Katheryn Kassai & Kim Perelli – Put an End to Incontinence

The majority of US women experience urinary incontinence at least once in their lifetime. Listen in as host Patty Schmucker interviews Katheryn Kassai & Kim Perelli Authors of The Bathroom Key.
Put an end to incontinence.

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in beauty welcome to radio a and B
designed for those who want to live a
long and vibrant life I’m patty smoker
I’m a licensed cosmetologist who’s been
in the beauty industry for over 40 years
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about beauty at every level and they one
of the aspects that we spend a lot of
time is the beauty that comes from our
internal well-being and our psyche our
confidence and our topic today is a very
very sensitive one but it’s one that we
think is really important because both
men and women are suffering with a
silent problem that from it’s a taboo to
talk about so I’m really just delighted
to have two ladies Catherine Kasai and
Kim Pirelli who are I have authored a
book called the bathroom key and in our
feature interview we’ll talk a little
bit about how they came to do together
to do this project their backgrounds and
expertise is that has allowed them to
have this information and we’ll learn a
little bit about some philosophies that
they’re seeing amazing success in
helping people in our second segment
today we’ll talk a little bit about what
is incontinence what are some of the
traditional solutions and how physical
therapy is really making a difference in
our third segment today we’ll talk about
some of the other problems that the that
are common to both men and women that
their solutions are really helping and
not only with women but also with men
and then in the last segment we’ll talk
a little bit about the psychological
aspects of it and what are some of the
ways that we can work to be as healthy
as possible head to toe and what some of
their future plans are so I’m just
delighted to have our guests with us
today let me tell you a little bit more
about them katherine casaya is a
physical therapist
she’s a founder and director of proxy
physical therapy in San Pedro California
since 1996 catherine has specialized in
pelvic floor rehabilitation which is a
highly effective but not well known
specialty within the physical therapy
and in consonance oregon pre lapse and
pelvic pain
a the proxy physical-therapy was
independently rated as being the first
in patient satisfaction nationwide and
Catherine’s 90% success rate was a
strong reason for that high ranking
through a proven home treatment plan
presented in the book the bathroom key
book Catherine is determined to get
women and men out of the water closet
and into the sunshine of pelvic floor
health so we are excited to have a
Catherine with us and her co-author in
the book is Kim Pirelli who’s a Southern
California native Kim is married and a
busy mom with two teenage kids and in
addition her day job is basically a
Senior Account Executive for stem the
leader in intelligent energy storage and
software optimization when she’s not
being a mom or a career duty you’ll find
her at the Pilates studio she’s a
self-proclaimed pilates junkie Kim
spends 3 to 5 days a week in the studio
as part of her pelvic floor maintenance
routine a graduate of the University of
Southern California Kim is an active
member of her lung eye her alum and an
avid football fan she co-authored with
Kathryn the bathroom key and in
publishing this book fulfills one of
Kim’s dreams so welcome ladies I’m just
delighted to have you both with us so
Kathryn let’s start a little bit you’re
on the PT side tell us a little bit
about how you started your career and
what led to this particular specialty in
pelvic floor rehabilitation yeah well
back in 1978 I started my career like
most PT do I would say treating a
typical orthopedic caseload next back
shoulder problems etc but occasionally
some of these patients would tell me
about their urinary incontinence and
they share how they were traveling long
distances maybe up to 2 hours to find a
specialized PT who worked with pelvic
floor dysfunction so basically they
encouraged
to take up the specialty so now we’re
talking this was back in the 1990s and
pebble fuller rehab was not covered at
all and most PT schools around the
country hmm so I took my very first
educational course and soon afterwards I
very tentatively tiptoed into the
specialty and started treating patients
not really knowing if I would even like
it or stick with it well after just a
few patients I saw such dramatic results
that I was just totally hooked very soon
after I started I mean I’ll say one
thing you know knee patients are
certainly grateful to get over their
knee pain there’s no doubt about that
but there’s no comparison to the
satisfaction and appreciation that is
shown by a woman whose bladder is no
longer controlling her life after years
of suffering day and night I mean it’s
just so wonderful to see her exuberance
at becoming Pat free right now after 22
