Some people have a subscription to the toilet. For some of them, urinating a lot has (become) very normal. However, this is not common and if you suddenly have to urinate much more often and it persists, this may have a cause somewhere that can possibly be removed. Of course you need to know the cause and that is not always easy to trace. Yet it can prevent a lot of suffering and discomfort.
Function of urination
Urination, or urination, is nothing more than discharging your urine through the urethra. In humans (and mammals), urine is produced by the kidneys. This is stored in the urinary bladder and emptied periodically. The function of the kidneys is to remove waste products from the blood and discharge them through urine, which ultimately leaves the body via the bladder. An essential process in the body.
When urination is normal and when it is not
What is normal?
The standard is that a healthy person has between 1 liter and 1.5 liters of urine per day. The emphasis on discharge is in the morning, when you get up. The kidneys continued to work all night and could therefore have produced a lot. During the rest of the day, people usually go to the toilet 2 to 6 times, but there are also people who go to the toilet up to 12 times.
In principle, an adult bladder can hold 1.5 liters and in that case you would only have to fit once, but practice shows that external stimuli can also influence our urination behavior. Think of running water, because it is reminiscent of the sound when you pee in the toilet bowl or the cold and wind that can stimulate the feeling of having to pee. In practice, the bladder will never contain more than 0.75 liters, because at 0.5 liters the nerve receptors (located in the bladder wall) will already trigger a reflex to urinate. If you have a disturbed message, you can store a maximum of 1.5 liters. But this is bad, because it can result in a strained bladder with a weak muscle wall.
When is it no longer normal?
It is not surprising that women urinate more than men. The male bladder is simply slightly larger. Furthermore, most women retain fluid in the period leading up to menstruation. As soon as the woman starts menstruating, the fluid is released again. This may also mean that you urinate more during this period.
Source: Waterval France – Annastaal
Continuous thirst can also encourage more drinking and therefore urination. It is true that if you are constantly thirsty, this is/could be a signal of something else. It is good to find out why you are so thirsty. There may be several reasons for this, namely:
- Caffeinated drinks such as coffee, tea and cola, as well as alcohol, all influence a certain hormone (ADD). This hormone prevents a lot of water from entering the urine. If there is an inhibitory effect on the hormone, you will drink more. It is not wrong to drink a glass of water after a cup of coffee or a glass of alcohol. This is how you compensate for it again.
- Medicines can change your “urination behavior”, but when you stop, this effect is normally immediately stopped.
- An overactive bladder (OAB) can also lead to increased urination. With an overactive bladder, the bladder contracts too often and your contents become smaller.
- If the hormone level is not quite right. If this lasts longer (it often goes away on its own), it is a good idea to consult your doctor.
- Diabetes also causes you to drink a lot more. Consulting your doctor is of course very important.
- Pelvic floor prolapse is also serious and a signal can also mean frequent urination.
What can you do yourself?
Provided that you always have to go to the doctor for certain matters, there is also something you can do yourself. You can also see from your urine how much fluid you have in your body. If you have (too) much fluid in your body, your kidneys produce light-colored urine. If you have (too) little fluid in your body, your urine will become darker in color.
You can also train your bladder and pelvic floor. By tightening your pelvic floor you close your bladder. In this way you train the muscles, so to speak. You can do this yourself or in severe cases follow a special therapy. If caffeine and/or alcohol is the problem, consume less. None at all is better, but if that’s difficult, start by halving your usage. This can already help a lot. With medication, of course, keep an eye on whether it stops when you stop taking your medication (or as soon as the substances have left your body). It may also be useful not to drink too much before going to sleep and prefer to rinse your mouth instead of actually drinking.
Finally
It can often be solved easily and sometimes you have to involve your doctor, but even then it can be solved in the vast majority of cases. In any case, continuing to walk around with the idea of always having to pee is neither useful nor necessary.
