Overactive bladder and thirst

[Sarah_Hillcrest]

This is kind of  a medical question, but I thought you guys might have some insight.

I'm on Christmas vacation and getting to be in diapers more frequently, which is still very far from 24/7 now.   Typically when I'm in diapers I'll drink more fluids and yet I often still feel like I'm getting dehydrated.

Yesterday I started off the day in a boosted cloth diaper after going to the gym early.  By noon it was soaked and I decided to go without diapers for the rest of the day.  It was warm enough to get out on my bicycle so I did a laid back easy ride.  I felt really sluggish, but figured that was from the gym.  A few miles in I realized how thirsty I was and drank alot of gatorade.  

About 20 minutes in I had to stop and take an emergency pee, then again at about 40 minutes in.  Both times the pee was as clear as water but the volume was pretty low.  By the time I'd drank my entire 24 ounce bottle and was still thirsty. 

I had another emergency pee the moment I got home and because I was concerned I tasted it.  It was indistinguishable from drinking warm water, I was worried it would have a sweet taste.  After undressing I had another emergency pee. 

I think I peed a couple more times in the next hour and then things seemed to return to normal.

Anybody ever experience similar overactive bladder issues like this, thirsty, peeing water freequently, feeling dehydrated?

[ken2988]

For me being thirsty and drinking is a hard balancing act.  I am more or less in diapers 24/7, and whenever I have a lot to drink I can expect to have a continuous flow into my diaper.  If I try to go without diapers, I am going to the bathroom every half hour or so and spending time trying to get my bladder to drain, which means I would never get any work done. 

[stephrider]

I exercise quite often it happens to me sometime, but to me it's more for the hour or 2 hours I started exercise or 2 days later I made a huge effort.

The first is the body that drains some water to make the right electrolyte balance because it contains too much water to exercise.

The second is to purge the water that has been stored into the muscles in order to recover from a big stress. This is the antagonist side of the post exercise (I mean between the exercise and that drain cycle), the body retains more water that you can pee.

But it seems your experience differs there. The things is if you drink more fluids, especially water that contains no or few mineral salts you pee more and so you drains as well the electrolytes that is very important for the body. So if the body loses more electrolytes it will drain more water as well in order to keep that balance electrolyte/water. In that case the pee is very clear. That a vicious cycle because the more you drink the more you pee and the more you are dehydrated. It is what we call hyponatremia. The better way you get it out is to complement with electrolyte pills that athletes sometime take or drink very mineralized water. It's even better true if the weather is very warm and you sweet a lot. 

[babykeiff]

Normally, a toilet trained individual produces vasopressin, the anti-duretic hormone 24/7, in smaller quantities during the day, but much larger quantities during times of sleep / overnight. Vasopressin changes the dialation within the kidneys that causes the kidneys to reabsorb water before it reaches the bladder. This controls the water level in the body. Water level is monitored, and slight changes in water balance will trigger the feeling of thirst.

Toilet training teaches one to 'hold it' until a time and place is available to void. This causes the body to increase vasopressin the fuller the bladder gets to reduce the speed the bladder fills. This also changes water balance in the cells vs the blood. Higher proportion of water in blood than cells will pass water into cells, they swell and decrease their concentration level. A higher proportion of water in cells than blood will pass water into the blood and shrink cells, but increase their concentration level. The water level is normally kept at +/- 0.5% difference, however, excersise needs the waste to be removed from muscle cells, and then they need to be refilled with water and energy.

However, diaper wearing can act as a subconscious trigger to reduce the vasopressin production. This is part of the conservation of energy process in the body as hormones like vasopressin is expensive to make. Also, diapers were normally worn before toilet training, so the body did not need to reduce urine production overnight to ensure sleep. Non toilet trained children do not produce large quanties of vasopressin overnight, so the water balance was more closer to +/- 0.005%, which is one of the reasons a pre-toilet trained child has the ability to absorb information like a sponge.   

As a result, wearing diapers can cause ones bladder to fill faster. It is the body reverting to pre- toilet training control, where the next step is based on your choices - 

• do you focus on voiding, or ignore it similar to a pre toilet trained child?
• do you focus on the state of your diaper, or not care
• do you focus on leaks, or not care

This leads to the question - Does your body need to tell you of its need to void?

- if yes, it will continue to do so

- if no, it will cease, and the following will start to happen :-

• bladder stops expanding / stretching so capacity reduces
• bladder sphincters go into a state of semi-relaxtion
• you will wet every 30 mins or less / will dribble constantly 24/7/265
• for some, ones ability to absorb new information will increase.

So, the question 'Will wearing diapers 24/7 cause me to loose control = the answer is depending on your mindset and choices,

...but it could make you smarter!

@stephrider If your excercise is messing with your electolyte balance, you may be over doing the excercise. One normally, during excertion, looses some electrolytes in sweat, not in ones urine as the kidneys are designed to withold the electrolyte.

Drinking plain water during excercise is highly recomended to replace the water lost in sweat, but diet is the one the replaces the electrolytes. Artificial electrolytes, as found in most 'sport drinks' cause numerous kidney issues, and is something that should be discussed with a doctor, and not the pseudo medic sport therapist!