years of being in the field I’m even
more passionate about not just treating
patients but about getting the word out
so that women and men too don’t have to
suffer in silence and in embarrassment
so thank you again patty for helping us
break the silence and really get people
talking and becoming more aware that
helps is totally available
non-invasively thank ya I’m delighted
because I do think that as we are
experiencing of being active in our 50
60 70 s 80s it really can get in the way
and I personally know not only for
myself but many many friends that this
is really something that is affecting us
in it and as we’ll talk about later it
affects us on the psyche level so Kim
tell us a little bit about how you found
Katherine and why this has become such a
big passion for you
makes it clear for your audience
Katherine and I are really a physical
therapy physical therapist patient team
and I’m the patient component of that
duel so I was counseling the patient and
I found her I will also share probably
two years later than I needed to and I’m
telling you this to share with your
audience because it’s never too early to
begin working on the muscles that make
up your pelvic floor and it’s something
you know that you alluded to in your
introductory patty you know today
hopefully we’ll share the secrets behind
you know this piece of american-made
beauty and how we take care of a part of
our body where frankly when I was told
and it was it was almost the last resort
to find Katherine that physical
therapist could potentially help with
what I was enduring after I had my first
baby which was threatened contents I was
a runner and had had my my daughter and
out of straightforward fairly easy
delivery and was getting back into my
exercise regime and went to run and
realize that what I fought was
potentially some sweat dripping down my
legs with urine so after a visit with my
OB and the urologist where we did all
kinds of lovely tests I was told that
physical therapy may be an option so I
entered Catherine’s office I would say
somewhat skeptically but you know what
came out of it was this look in a
terrific friendship so I urge you know
anyone listening today to if you have an
issue
you seek help and take it early right
and I think that that’s really our big
message here is that having to wear some
some type of pad or stabbing to not find
a solution is there there’s just
reasonable reasonably priced options to
doing so so Katherine give us an
overview of the basic concept of the
bathroom key book and the practice that
you’ve developed over the years so many
medical books for the lay public they
focus on how to cope with the medical
problem like arthritis or like cancer
our book is very different in that
because the bathroom Katie I would say
is truly a self-help book which is a
little unusual for a medical book
written for laypeople the book contains
my actual home program which is a
12-week step-by-step step by step
treatment program that I have been
successfully giving to my patients in my
PT clinic for decades so in each chapter
we focus on the treatments that the
reader can do at home for one main
diagnosis which is mimics exactly what I
do in the clinic let’s say urge or
stress incontinence perhaps pelvic pain
pelvic organ prolapse urinary tract
infections we’ll get way more into those
things later so the bathroom key
contains all the necessary technical
knowledge yet it’s written in a
conversational style that makes it very
reader friendly at least that’s what
people say on their Amazon reviews and
it’s Amazon is any indication there are
hundreds book reviews there of how the
bathroom key actually cured readers and
gave them their life back no longer
having to live life with one toe in the
bathroom so if ever I’m having a bad day
I just kind of go to Amazon and read
some of the reviews some of them we’ve
transferred over to our own book website
and so can you can you give us like like
the top three pointers that are that are
part of the part of the program
well for stress urinary incontinence we
focus on strengthening the pelvic floor
so the pelvic floor is a muscle located
in the floor of the pelvis if you were
if you if your listeners are sitting and
they were to look down and take out all
their organs the pelvic floor goes
between the sit bones side-to-side and
if they attach to the pubic bone in the
front and the tailbone in the back and
they’re right under the skin and the
public floor muscles are the pivotal key
component to a wide variety of ailments
that we treat in physical therapy where
the muscle experts so this is why this
specialty even exists in our camp so to
speak so probably the most common issue
that I deal with is stress urinary
incontinence certainly heard the little
expression I laughed so hard I peed in
my pants
you know that’s common but it’s that’s
also stress urinary incontinence and all
ii would love to make jokes about that
so we do pelvic floor exercises and
there are specific exercises for
whatever the goal is we may have the
woman do a quick contraction where they
