Did you know the average adult is
around 60% water and continued water circulation is essential for health? With
sufficient water our bodies run better. Metabolism speeds up, toxins are efficiently
removed, overall pain and headaches are reduced; you eat healthier, digest your
food better, and experience more energy. Lack of water deteriorates the body’s
functions fostering obesity, diabetes, heart issues, even cancer. Recommendations
for the appropriate amount of daily water consumption vary greatly, and are rarely
met by most people. Some suggest men should consume 15 cups of water per day,
others say 13 cups, and more recently the number has been reduced to 8 cups. For
women the numbers are lower with 13, 9, and 8 cups respectively being recommended.
From many naturopaths I hear the figure of 10 cups, or 80 ounces for an adult
male and 70 ounces for an adult female. Here’s the point, water is important
and if you are not drinking at least 64 ounces (8 cups) per day, you are doing
your body a disservice. Other beverages
count for little in the hydration process. Drinking 8 cups of coffee, tea, juice,
sports drinks, or soda such as Coke does not have the same effect as water.
These beverages can provide dangerous side effects from too much sugar,
caffeine, or unwanted additives; many are diuretic in nature and offer poor
hydration. So for the majority of your beverages stick with clean water for true
health.
Now with the amount of water
necessary for proper health, and cleansing the body of toxins, we must consider
the other end of the equation. Given a state of equilibrium all that water
going in has to come out somewhere. And for many seniors this creates a serious
problem resulting in lack of sleep when too many trips to the potty are taken
throughout the night. Prolonged lack of sleep can further depress the immune
system exacerbating health issues such as cancer.
So let’s take a more detailed look
at the water process and how to best mitigate the flow to achieve a restful
night. Simply put, when you drink water it travels through the stomach, through
the small intestine, and then into the large intestine where it’s absorbed.
From here it works its way into blood vessels and travels around the body
eventually making its way to the liver, heart and lungs, and then to the
kidneys. The two kidneys, located on each side of the abdomen, are part of the
body’s filtering system, and it is here that water and toxins are removed from
the blood. They also remove excess drugs, balance bodily fluid, control the
production of red blood cells, help to regulate blood pressure, and produce a
form of vitamin-d. Keeping you kidneys healthy with enough water flowing
through is critical for good health. From the kidneys, water now as urine travels
through two tubes called ureters into the single bladder. As the bladder fills
with urine it expands like a balloon. When the bladder signals it is full, a
valve at the bottom opens and you pee. A healthy bladder can hold around 2 cups
of urine before signaling its time to pee, and a healthy body takes around 45
minutes for water to flow through your system. If you are well hydrated it may
flow faster, and if you are dehydrated your body will retain more fluid so your
bladder will fill slower.
Whether you drink a lot of water,
or little during your waking hours, the kidneys are always producing urine ridding
our bodies’ of toxic wastes. No matter how much you drink the bladder is
constantly filling at different rates. Even if you stopped drinking fluids your
kidneys would happily keep making urine until your body is deficient in water. Then
your body would gradually grind to a halt from accumulated toxins. Sufficient
water is essential to keep us alive. So no matter what you do, your bladder is
filling at night. Fortunately the body, knowing your need for rest, is designed
to slow the process by making a hormone at night retarding kidney functions. With
slower bladder filling you sleep soundly through the night. Until you start to age,
and the system starts to get tired or break down.
As you age there are a multitude
of issues that can cause a sense of urgency, waking one throughout the night
for a trip to the bathroom. And the older you get the more trips you may be
making. Studies have shown, when one is younger and healthy say at 25, there
will be an average of 6 trips to pee in a day (within 24 hours); and rarely is
there a bathroom break needed at night. But by the age of 55 there are
approximately 8 trips to pee with usually one trip to the bathroom in the
middle of the night. And by the age of 65, many seniors are naturally making 1.4
to 2 trips to pee in the night. In other words on every night most seniors will
have 1 bathroom trip, and some nights two. If your bathroom routine is busier
than these schedules, it’s suggested you seek the help of a medical
professional to evaluate why. And though these are the averages many seniors discover
as they grow older some nights, seeming at random, have more trips to pee than
others. The question becomes, why. Let’s see if we can shed some light on this
subject.
There are many reasons for waking
more often to pee in the night. It may be something as simple as decreased
bladder elasticity due to age, overactive bladder muscles, or you having trained
your bladder to retain less fluid. Bladder training can come from making unnecessary
frequent trips to the bathroom because you are worried about needing to pee at
an inopportune time. As your bladder becomes use to voiding before it is
properly full the muscles and elasticity change to recognize the process and
will naturally duplicate it later. You have essentially trained your bladder to
void early. The solution for this condition may be Kegel exercises to improve
bladder control or consciously extending the time between trips to pee.
