How many times has this happened to you:
You show up at a party, crack open a 6-pack of Keith's and start drinking. The first two beers go down fine with no bathroom interruptions, and you decide to open up another brew. Halfway through the beer you realize you can't hold it anymore and have to 'break the seal', so you make a quick pit-stop at the john. Ten minutes later you race to the bathroom again in dire need of emptying your surprisingly full bladder. This happens over and over again at 5-20 minute intervals for the rest of the night.
Why do you need to pee so much when you drink alcohol? It all has to do with ADH, or antidiuretic hormone. ADH is a protein made in your hypothalamus and released into the bloodstrem when you want to retain water in your body. Under normal circumstances, your kidneys filter your blood and then reabsorb water and sodium. The act of reabsorption lets you get rid of things like urea and acid while conserving water. When ADH reaches your kidneys, it acts like a stingy boss who wants its employees to work hard at concentrating urine and retaining body fluids.
But the combination of a party and a 6-pack are not normal circumstances. When you drink, you prevent the release of ADH into the bloodstream. Now that the 'boss' is gone, the kidneys don't care about saving water so they shove everything to the bladder. To put things into perspective, if you had no ADH you would need to pee about 10 litres each day. So by stopping ADH release, your bladder will fill up very quickly with dilute (clear) pee.
Alcohol is known as a diuretic, something that promotes urination. Another common diuretic is caffeine. That's why drinking 3 cups of coffee can make you feel like you're in the middle of a drinking binge in terms of urination frequency.
So the next time you're drinking at a party, you will know exactly why you have to run to the bathroom every 10 minutes.
Monday, April 10, 2006
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Thanks! I was wondering why this happens.
Im the same person as before.
This explains why we pee more when we drink, but it doesnt explain the 'breaking the seal' phenomena, where its easier to 'hold it' until you go the first time. then its harder to hold it, and the urge comes more frequently, after you go that first time.
Thanks for trying to solve this mystery (three years later)
Hey there, Anonymous! You're right in pointing out that I didn't address the actual reason why we "break the seal" in this post. But I did follow it up with another post to explain the phenomenon. It's just a bit hard to find if you originally found my blog from the internet. Here is the link to the follow-up post:
Breaking The Seal
Post a Comment