just hold for a couple of seconds and
relax and what we may have them do a
longer contraction of the pelvic floor
where they hold for 10 seconds which is
much more difficult there may be
coordination exercises and then
eventually we’re adding all this into
function and teaching them how to have
this muscle active during times of
stress like coughing like sneezing like
standing up from a chair like laughing
you know etc so exercise is a big
component now urge your area
incontinence is a bit different where
there the key problem lies not so much
but the problem for a bit more of the
bladder
so we’re so I’m actually able to retrain
the patient’s bladder and get them to
base out the urination that they’re
going to often day and night which is
highly common and I actually
teach them ways where they can make the
urge to urinate disappear poof without
using the bathroom
wow those you have this issue you know
this knowledge is magical for you and
then I guess it to live the third thing
education education education we go over
so many things that are related to core
strengths that are related to posture
that are related to posture on the potty
if you will sure they’re completely
emptying to ensure constipation is not a
problem and a lot of the stuff tails
into some of the other diagnoses that
we’ll be discussing later so does that
answer your question absolutely and you
know it’s very interesting and maybe
part of the reason why I’ve never been
shy about discussing this is in the
early days of Aveda I was a Nevada
distributor and Horst Reichenbach ER of
Aveda took all of us to a retreat and
this must have been in in the 80 85 or
86 and one of the things that he
believed was that beauty wasn’t inside
out and that having a clean colon was
important and so we all had to have
enemas and he actually did teach us
about how to properly sit on the toilet
and anyone who’s trained with me over
the years and in in the Aveda days would
say that that was the one thing that
they learned from working with me as
well so I’ve always been talking about
these things but Kim when when we taught
will I know we’ll talk a little bit more
about some of those causes and solutions
but how did you really I mean what was
it that made you feel passionate about
collaborating on this book with Kathryn
and you know these various different
issues a few things I think when I
learned
that physical therapy could help not
only help but actually cure this issue I
went to T Catherine twelve times twelve
visits and I was back running again pad
free no problem it was that simple and
when I learned this I went back to some
of my pregnancy books to see if I missed
chapter or something you know was
warning me that this was potentially an
aftereffect I didn’t find much I went to
the library I went to book stores and
all I found unfortunately were books
that were focused on someone that was
elderly and they were they were more
geared toward an audience of a caregiver
how to work with them on the Hat
incontinence
there was nothing layperson friendly
that spoke to women just like me
who had had a baby or were you know in
some cases in you know early menopause
or you know not yet at the you know the
nursing home that were facing this issue
and so I started my wheel started
turning that there was there was a need
there but I think what really made me
passionate about it is Katherine had me
watch a video as part of my physical
therapy and it was a video done
interviewing women who have incontinence
and explaining part of what they they
live with what is the thing that I was
struck by is each of these women while
being interviewed had their backs to the
camera
uh-huh how sad and like you patty for
whatever reason I was never very shy
about sharing this I came home to my
husband and said there my god I’ve got
something going on that I’ve got his fit
mm-hmm the average woman actually waits
seven to eight years to share this issue
with anyone including their physician
for whatever reason you know here in
Western society we see this as shameful
but it’s nothing to be ashamed of
so these women were not wanting to show
their faces and then
to take that to the next degree I
recognized the voice as one of the women
whose backs were to the camera and it
turned out it was a very close
girlfriend of fun we talked about a
small world
uh-huh and here she and I were going
through the same situation and neither
one of us had talked about it you know
women talked about just about everything
to each other but this was something
that was not on the table it was that
coupled with I felt you know a true need
in the market for a book that I came to
Katherine and said you know I think we
should write a book about this she
clearly has the expertise in the field
and I’ve been able to give the patient
perspective and and while we’ve written
that the book itself and we’re doing you
know the fundamentals that we really
worked on that I mean often Kathryn
because she’s got a medical background
would have you know even some language
that was a little too medical I felt for
