Frequent bathroom breaks won’t sound so bad after you hear this horror story from a urologist.
Ever think about what happens when you “break the seal” during a night of drinking?
Of course you’re going to get the urge to pee after you’ve thrown
back a few beers. But all it takes is one whiz to open up the
floodgates, and before you know it, you’re returning to the bar bathroom
every 20 minutes.
The reason you can’t stop yourself after that first pee is because
the relief of urinating sends feel-good signals to your brain, says Judd
W. Moul, M.D., F.A.C.S., Director of the Duke Prostate Center Division
of Urologic Surgery.
As the night goes on, your brain essentially tells you, ‘Well, you
peed a little while ago, it felt good, and you should definitely do that
again.’
To curb the frequent trips, you might try to hold in your pee. Bad
move: Ignoring a brimming bladder could do some serious damage, says Dr.
Moul.
For proof, he shares one horror story from his days as a doctor in the Army.
“A young soldier came in who had gotten totally drunk the night
before and passed out,” Dr. Moul says. “His bladder was holding the
equivalent of about three bottles of wine and it became over distended,
like a floppy bag.”
After that, the patient was never able to urinate normally again and
had to stick a catheter in his penis four to six times a day, Dr. Moul
says.
That’s the worst-case scenario. Doing a fidgety dance for an hour or
two on a road trip won’t lead to any permanent damage like that, but
fighting your body’s urge to pee for long periods of time can indeed
wreak havoc on your bladder, says Joshua Meeks, M.D., Ph.D., a urologist
for Northwestern Medicine.
If you hold it in to avoid public restrooms, for example, you could
be more likely to develop long-term urinary tract symptoms like frequent
and painful urination.
Breaking the seal doesn’t sound so bad now.
