’s heart failure risk – study
Poor mental health, poverty and pollution can raise women’s heart failure risk, with up to one in four cases potentially preventable, a study has found.
UK Biobank data from more than 230,000 women suggest that depression, socioeconomic hardship and exposure to polluted environments are linked to a significantly higher risk of heart failure in women.
Heart failure happens when the heart becomes too weak or too stiff to pump blood effectively around the body.
High blood pressure, high cholesterol, smoking and diabetes are among the better-known risk factors often targeted in public health campaigns.
Peige Song from China’s Zhejiang University and her team found that living in polluted areas, having poor mental wellbeing, facing socioeconomic deprivation and experiencing chronic inflammatory conditions such as lupus, in which the immune system attacks the body’s own tissues, make women more prone to heart failure.
These risks, however, are often overlooked.
The researchers found that mental wellbeing, environmental exposures, socioeconomic circumstances and reproductive history together contributed almost as much risk for heart failure as all well-known risk factors combined.
The study also found that risk rises with socioeconomic hardship and chronic inflammatory conditions such as lupus or rheumatoid arthritis, approaching the impact of conventional risk factors.
Song said: “[The study] is a call to redefine prevention in women’s cardiovascular health, integrating biological, psychosocial and structural determinants into a unified, equitable approach.
“One in four heart-failure cases in women could be prevented if all under-recognised risk factors were eliminated, assuming causal relationships.”
While completely eliminating all risks is not realistic, Song said “even partial reductions through better mental health services, social equity policies and environmental regulations could yield significant public health benefits”.
Catherine Pirkle, a women’s health specialist at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa in the US, who was not involved in the study, said: “These calculations show convincingly that under-recognised and female-specific risk factors contribute significantly to heart failure in women, independently of the well-established ones.”
Song said: “It’s important to understand that heart health is influenced by more than just blood pressure or cholesterol.
“Factors like mental wellbeing, reproductive milestones and socioeconomic conditions all matter. Awareness and advocacy for comprehensive, gender-sensitive care are key.”
Resistance training improves hip strength, balance and flexibility during menopause and may also improve lean body mass, research suggests.
A study of 72 active women aged 46 to 57 found those who completed a 12-week supervised programme saw greater gains than those who kept to their usual exercise routines.
None of the participants were taking hormone replacement therapy.
The supervised, low-impact resistance exercise programme focused on strength at the hip and shoulder, dynamic balance and flexibility.
Participants used Pvolve equipment, including resistance bands and weights around the hips, wrists and ankles, and also lifted dumbbells of varying loads.
Women in the resistance training group showed a 19 per cent increase in hip function and lower-body strength, a 21 per cent increase in full-body flexibility and a 10 per cent increase in dynamic balance, meaning the ability to stay stable while moving.
Those in the usual activity group did not show any significant improvements.
Previous studies have assessed the decline in lower limb strength and flexibility during menopause, but this is said to be the first study to compare the effect of resistance training on muscle strength and mass before, during and after menopause.
This was done by including participants in different phases of menopause rather than following the same participants over a long timeframe.
Francis Stephens, a researcher at the University of Exeter Medical School in the UK, said: “These results are important because women appear to be more susceptible to loss of leg strength as they age, particularly after menopause, which can lead to increased risk of falls and hip fractures.
“This is the first study to demonstrate that a low-impact bodyweight and resistance band exercise training programme with a focus on the lower limbs, can increase hip strength, balance, and flexibility.
“Importantly, these improvements were the same in peri- and post-menopausal females when compared to pre-menopausal females, suggesting that changes associated with menopause do not mitigate the benefits of exercise.”
Although one of the researchers sits on Pvolve’s clinical advisory board, the researchers said the company did not sponsor the study or influence its results.
Stephens added that any progressive resistance exercise training focused on lower-body strength is likely to yield the same results.
He said: “The important point is for an individual to find a type of exercise, modality, location, time of day etc., that is enjoyable, sustainable, and improves everyday life.
“The participants in the present study reported an improvement in ‘enjoyment of exercise,’ and some are still using the programme since the study finished.”
Kylie Larson, a women’s health and fitness coach and founder of Elemental Coaching, who was not involved in the study, said the results were compelling.
She said: “This is particularly exciting for those that tend to think of menopause as ‘the end’. The study proves that if you incorporate strength training you can still make improvements to your muscle mass and strength, which will also have a positive ripple effect to your ability to manage your body composition.
“In addition, staying flexible and being able to balance are both keys to a healthy and functional second half of life.”
Participants in the study did four classes a week for 30 minutes each session, but Larson said even half that amount of strength training can go a long way, particularly if you emphasise progressive overload, which means gradually increasing muscle challenge through more weight.
Larson said: “Gradually increasing the challenge is what drives real change.
“Lifting heavier over time is what builds strength, protects your bones, and keeps your body resilient through menopause and beyond.”
France will reimburse reusable period products for women under 26 and those on low incomes, in a move aimed at tackling period poverty.
The measure is expected to help 6.7m people, almost a tenth of France’s population of 69m, from the start of the next academic year in the autumn.
Women under 26 with a state health insurance card, as well as women of all ages who receive special healthcare support because of limited income, will be able to claim reimbursement after buying the products from a pharmacy. The cost will be covered through the country’s social security system.
Parliament approved the measure as part of the country’s social security budget for 2024. However, no decree was issued to bring it into force, prompting anger among feminist groups and companies making the sustainable sanitary items.
A survey of 4,000 women in France in November found that one in ten had used alternatives to mainstream period products, such as ripped-up clothes, because of tight budgets, according to French charity Dons Solidaires.
France cut sales tax on period products from 20 per cent to 5.5 per cent in 2016. In 2020, Scotland became the first country in the world to sign into law free universal access to period products in public buildings.
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