just a layperson audience so I was
always there to try to keep things you
know user friendly and layperson
friendly so it can be that easy to read
look and we give each chapter starts
with actually a real story of a woman
that’s facing some sort of either
urinary stress incontinence or urge
incontinence or pelvic prolapse and I
think your readers or your audience I
should say will be amazed at the links
that went and go to to disguise this
problem and then frankly live with it
right right it was it by the way you
know since that time Kathryn and I have
become fast friends and it’s been a
great journey well and being able to
make such a difference in the world
because it really is when I as I begun
talking about this and and last year a
part of the reason why this relationship
and you guys being here in the program
is because I met with a urologist and
had a Monalisa touch program done if you
guys listening to the program want to
learn more about that go back and listen
to the interview with dr. Shelby Morris
row and learn about that but it was
being able to see such an amazing
difference in my life and having this
I’m taken care of and other problems
that are related to it so we’re going to
take a break because this is really
exciting stuff and I’m delighted to have
both of you with us when we come back
we’ll talk a little bit more about how
common this problem is and exactly what
are these various different types of
incontinence and traditional solutions
and more about the work that Katharine
and Kim have done to make this more
accessible for the average person stay
with us we’ll be right back
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Radio unite healthy life dotnet welcome
back this is patty smoker and you’re
listening to radio a and B on healthy
life dotnet and I’m delighted today to
have two co-authors of the book called
the bathroom key Katherine Kasai and Kim
Pirelli Katherine is a physical
therapist and Kim has been a patient and
together because of their journey wrote
this book to really be able to bring the
layperson on some real-life solutions
that are helping people deal with
urinary incontinence so Kim tell us a
little bit about how common are these
types of problems because some people
think that because it’s common it’s also
normal and I do want to share with your
audience that it’s not normal to have
any sort of stress or urinary
incontinence so it is common today
there’s about 200 million people
worldwide suffering from incontinence
it affects half of all American women
but we think that the numbers are
probably even larger than now because
most women don’t report their
incontinence to doctors one of those
issues that unfortunately women
Philippines
but if you if you also think about it in
Istanbul of the women who have skin
cancer and add that to the number of
women who have breast cancer and then
multiply that total by 20 you will
arrive at the number of women that are
suffering with urinary incontinence Wow
that’s it’s huge its debt is really it’s
very huge
now you mentioned Katherine in our first
Soviet segment we thought you talked a
little bit about our stress incontinence
which is laughing coughing running that
are the causes of that and then separate
from that is urge incontinence which is
related to the bladder can you tell us a
little bit more about those two types
and the other types of incontinence that
exist in physical therapy there are four
main types of incontinence that we treat
NPT as you mentioned stress urinary
incontinence is by far the most common
and it’s accidental leakage it’s not
stress mental stress it’s physical
stress all the things that you mentioned
coughing sneezing running where the
pressure of those activities are applied
to the bladder in the abdomen but the
pelvic floor is not strong enough to
counteract that and therefore a little
or a lot of urine pops out primarily
during that stress that sneeze example
urgent cotton urinary incontinence is a
second type and that’s defined as
leakage that occurs on the way to the
bathroom
that is accompanied with a sudden strong
uncontrollable urge to go to the
bathroom
so it’s very different that is more of
an issue with a bladder muscles bladders
a muscle also smooth muscles different
from the skeletal muscle of the pelvic
floor and that muscle becomes overactive
thus the diagnosis overactive bladder
the third type is fecal incontinence
which is the accidental leakage of fecal
matter so as as awful as fresh air
it says fecal incontinence is is even
worse the ability for a woman to kind of
hide that because of the smell factor if
you will make that even a greater
challenge and can take away even more
aspects of the woman’s or man’s life and
then the fourth is gas incontinence as
the name implies is the unintentional
leakage of gas which is usually in a
social situation I mean we all
intentionally let gas out it’s not
actually an unhealthy thing to do at all
that’s be quite healthy but with the
mores of our culture that’s not
something that people like to do in
