How You Can Overdose On H20
Though rare, water intoxication is a real condition. Despite the name, water will not get you drunkbut it can do much worse things.
The medical name for water intoxication is hyponatremia, which the Mayo Clinic explains “occurs when the concentration of sodium in your blood is abnormally low . . . When this happens, your body’s water levels rise, and your cells begin to swell. This swelling can cause many health problems, from mild to life-threatening.”
The National Center for Biotechnology Information estimates that “3.2 million to 6.1 million people in the U.S. suffer from hyponatremia” a year, though as many as 75% percent of those cases are chronic and asymptomatic.
There are no official guidelines for how much water to drink, but experts say the maximum amount of water that a person with normal renal function can drink is 800 to 1,000 mL/hr to avoid hyponatremia symptoms.
When You’re Drinking Too Much Water
In most people, with normal kidney function, drinking too much water can irritate your bladder increasing the risk of urine leakage. As fluid intake increases, the amount of urine made will increase along with it. Because the bladder can only hold so much fluid volume, increasing water intake will increase the frequency of urination, and may make people with an overactive bladder more likely to leak. If you have overactive bladder , more fluid intake typically equals more trips to the bathroom. If those fluids are carbonated, they may aggravate your symptoms even more.
Keep in mind that too little fluid intake also isnât ideal. If you drink too little, your urine may become concentrated and acidic, heightening bowel irritation. It is important to work with your doctor to find the amount of water right for you.
Causes Of Total Incontinence
Total incontinence is when your bladder cannot store any urine at all. It can mean you either pass large amounts of urine constantly, or you pass urine occasionally with frequent leaking in between.
Total incontinence can be caused by:
- a problem with your bladder from birth
- injury to your spinal cord this can disrupt the nerve signals between your brain and your bladder
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What Tests Will Be Done To Diagnose Overactive Bladder
A healthcare provider may order tests to help diagnose overactive bladder. These tests may include:
- Urinalysis. A urinalysis examines the visual, chemical and microscopic aspects of your pee. A provider will look for red blood cells, white blood cells and bacteria. If you have any of them in your pee sample, you may have an infection that causes OAB.
- Urodynamic testing. Urodynamic tests measure how much pee remains in your bladder after you go to the bathroom, how much you pee, how fast you pee and how much pressure is on your bladder as it fills with pee.
- Ultrasound. An ultrasound is a noninvasive imaging test that allows a healthcare provider to take a detailed look at your bladder.
- Computed tomography scan. A CT scan is a noninvasive imaging test that produces 3D images of your bladder.
- Cystoscopy. A healthcare provider will use a special instrument to look inside your bladder from your urethra. The provider typically uses a numbing gel so you dont feel pain in your urethra. In rare cases, they may use general anesthesia, so you arent awake, wont move and wont feel any pain.
How Do I Control Urges When Resetting My Bladder
Controlling your urges is a key step in resetting your bladder. The following strategies may help:
- Stop what youre doing and stay put. Stand quietly or sit down, if possible. Remain as still as possible. When youre still, its easier to control your urges.
- Squeeze your pelvic floor muscles quickly several times . Dont fully relax in between Kegels.
- Relax the rest of your body. Take several deep breaths to help you let go of any tension.
- Concentrate on suppressing your urge to pee.
- Wait until the urge goes away.
- Walk to the bathroom at a normal pace. Dont rush. Continue squeezing your pelvic floor muscles quickly while you walk.
Patience is important. Retraining your bladder usually takes at least six to eight weeks to see results. Talk to a healthcare provider if you have any questions or arent happy with your progress. They may prescribe medications for you to take while youre resetting your bladder to help you achieve the best outcome.
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What Questions Should I Ask A Healthcare Provider
- How do you know that I have an overactive bladder?
- Whats the cause of my overactive bladder?
- Whats a normal number of times to pee each day?
- How much should I drink each day?
- What fluids should I drink?
- What fluids should I avoid drinking?
- What foods should I eat?
- What foods should I avoid eating?
- What treatments do you recommend?
- Are there any side effects to your recommended treatment?
- What medications do you recommend?
- Are there any side effects to your recommended medications?
- Are there any other lifestyle changes I can make?
- Can you recommend a support group for people with overactive bladder?
A note from Cleveland Clinic
Overactive bladder is a common condition that causes changes in your bathroom habits, which can be embarrassing. Many people struggle to talk to a healthcare provider about their symptoms. However, providers can help answer any of your questions without judgment. They can determine the cause of your overactive bladder and work with you to develop the best treatment plan. If you have symptoms of overactive bladder, talk to a healthcare provider so you can regain control of your bathroom habits and improve your quality of life.
Causes Of Urge Incontinence
The urgent and frequent need to pass urine can be caused by a problem with the detrusor muscles in the walls of your bladder.
