Do you hold your urine because you despise having to get up in the middle of the night to urinate? Do you hate using public restrooms? When you get home, how often do you feel like your bladder is going to burst as you rush to the washroom? The number of times you need to urinate varies from person to person and is determined by how much you have consumed and how strong your bladder control is. While it is beneficial to be able to control your urge to urinate, it is also necessary to urinate when required. Here are some facts about the dangers of holding urine for a long time.
1. The dreaded infections
Urine , apart from water, includes each and every one of those waste substances that the body does not need and that the kidneys have been in charge of filtering. Thus, in the bladder we will have a mixture of small remains, acidic substances and ammonia that, little by little, can damage the walls of the urinary tract and the bladder itself.
Every time we go to the bathroom, a suppression of each and every one of the bacteria present in the urethra is generated , avoiding what they migrate to other areas where they can cause the dreaded infections. What happens then when, for whatever reasons, we have no antidote to endure the urge to piss?
That these bacteria are longer in our body and, therefore, there are more possibilities that they end up attaching to the bladder or other parts causing the dreaded cystitis. Do not bear the desire! Go to the bathroom!
2. Kidney Stones
If you are one of those people who endures with a full bladder until the moment you get home, you should know that, apart from suffering from infections, you are going to be causing small crystals to begin to settle in your kidneys, generally produced by calcium, the phosphate, ammonium and magnesium.
They are remains that install very easily in our kidneys, going from being simple crystals to genuine stones that, to remove them, cause enormous suffering.
Avoid it by drinking lots of water and going to the bathroom whenever your body needs it.
3. Burst Bladder
This is rare, but it can happen. If you hold your urine in for an extended period of time, your bladder may burst. Urine fills the abdomen if the bladder bursts. Holding urine for extended periods of time can cause the bladder to stretch and weaken.
4. Painful
Holding in the urine for too long can cause pain because the muscles have to work overtime and squeeze to keep an increasing amount of urine in. When urine fills the bladder, it stretches it, and when you void, it returns to its original shape. Holding in urine and continuously stretching the bladder may eventually stop the bladder from bouncing back.
5. Discomfort, cramps and tiredness
If your body sends a signal to you to go to the bathroom, it is better not to delay more than ten or fifteen minutes. In the end, our brains will stop informing us and the consequences will come.
You are going to feel your belly bloated. As if that were not enough, the accumulation of liquids and toxins contained in the bladder usually leads to chills and, later, to pelvic pain . In other words, we no longer feel “the urgency” to go to the bathroom; now we will feel more tired, slower and with certain daze. That makes it more than enough, that we drink more liquids to clear ourselves, which will further exacerbate the situation.
According to experts, you should urinate at least every three to four hours , which at the end of the day translates to six or seven trips to the bathroom, so that the bladder is not straining as much.