public account of other people so those
are the four main types and so
traditionally these types of problems on
what were when people if they did admit
it because as you said most don’t they
just they hide it what are some of the
traditional solutions that have been
used to address these kinds of problems
okay so well it’s a basic tenet of
medicine at non-invasive
solutions should always be tried first
unfortunately traditionally this has not
often been the case surgeons will
perform sling suspension surgeries to
try to improve the angle of the bladder
neck thus decreasing stress urinary
incontinence and the surgery is usually
done coming in through the vagina and
because of the amount of time it takes
to do the surgery the pelvic floor
muscles are then stretched and receive
stretched trauma and they can actually
become even weaker after surgery and
there are other complications to the
surgeries doesn’t always have the best
reputation so shall I continue for urge
incontinence well and and but just
because we’ve only got a few minutes but
I wanted you know I mean the traditional
are surgery drugs is another one isn’t
there so you know there are many doctors
that are in drugs don’t treat stress
urinary incontinence
there are many medications that aim to
treat overactive bladder and therefore
the urge you’re near
continents right though they may help to
curb the contractions of the bladder
they may or may not help but they
usually do result in dry mouth and dry
eyes for fecal incontinence the
traditional solutions are a little bit
shocking
they include imodium for diarrhea and
I’m not kidding a cotton plug oh my god
say that was the number one solution you
know give it to them right community so
miss gas incontinence honestly I really
don’t think there is any traditional
medicine for that most doctors just
brushed that off however I once had a
sales rep who swore that he lost actual
income because of gas incontinence that
would occur involuntarily in front of
his customers so it shouldn’t be brushed
to the side right absolutely so let me
ask you and we talked a little bit about
your approach and and you know that it
is dealing with the muscles and and
physical exercise
Kim you talked about 12 treatments 12
weeks of treatments um so is it doesn’t
hurt is there is there is there the
process a difficult one to adapt no it
does not hurt at all
I will also share with your audience
that you know some people may be
thinking oh this is just Kegel exercises
I know how to do Kegel exercises I
thought I hadn’t knew how to do Kegel
exercises too but what it really is is
using those pelvic floor muscles and
making them more coordinated because
it’s not just about squeezing and
releasing and squeezing and releasing
and in physical therapy we use
biofeedback and there’s nothing there’s
no probes that go inside you it’s all
again non-invasive you know if you’re
lucky enough to have someone like
Kathryn as your physical therapist she’s
got the greatest bedside manner you
could ever ask for as a patient and it’s
really dull getting those muscles
stronger but also making them
more coordinated and you know I’m happy
to say because by you know default of
writing this book that I’m very proud to
be the you know poster child for
incontinence out there talking to people
about this it’s it’s remarkable or was
to me how uncoordinated my muscles were
in the sense that I couldn’t hold the
contraction for very long and release it
you know and it’s you know hold it again
very long and what it’s all about making
muscles like you would queue at the gym
you know stronger so you can use it to
support and what I think is really
interesting as we wrap up this segment
is the whole idea that you were runner
so it’s not like you were out of shape
and yet you still or having some of
these various different problems so
let’s take a break and when we come back
we’ll talk about the other types of
problems that are related to not having
pelvic floor health and what are some of
the symptoms that you will notice so
stay with us we will be right back
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thanks for staying with us I knew this
is a difficult subject but I’m hoping
that you are as enticed as I am because
you are one of half of the population
that’s experiencing some of these
problems we are delighted to have with
us today
Catherine Kasai who is a physical
therapist who has co-authored the book
the bathroom key with and her co-author
Kim Pirelli and we’re talking about
urinary incontinence and some of the
various different things that are now
available for people so that they don’t
have to suffer their entire life so
Catherine can we start by talking a
little bit about what are some of the
overall problems we’ve talked about
urinary the various different types of
incontinence but there’s a variety of
different types of problems that occur
as a result of not having a healthy
pelvic floor can you tell us a little
bit about that a great question so we
devote chapter chapter 7 to what we call
pelvic organ prolapse