The detrusor muscles relax to allow the bladder to fill with urine, then contract when you go to the toilet to let the urine out.
Sometimes the detrusor muscles contract too often, creating an urgent need to go to the toilet. This is known as having an overactive bladder.
The reason your detrusor muscles contract too often may not be clear, but possible causes include:
- drinking too much alcohol or caffeine
- not drinking enough fluids this can cause strong, concentrated urine to collect in your bladder, which can irritate the bladder and cause symptoms of overactivity
Overflow incontinence may also be caused by your detrusor muscles not fully contracting, which means your bladder does not completely empty when you urinate. As a result, the bladder becomes stretched.
Your detrusor muscles may not fully contract if:
- there’s damage to your nerves for example, as a result of surgery to part of your bowel or a spinal cord injury
- you’re taking certain medicines
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What Is Overactive Bladder
Overactive bladder is a common condition that causes the affected individuals to develop a sudden urge to urinate. This urge is often difficult to control and may even result in the involuntary loss of urine. In such a situation, this condition may also be termed as urinary incontinence.
The sudden urge to urinate can occur at any time of the day. The frequency of the unpredictable urge to urinate can also have a negative effect on a persons life.
An overactive bladder isnt a disease in itself, but it represents a group of urinary symptoms. The common symptoms associated with this condition are discussed below.
Wine: Good Or Bad For Oab
Wine can trigger a leaky bladder for two reasons.
- Alcohol is a diuretic that will start an increase of urine production leading to more trips to the bathroom.
- Red wine has more tannins in it giving it a darker color. Tannins are found in fruit skins that add both bitterness and astringency. Unfortunately, these tasty chemical compounds are bladder irritants and cause OAB patients to have discomfort.
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Alcohol Consumption And Constipation
It can seem a bit confusing to understand why alcohol dehydrates you after all, beer is mostly water! So is a tall vodka soda so what gives?
Well, when you drink a beer , you urinate and defecate out the amount of water in the beer, plus more. The alcohol messes with the water levels in your body, preventing your pituitary gland from producing ADH , something that prevents you from urinating. Alcohol stimulates your kidneys to produce even more urine, and you get dehydrated.
We have already mentioned the contractions in your small intestine and bowel that cause you to have a bowel movement. Peristalsis is necessary in order to effectively propel food through the digestive track. As alcohol is a depressant, it dampens the nerves needed to cause the process to happen. Chronic drinkers will find that they will experience constipation far more often than those who avoid overconsumption.
When you are drinking you are often more tempted to treat yourself with fatty fried foods, high carb meals and decadent sweets all of which can lead to constipation on their own. If you are planning to have a few drinks, make sure you eat a healthy meal beforehand. A stomach full of wholesome food will prevent the alcohol from absorbing too quickly into your bloodstream. Ideally, it will also prevent you from pigging out on junk food!
- The bacteria in our gut
Losing Weight May Help To Improve Your Bladder Control
Excess weight puts extra stress on your pelvic floor muscles and contributes to an overactive bladder and loss of bladder control. If you can lose even a small amount of weight, it will help with bladder control.
The best weight loss plans are always those that set realistic goals combined with healthy eating habits and physical activity. Fad diets, although often successful short-term, rarely achieve sustainable weight loss, because once you tire of the diet, you often revert to ingrained unhealthy eating habits.
Check out our Obesity and Weight Loss guide for more information.
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Should I Be Drinking Sports Drinks
Most sports drinks contain water, glucose or artificial sweeteners and electrolytes which are lost when we sweat. Sports drinks are designed to help you rehydrate after exercise.
Many sports drinks are isotonic which means they have similar concentration to that of your blood, which helps the body to absorb them more easily. Beware however, that some contain caffeine as well as a lot of sugar, so if you would like to try them do check the label first.
Can Drinking More Water Help
When you have urinary incontinence, your first instinctive reaction would be to reduce your water intake. You may also be hesitant to drink lots of fluids as a way of forestalling the leaks and minimizing your toilet visits.
But drinking more water is not bad.
While it sounds counterproductive, drinking more water helps with incontinence.
First, your body is full of fluid, and you always need to drink more water to replace the fluid you lose. Failure to drink enough water leads to dehydration.
Secondly, when you drink more water, you ensure a free filtration of fluids via your kidneys. Doing so means that wastes and other substances do not build up in your urinary tract and that your urine does not get more concentrated.
When urine becomes more concentrated, your bladder is irritated, and incontinence worsens.
You can tell when youre dehydrated, and your urine is more concentrated when it looks darker, cloudy, and has a strong odor.
Concentrated urine results in irritation, which translates to pain or burning sensation while passing urine.
An irritated bladder increases urgency, which is bad news if you have urinary incontinence. So drinking more water is effective when done correctly.