Another easy fix comes when fluids
are consumed too close to bedtime. People often consume 30% to 40% of their
fluids during or after a late dinner. To resolve the problem this creates, you
will want to consume the majority of your beverages before 4:00pm leaving
roughly a half cup of water or beverage for diner, and just enough fluid to
take any pills in the later evening.
Then there are the types of foods
and beverages consumed late at night. Many act as diuretics causing the kidneys
to go into overtime, filling the bladder quicker and more often during the
night. If you are having frequent bathroom calls disturbing your sleep, foods
and beverages you may want to stay away from in the latter part of the evening
include: citrus fruits, pineapple, peaches, watermelon, oats, celery, Brussels sprouts,
ginger, beets, cabbage, eggplant, carrots, artichoke, asparagus, alcohol,
chocolate, all spicy foods, apple cider vinegar, coffee, caffeinated tea, all excessive
sugary drinks and desserts, and all caffeinated beverages. It’s not that these
foods and beverages are all ‘bad’ for you. In fact many are extremely healthy for
a good diet. It is just that they can trigger your kidneys to produce more
urine. Therefore, if you enjoy many of these foods as I do, eat them earlier in
the day to reduce those unwanted bedtime bathroom trips.
While there is a long list of
foods and beverages that may trigger more urine at night, there are few options
that could slow the process. True licorice, not just artificial flavoring, can
be antidiuretic when taken in the evening but it is not wise to use if you have
high blood pressure or stomach issues. The herb valerian often used for insomnia,
anxiety, and to reduce nervous restlessness also has antidiuretic properties
but it can loose effectiveness with extended use; and valerian should not be
used by anyone experiencing depression. So check with your doctor first.
Of course there can be more difficult
issues at work causing you to wake too often. For many people the trigger can
be intermittent snoring resulting in sleep apnea. When one’s airway becomes
restricted the heart muscle trying to correct blood flow puts out a hormone
called atrial natriuretic peptide that has the additional effect of increasing
urine production. In this case when sleep apnea is corrected the bathroom calls
at night often disappear. Another more serious heart issue causes fluid to
collect in the legs during the day. Because of this, if you find yourself
retaining fluid in your legs it’s wise to get your heart checked. Regarding
sleep, excess fluid in the legs will be released back into the upper body throughout
the night. To reduce this excess fluid, the kidneys will repeatedly fill the
bladder. The sleep solution for this problem is laying down with your feet
elevated above the level of your heart for an hour or two in the late afternoon
and early evening. This allows you to rid your body of excess fluids before
bedtime.
Another area to consider is that
many medications such as blood pressure meds, and supplements, have diuretic
effects. If you are having sleep issues be sure to ask your doctor(s) about the
diuretic effects of any medications and supplements taken in the evening. If
the meds are required, your doctor may come up with a different schedule for
their administration.
Finally there are more complex far-reaching
issues such as diabetes, infections, enlarged prostate, obesity, and
neurodegenerative disorders that may cause one to wake more frequently at
night. The solution to these could be as easy as loosing weight, an antibiotic
for infection, special supplements to shrink or improve an enlarged prostate; or
as difficult as prescriptions or surgery. The key point to remember is, if you
are experiencing recent unexplained changes in your sleep-bathroom patterns,
and changing your diet and fluid intake patterns does not make immediate improvement,
it’s time to consult a professional to find out why. My recommendation is to
consult both a ND and MD for advice in this matter, as they will approach the
issue from different viewpoints giving you a multitude of options from which to
choose.
Quality sleep is so very important
for one’s health. As we become older it appears that our urinary system tends
to get tired, and getting up once per night to pee is often the norm. This can
be OK as long as we allow enough time to return to bed and gather additional
rest. The real problem comes when our sleep pattern is disturbed too often
during the night. Research studies have shown there is a strong relationship
between lack of sleep and prostate, colorectal, and breast cancers. There is a
twofold risk of developing prostate cancer with ongoing major sleep
disturbance; a 50% increased risk of colorectal cancer for those sleeping less
than 6 hours per night; and a much higher likelihood of aggressive breast
cancer with lack of sleep. Both sleep and water are vital to a healthy immune
system, so monitor your water intake, get plenty of rest, and seek professional
help when needed. More information regarding the value of sleep may be found in my book,
Release Prostate Cancer Now! available on Amazon.com.
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for the multiple
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For a comprehensive
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