so the pelvic floor muscles have a
second very important role besides
controlling urine and feces so these
very same muscles support all the
abdominal organs and if the table floor
becomes too sad and two weeks the
bladder the rectum or the uterus can
drop down into the vaginal space and
create a very uncomfortable falling out
feeling in the vagina the American
neurological Society reports that this
occurs
as many as 65% of women but in a recent
study also said that physical therapy
ten through strengthening was successful
in lessening the degree of prolapse
there are four distinct stages if you
will of prolapse and physical therapy is
not invasive it really should be tried
before the surgical repair that I
mentioned earlier with the sling so
because PT corrects the underlying cause
the lack of support due to polyps or
weakness and there aren’t any
complication so Kim and I always figure
that women ought to know this so they
can make a more informed decision before
opting for surgery
but that said if your pelvic organ
prolapse is Stage four then prolapse and
those women are surgical candidates so
it’s always best to treat the pelvic
organ prolapse early it’s also important
to teach proper body mechanics while
defecating so that the prolapse doesn’t
worse worse than with the pressure
created by each and every bowel movement
because that can be contributory and
believe it or not there’s a correct way
to sit and breathe while you poop and
the constipation must be treated as well
as a contributor to the public organ
prolapse and we do that in the book as
well right in in it absolutely another
also very huge condition is is broadly
term pelvic pelvic pain and women’s
magazines are peppered with articles
about having better sex and I can I’d
say well what about the women who have
severe pain with sexual intercourse and
can’t have sex at all hmm in like in my
practice I’ve actually consummated two
marriages and both of these couples were
both married for two entire years so for
these women even a daily bowel movement
is dreaded because the pelvic floor is
stretched painfully
tense trigger points make fitting
unbearable and this affects one in seven
women so it’s not quite as prevalent as
incontinence but if it’s probably even
more life-altering and incontinence
which has plenty of life alterations as
well right right diagnosing pelvic pain
is not easy for the position that the
symptoms can be varied and and
dispersive throughout the abdomen and
they get plenty of workup but then
there’s never a diagnosis made and it’s
not uncommon for men and women to see
dozens of doctors before they actually
land at a physical therapists clinic and
for pelvic pain the focus is entirely
different for these men and women kegels
can actually hurt initially be bad for
their condition so we don’t concentrate
on strengthening they’re already too
short so what we’re after now is to work
on them with techniques to relax and
lengthen these muscles and this is done
through stretching exercises actual
massaging of these muscles internally
and externally diaphragmatic breathing
posture yoga diet and things like guided
imagery meditation to train the brain to
so it’s definitely a departure from some
of the things we’ve already talked about
when you say yeah absolutely but and
again something really common I mean I
actually know people who not just two
years married five ten fifteen years and
just have resigned themselves to the
fact that they’re it was just not meant
to be to have a healthy sexual life so I
am it’s just very exciting to hear hear
you talk about this but but we talked
primarily about women do men experience
some of these problems as well
absolutely probably for the Emily in the
incontinence side their pelvic floors
are more continuous they don’t have the
big opening of the vagina they’re not
giving birth but let a man have his
prostate removed for prostate cancer
that’s not a prostate
they’ll be in diapers and they won’t
like it
they’ll be screaming and complaining
until they find help so they don’t sit
back and wait eight years like women do
men can also have significant issues of
frequency going too much urgency getting
up in the middle of the night use the
bathroom too often that’s called
nocturia and they can certainly have
pelvic pain they can’t sit to do their
jobs they can’t ride a bike they as I
mentioned may also have painful BM so we
help them in pretty much in the same way
we do for the women we strengthen for
stress incontinence we retrain the
bladder for urge incontinence and
frequency and we relax the pelvic floor
to overcome the pelvic pain it’s great
so so how expensive is this is this
available to the average person
absolutely physical therapy is
mainstream medicine mm-hmm if it’s
covered under most insurance plans and a
lifetime and pads is that’s expensive
okay physical therapy it’s safe its
natural much of it can be done at home
as Kim said it’s like going to the gym
except you’re working out a muscle that
you know you can’t really see so you can
actually you can even go your go to your
