Drink less because of urine loss? Please don’t!

If you suffer from urine leakage, it seems logical to drink less. Because drinking a lot is peeing a lot and therefore more likely to have accidents, right? New. It is unwise to limit your fluid intake. Sufficient fluid keeps your bladder healthy and prevents other bladder problems. How much should you drink at least when you lose urine? And when do you actually drink too much? First of all: urinary problems are much more common than you think. We speak of a urination problem if you lose urine, cannot pass urine properly or have to go to the toilet very often due to increased urgency (an overactive bladder). The first – urine loss – affects more than 3 million women and about a million men in the Caribbean.

How much should you drink at least when you lose urine?

It is tempting to drink less if you suffer from urine leakage to limit accidents. However, that is not wise. Sufficient fluids are necessary to keep the bladder healthy and drinking less can actually make the problem worse. Even if you have urinary incontinence, you should drink one and a half to two liters a day and certainly no less than one liter. If you drink too little, you can suffer from an irritated bladder and urethra and you have a greater chance of stones in the urinary tract and bladder infections. In addition, drinking too little increases the risk of constipation, which in turn leads to more urinary incontinence because the stool presses on your bladder. Drinking more than two liters is also not useful. If you drink more, you also have to urinate more often and you also have more urine loss.

To check whether you are drinking enough, you can check the color of your urine. The darker the color, the more concentrated. If you drink enough water, your urine will be light in color.

What can you drink? (and what would you rather not?)

Read our article about the 10 Foods That Makes Urinary Loss Worse. With advise about food and drink that can cause more problems for your bladder.

Also think about what time you drink

Watching your sugar intake is good for everyone, but especially for people with urge incontinence. It is You naturally lose water while you sleep. Your urine is therefore more concentrated and that can irritate your bladder. That is why it is smart to drink a glass of water as soon as possible after waking up. Drink small amounts throughout the day to prevent your bladder from suddenly having to process a large amount of fluid, which increases the chance of urine loss. In any case, don’t drink anything about two hours before going to bed, then you reduce the chance that you have an accident during the night. If you are thirsty, stick to a glass of water.