With the right amount of water, you can prevent dehydration, keep your urine dilute, avert bladder irritation, and minimize incontinence.
You must strike a balance, as drinking too much water may also cause excessive leaks.
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Drink Enough To Stay Hydrated
This will vary from person to person, but for most, 6-88oz glasses per day is enough. You can also look to your own urine for clues on if you are well-hydrated in general, lighter colored urine means your more hydrated and darker, yellow colored urine means your urine is very concentrated and you may need to drink more.
What Will Your Doctor Do
To find out the cause of frequent urination, your healthcare provider will probably carry out a physical exam and ask you questions about things that can cause you to urinate more frequently. For example, common causes of frequent urination include drinking more water or other beverages than usual, drinking alcoholic and caffeinated beverages, and taking certain types of medications . Your healthcare provider may also take a urine sample to perform a laboratory test called urinalysis to check for signs that you may have an infection that is causing the frequent urination.
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What Foods And Drinks To Avoid
While you may want to drink less liquid so you dont have to urinate as often, you should still make sure you stay hydrated. More concentrated urine, usually darker in color, can irritate your bladder and cause more frequent urination.
Other foods and drinks can contribute to OAB symptoms, including:
- tomato-based foods
You can test which drinks or foods irritate your bladder by eliminating them from your diet. Then reincorporate them one by one every two to three days at a time. Permanently eliminate the particular food or drink that worsens your symptoms.
Bladder Leaks In Bed Or Public
Here comes the science bit: Alcohol suppresses the antidiuretic hormone . The role of ADH is to stop the kidneys from making too much urine, this then stops you from dehydrating. But when you drink alcohol, it suppresses the amount of ADH made, so your body makes more urine than it should .
So after a drinking session, your bladder fills up quicker than normal and if not emptied, will continue to balloon. If youre asleep and dont realise that you need the toilet, your body still has to release the pressure building up and youll wee while youre sleeping.
Alcohol can also relax the bladder muscles. When youre awake, this can leave you rushing to the toilet or wetting yourself.
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You Feel Tired Or Fatigued
Your kidneys are responsible for filtering the water you drink through your body and making sure the fluid levels in your bloodstream stay balanced. When you drink too much water, your kidneys have to work even harder, creating a stressful reaction from your hormones that leaves your body stressed and fatigued. If youre constantly drinking water and find yourself struggling to get out of bed, it may be because youve added unneeded stress to your kidneys.
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Alcohol And The Bladder
Alcohol is a powerful diuretic, and this means that even a few drinks can increase your urine production, and the frequency at which you need to pass urine. You have likely experienced this at the pub after drinking a few pints! Your urge to use the toilet will probably ramp up pretty quickly.Normally you empty your bladder 4 to 6 times per day, and you should be careful to empty it completely in order to prevent bladder and kidney infections. Ideally, you should drink enough water so that your urine is clear. However, when you drink alcohol, the excess urine production can lead to dehydration and much more concentrated urine. It is not uncommon for this urine to appear dark yellow, or even brown in colour.
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What Are The Symptoms Of Overactive Bladder
Overactive bladder represents a collection of symptoms. These symptoms include:
- Urinary urgency. Urinary urgency is a sudden, uncontrollable need to pee. Once you feel the need to pee, you have a short amount of time to get to a bathroom.
- Frequent peeing. A frequent need to pee means you have to go to the bathroom more often than usual.
- Urge incontinence. Urge incontinence is a sudden, uncontrollable need to pee, and you may leak pee.
- Nocturia. Nocturia is the need to get up to pee at least two times each night.
What Are The Specific Symptoms Of Overactive Bladder
Overactive bladder represents a collection of symptoms that can include:
- Urinary urgency: This is a failure to be able to postpone the need to urinate. When you feel you need to urinate, you have a limited amount of time to get to a bathroom.
- Frequency of urination: People who experience this symptom need to urinate very often. Typically its an increase in the number of times you urinate compared to what you previously experienced.
- Urge incontinence: In this case, there can be a leakage of urine when you get the urge to urinate.
- Nocturia: This symptom is characterized by the need to get up and urinate at least two times each night.
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How Is Overactive Bladder Diagnosed
A healthcare provider can diagnose overactive bladder by reviewing your symptoms and conducting a physical examination of the organs around your pelvis and rectum. They may ask you questions such as:
- What are your symptoms?
- How long have you had these symptoms?
- Do you have a family history of overactive bladder?
- What over-the-counter and prescription drugs do you take?
- What kinds of fluids do you drink during the day?
- What time of day do you drink certain fluids?
- What do you eat during the day?
They may also refer you to a urologist. A urologist is a doctor who specializes in diseases and conditions that affect your urinary tract and reproductive system.