you have general practitioners that are
now referring patients to you so it can
be covered under under insurance yes it
can just be the general practitioner he
doesn’t he or she doesn’t have to cycle
through and necessarily refer to a
specialist like an OBGYN or a urologist
they can refer just directly to the
pelvic floor physical therapists
absolutely that’s great that’s great and
as we as we wrap up this this last
segment Kim have you when you were
writing the stories I would have guessed
that they would be very interesting some
of the men’s stories that you were able
to write about right well we know we
didn’t write him
and stories in fact Katherine and I have
mentioned before that our next book has
to be directed toward men but or for
more of a male audience but we were
lucky enough and happened to meet with
several different men’s groups and
organizations and some of the things
that they will do like Katherine said
are first of all they’re not used to any
sort of pads or wearing anything anytime
a month so when they have a leakage
problem they want to take care of it
right away and they will be I would say
very inventive on some of the solutions
they come up with I know Katherine’s had
some patients that come in with you know
all kinds of contraptions they’ve
created to try to capture their urine
with open arms see in the sense that if
they don’t understand that you know
their wives are suffering they realize
that it’s something as they’ve gotten
older had prostate issues that they need
to a drive as well right yeah that’s
great all right well we’re going to take
our last break and when we come back
we’ll talk a little bit about how this
is affects lifestyle and what are some
of the plans going forward for both
Kathryn and Kim so stay with us we’ll be
right back
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hi there this is Patti Schmucker and
you’re listening to radio a and B on
healthy life net
I’m here with Katharine kasaya physical
therapist and co-author of the bathroom
key and her the other author of the book
Kim Pirelli and we’ve been talking about
some amazing some dynamic solutions real
world solutions for a problem that over
50% of women in America are experiencing
and that is incontinence and it’s not
only a problem for women but it’s also
for men so I know my own personal story
is one in which I began experiencing
this problem probably about 10 years ago
when just before I turn 50 and it was
really I was shocked and I’m one of
those people that really don’t think
about age as a number it’s about the way
I feel and for the first time when this
problem began occurring was the first
time in my life that I felt like I was
aging so it really it really affected me
mentally is there different in the way
that these kinds of issues are treated
here in the United States as compared to
other parts of the world there are Patti
and that was one of the things that I
found the most remarkable ones Katherine
I were researching the book sadly here
in America and we still use the words
how about this topic it’s not an
acceptable conversation early on shortly
after we had first published we had the
opportunity to potentially be on one of
the network early morning shows and our
agent pitched us to the producers and
you know another reason Patti I applaud
you for taking on this subject because
it’s so important and the message we got
back is that it’s not morning converse
[Laughter]
certainly when you know those same
programs have advertisements for pads
and adult diapers and here we were with
a great message for their you know 80%
female audience here and we weren’t able
to share that the you know we already
talked about how common incontinence is
but in different countries they really
look at women’s health and this subject
much differently in France they have
programs where after birth part of their
medical insurance covers a two-week
rehab on the pelvic floor to help build
those muscles back after giving birth
something that you know is not even
covered as part of a aftermath of birth
here right in countries like Borneo they
have an incontinence rate that is 1 in
100 verses 1 & 2 like we have here in
the u.s. why 1 and 100 well they start
teaching their young teenage girls
pelvic floor exercises very very young
in Africa there’s there’s village
midwives that will not let someone go
back to have normal relations with their
husband until they’ve been able to
perform a type thousand dodging –all
squeeze from the the Midwife and again
they don’t see these parts of the body
is taboo they see them as necessary
parts you know just like everything else
to live a healthy life and so I think
that’s so telling and you mention a
dieter earlier just with the
psychological
message we we may all give ourselves but
when you know our media is you know not
welcoming these subjects that does
unfortunately perpetuates the problem
right absolutely and so but is this a
problem that is as a result of aging
Catherine or you I guess we’ve mentioned
as far as the various different prompts
