Understanding the Main Causes of Excessive Urination in Winter

Determining the standard frequency of urination is challenging as it varies based on factors like fluid intake, the type of beverages consumed, and the amount of sweating. However, urinating around six to seven times during the day and once at night is generally considered normal, according to Dr Blanca Mudurga, a urologist from Spain, as reported by the BBC.

Is urinary retention bad for health?

Regardless of how often you go to the toilet on average, you must have noticed that you urinate more in winter than in summer.

Not only is this standard, but everyone urinates more in winter.

Dr Blanca Mudurga says that the general reason for this is that “when it’s cold, our body shrinks more than in the summer.” You can also estimate this by observing that your hands and feet appear slightly swollen in winter due to the high amount of water in your body.

Thus, when our body is more contracted in winter, the ability to store the liquid in it decreases, which is why we need more urine in winter. Apart from this, in summer, some liquid also leaves our bodies in the form of sweat.

In winter, when the outside temperature is low, our blood vessels shrink, and our body system tries to prevent blood loss to the central organs of the body, such as the heart and lungs. Thus, the blood close to the skin shrinks and goes to the body’s internal parts.

We feel colder in our hands, feet, nose, and other external body parts due to the shrinkage of blood vessels. According to Dr Blanca Madurga, when blood vessels contract, there is less space for blood to flow, causing an increase in blood pressure in our veins.

As a result, the process of diuresis, which is urine production, begins. The increased blood pressure also raises the pressure within our kidney cells, triggering a message to the kidneys to eliminate excess fluid from the body and restore normal blood pressure.

Hence, when the kidneys receive this message, we must urinate and rush to the toilet.

Dr Blanca Mudurga explains that ‘if the organ in our body where urine collects, that is, our bladder, is healthy, we do not have to go to the toilet again shortly after urinating, but some people’s bladders work more than usual. Do or be more active. These types of people want to go to the toilet occasionally and are not satisfied.

‘This may be due to the automatic contraction of the organs around the bladder because when we drink something or get cold, these organs begin to contract involuntarily.’

Some good habits:-

Dr Blanca Mudurga explains that even though we urinate more in winter, it is not necessary to drink more water to eliminate dehydration.

That’s why experts tell us that even in winter, we should drink two to two and a half litres of water a day.

Apart from maintaining adequate water content in the body, we should also take care of our bladder.

The main thing in this regard is not to go to the toilet just thinking, ‘I might have to pee’, as this can reduce our bladder’s ability to control urine.

So try to go to the toilet only when the bladder is complete and you feel the need, but Dr Blanca Mudurga explained that ‘there is nothing wrong with emptying the bladder before going to bed at night.’

Another suggestion to relieve frequent urination is not to rush to urinate and give the bladder a chance to empty, because if you hurry, the bladder will not empty completely and Urinary tract infection may also occur.