Children have a tendency of wetting the bed and some of them continue to do so till they are quite old – they don’t seem to be able to control the micturition process. But these are children and the reason for so happening to them is quite different from the adults. You will often see adults who seem to use the loo more often than what seems normal and you wonder ‘why does he urinate so much?’ it can very well happen to you as well and so here’s a list of reasons why such a thing might happen to us.
The first thing to consider is that men and women can have different reasons and it also differs for different age groups. More than often your increased urge to urinate is not because you can’t sleep but because you have a medical condition. Urinating 6-8 times a day is considered normal; the process of urinating helps you maintain your body’s hydration. But if you are going beyond this count then you might need some medical help.
1. Nocturnal Polyuria
The medical term that refers to the excessive passing of urine is called polyuria and it is very much curable. Both adults and children can get polyuria – a disease caused by an uncontrolled action of diabetes mellitus. This causes osmotic diuresis: glucose levels reach such high levels that it gets excreted through urine. Water helps the glucose to come out, thereby causing a high rate of urination. Other than that, decreased secretion of aldosterone and increased amount of diabetes insipidus can also cause a higher rate of urination.
Women tend to urinate more than often during pregnancy but this is quite a known fact. The growing uterus puts pressure on the bladder and thereby reduces its capacity to hold urine for a longer time. As the pregnancy grows the to-be-mother tends to frequent the loo more.
2. Prostate problems:
In males, prostate problems are quite frequent and that is one more reason for having an increased urge to urinate. The prostate is a gland surrounding the neck of the bladder of male mammals and helps in releasing a fluid part of the semen. This prostate gland might swell up and press against the urethra (the urethra is a tube-like structure that carries the urine out of the body). This bottle-necks the flow of urine, the bladder does not work as well as it should, and causes whatever little amount of urine is there, to come out.
3. Too much fluid intake:
Caffeine or alcohol intake on a larger scale may often cause you to urinate more – it is just a case of excess fluid intake. You have too much liquid in your body and it needs to get out – that is it!
4. Over-active bladder syndrome:
Sometimes it is not even a problem, it is just one of your individual characteristics – you have an overactive bladder. Or you have involuntary bladder contractions which means, you do not control your bladder, your bladder controls you (jeez!). It is like snoring, most people don’t have any medical issues, it is just one of their physiological features – they snore. Similarly, you might just have a bladder that does not want to hold too long or too much; lazy bladder!
5. Interstitial cystitis:
This is one of those nasty diseases that cause a lot of pain and an increased urge for urination is just an added evil that comes with it. It is accompanied by pain in the bladder and pelvic region.
6. Neurological diseases:
The brain sends orders with the help of hormones and other chemicals through our nerves to different parts of the body and the body thus acts accordingly. So the brain is the president, the hormones are like the executive government officials, the organs are us and the nerves are the paths and different types of machinery through which the orders are implemented.
So what happens when these paths get damaged; obviously the orders would fail to reach us or reach us too late. The same happens when a person is suffering from a neurological disease. The nerves that connect their bladder to the brain may not be working at all or may get severely damaged. This would not let the person have any control over their bladder, leading to frequent and involuntary urination.
Other than those mentioned above here are a few more reasons why you feel like urinating more often:
- Diverticulitis
- Tumor in the pelvic area
- Kidney infection
- Bladder dysfunction
- Abnormal opening in the urinary tract
- Urinary inconsistence
- Radiation of pelvis
We tend to ignore problems such as these – so what if I am using the loo too often, it is not such a big deal. Well, it is if you have a medical condition. Also sometimes I have noticed this to be a psychological thing – my dad has to use the loo where ever he goes. So for example even if he has peed just before going out of the home, he has to pee again when he reaches the destination ( a cinema, restaurant, or someone’s home) even if it has taken him as little as 15 minutes to go there. No matter what, if you are suffering from a ‘peeing emergency’ please consult a doctor of some sort!