Wondering if all of us have ever behaved like this in our life, we are busy with something and we have no time to go toilet, and thus we cultivate a habit of holding back our urine. Over time, we unconsciously hold back our urine even at normal times, and we only go to toilet after we have finished our tasks. It happens more frequently while we are sleeping. Unknowingly, this kind of bad habit is extremely harmful to our health!

Our bladder is an organ which helps to store our urine, and under normal condition, the capacity of the bladder of an adult is about 350-500 ml in average. When the bladder contains over 500 ml of urine, it becomes painful because the bladder wall is over stretched.  The largest capacity of a bladder is holding 800 ml of urine. The capacity of the bladder of a new born baby is about 10% of an adult’s and the capacity of the bladder of women is smaller than men. The bladder is similar to a translucent plastic bag, when the urine inside reaches full capacity and is not expelled, it swells and causes pain. Long term of holding back one’s urine can cause problems like frequent urination or urinary urgency!

Those who hold back their urine frequently may cause spasm in their sphincters in the process of holding back their urine, and it weakens the detrusor muscle, which makes subsequent urination difficult. Urine is a kind of metabolite in our body and it needs to be discharged. Holding back one’s urine will cause an over-containing of it and it increases the accumulation of toxin in one’s body. As a result, urinary tract infection would in turn cause urethritis, especially caused by the Escherichia coli bacteria. Women’s urinary tract is shorter than men’s and hence, urethritis is commonly found among women.

The space for urine storage in the bladder is limited. If you frequently hold back your urine or hold it back for long hours, and it exceeds the capacity it can bear, there will be bacterial reproduction going on which could lead to bladder infection. If it worsens, it might even cause bladder cancer!

As such, daily habit of urination and its frequency will affect our health directly! It is advisable that all of you start practicing this today! Go to toilet as soon as possible when you feel like urinating. Please don’t hold it back anymore!