but is it because we aging that it
happens because the pelvic floor gets
weakened urinary incontinence is not a
normal part of the aging process as Kim
said common yes but normal no you would
say it’s normal to have a cold right
right and yet you know plenty of people
to a do so those two things get mixed up
and and that’s part of the reason women
don’t speak up they say well it’s a
normal part of Aging nothing can be done
except for surgery and medication but I
want to either those I’m just going to
grin and bear it and that’s so
unfortunate because there’s so little
awareness of physical therapy the four
leading culprits that can increase your
chances of you I let’s speak about that
because there are some contributing
factors as Kevin mentioned pregnancy
childbirth menopause you know that is an
age-related condition but menopause is
normal too and then immobility okay more
and more recently you know some of the
Hollywood types have come out sharing
that they have incontinence Whoopi
Goldberg and Kris Jenner you know there
were segments of her having accidental
leakage and so as some of these you know
popular ladies and not so many men but
popular ladies have come forward
you know it’s shine a spotlight on these
conditions way better than ever before
but there’s still tons of room to
continue doing that right so young women
that are going through pregnancy after
after childbirth has those problems but
you mentioned immobility I’d like just
simply not exercising right right okay
well the table floors part of the whole
body it’s all part of the skeletal
muscle system people will experience
this if they’re if they just simply
otherwise healthy would have a cold or
come down with the flu but come under
the clinic they go I was sick last week
oh my God my incontinence was horrible I
still have two things you cost more
because you were sick and you know that
lazy feeling where you just want to be
in bed your muscles are all fatigued
well your pelvic floor was too so this
is just normal and when you get better
you’ll feel some right back to where you
were before you got sick right all right
well we’re sort of getting to the end of
our show and I want to make sure that we
talk about what’s ahead Kim we’re what
happened what’s happened to your
business and life since you wrote the
book and what do you what what lies
ahead for you well different than
Kathryn you know this is not
unfortunately my day to day job but I
can tell you what to change for me is
just I think my eyes have been open to
how many women needed our book and you
know it I don’t mean not to tell them
self-serving because I still have a day
job and I think that’s you know I’m a
Katherine and I did this to really get
the word out to you know kind of as a
grassroots effort but the letters and
emails that we get from so many
appreciative women sharing their story
has been very moving for me
and it makes me and it just want to be
an advocate for you know women on many
issues and things that you know we’ve
got some things going on in the news
right now where women are being heard on
issues for sometimes you know in some
cases the first time so that I would say
is the main thing that changed for me is
just support of women on these issues
where you know let’s not make it taboo
anymore let’s make it more common and
get this piece of our body as healthy as
the rest of us all right good in Kathryn
30 seconds what’s ahead for you well I
could see doing a revision of this book
and including more unbounded function
the book has enabled me to reach out to
women and men
on a more national international basis
just a few days ago I spoke to a woman
in Florence Italy via Skype and she
wanted me to tailor the home program in
the bathroom key to her specific
situation but that’s very rewarding for
me to broaden my reach globally well
beyond Southern California and at some
point or now I can share like what the
websites would be for any of your
listeners who want to reach out to us
with with general questions or you know
who wants any consultation services
which I would be willing more than happy
to do a complimentary first telephone
call with any of your listeners
especially if they kind of mentioned the
show in their first email great great
and that’s the bathroom key dot-com org
the bathroom t.com is our is our website
great for general questions our our
first email is the bathroom key at
aol.com okay consultations with me would
be Catherine to side PT at aol.com and I
sell Catherine K a th r ym k SS AI PT at
aol.com great ladies thank you thank you
for being with me today and thank you
for the great work that you’re doing we
look forward to continuing to support
you and for our listeners thanks for
being with us and tune in next week when
we’ll be talking about something a
little lighter that includes unicorns
with Kym walls of lime crime I’m patty
Schmucker thanks for listening to radio
a and B where we think pretty is pretty
important in all things and beauty
[Music]
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