By Adam Rosenbluth, M.D., AARP, July 2024
Our medical columnist gives practical advice to help with frequent urination.
I need to pee much more often than I used to. Is there anything I can do about that?
Frequent urination is a common condition and isn't necessarily related to your age. It's normal to urinate about seven times within a 24-hour period. If you’re going more often and it’s interfering with your life, you’ll want to get it under control. There are ways you’ll be able to reduce or eliminate the problem by making changes in your behavior.
You can begin by drinking less. Urine is made from the amount of salt and water we consume, so there’s a 100 percent guarantee that if you drink less, you’ll urinate less. If you pee a lot only during the day, give yourself four-hour breaks when you don’t take in any liquids. If you’re waking up more often through the night to pee, then cut down on liquids after 6 p.m. Sometimes a patient will tell me, “But, Doc, I eat dinner at 8 p.m.” In that case, all I can say is “Do the best you can.”
Different solutions work for different people. I’m a third-generation doctor; both my father and grandfather were doctors, so I have a lot of older patients. In fact, 10 of my patients are over 100 years old. You might say to me, “Adam, I exercise. I’m out and busy all day. I get dehydrated.” But my 95-year-old patient doesn’t do very much and won’t need to drink 3 quarts of water a day.
Overall, I think you should drink when you’re thirsty, although be aware that some older people lose their sense of thirst, so you have to be careful not to get dehydrated. How do you know if you’re getting enough hydration?
How much fluid you need can depend on many things, including your schedule, age and lifestyle. The color of your urine can be one clue.
Although supplements and certain foods can change the color of your urine, if it's darker that often means the urine is more concentrated, which implies you are more likely to be dehydrated. Lighter colored urine usually indicates you've had enough fluid. When patients come to see me, I do blood and urine tests that tell me how their kidneys are functioning and whether they’re dehydrated.
If you have a condition called an overactive bladder (OAB), you’ll feel the urgent need to pass urine frequently both day and night — even when your bladder isn’t really full. In this case, you can use a technique called “bladder training.” Your bladder is made of smooth muscle fiber that has the ability to stretch and then relax. Training will stretch your bladder to hold more urine which typically stores up to 2 cups of urine for two to five hours.
If you decide to train your bladder, the next time you feel that urge to run to the bathroom, tell yourself, “Let me wait a minute before I race to the bathroom.” You can practice increasing the time to two, four, five minutes and so on — and your bladder will “learn” to adjust.
If you have an overactive bladder, you may want to limit acidic, salty and spicy foods, carbonated drinks, coffee and alcohol, all of which can irritate the bladder. Or be near a restroom if you consume those foods and beverages.
Peeing frequently around the clock can be a sign of other medical issues. For men, it’s usually an enlarged prostate. For women, it’s often a urinary tract infection (UTI). Diabetes can make people pee a lot, too. Medications can help all these conditions.
Speaking of medications, be sure to tell your doctor about the drugs you are taking. Some medications can make you pee more often. For example, if you’re on a high blood pressure pill that contains a diuretic, your doctor might suggest either switching to a different medication or taking your pill in the morning instead of right before you go to bed.
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