Accordingly, practicing yoga and low-impact exercises can help control urinary incontinence - a common condition in older adults, especially women.

The study, led by scientists at Stanford Medical School and the University of California, San Francisco (USA), aims to find low-risk and low-cost methods to treat one of the most common health problems facing older adults, especially women.

The study included 240 people with urinary incontinence, with an average age of 62. They were divided into two groups: one that practiced yoga and one that did physical exercise.

The authors compared two 12-week exercise programs.

Those in the yoga group learned 16 yoga poses to strengthen the pelvic floor, over two 90-minute sessions per week. Participants were also asked to practice yoga for at least 1 hour per week outside of class and to keep a practice diary.

Those in the control group focused on stretching and strengthening exercises for the same amount of time. They were also asked to exercise an additional hour each week and keep an exercise diary.

Participants recorded their urinary incontinence and bladder function.

After 12 weeks, the low-impact yoga group had reduced their episodes of urinary incontinence by about 65 percent. The group that did stretching and strengthening exercises had similar results, according to the medical website Medical Express .

The researchers said these benefits were comparable to those of drugs used to treat urinary incontinence, which are 30 to 70 percent effective, said lead author Dr. Leslee Subak, of Stanford School of Medicine.

The study tested a type of yoga that almost anyone could do, with modifications for different physical abilities, Dr. Subak added.

Urinary incontinence is a condition of uncontrolled urine leakage that is very common in the elderly, especially in women, with 80% of 80-year-olds and more than half of middle-aged women suffering from it, according to Medical Express .

We often think of this as something that happens as you get older. In fact, it is very common but not inevitable and there are very effective ways to treat it, says Dr. Subak.

Patients who want to try these methods can look into low-impact yoga classes or low-impact exercise classes, Dr. Subak adds.