How long is it harmful to hold urine?

Urination is the body's excretion process. The kidneys are responsible for filtering excess water and waste from the blood through urine. Urine is stored in the bladder, with an average adult holding about 420ml.

However, the limit can increase to 800ml of urine because the bladder can stretch. When the bladder is full, the nerves will send signals to the brain and create the feeling of wanting to urinate. If you regularly hold back urine and do not release it, it can cause many dangerous consequences for your health.

Each person will have a different ability to hold urine. Therefore, it is impossible to determine how long holding urine will affect your health. The time to hold urine depends on the function of the bladder, the amount of water you drink and the body's dehydration status. When pregnant, women will feel the need to urinate more often.

When holding urine, not only does the bladder dilate, but the external sphincter muscles are also stretched. This condition, if prolonged, is very dangerous, leading to loss of control of the sphincter muscles, affecting the function of the bladder, causing urine to leak out.

In addition, holding urine continuously also weakens the bladder muscles, affecting the communication mechanism to the brain to satisfy the need. Moreover, this habit, repeated too many times, is also the origin of a series of kidney diseases, urinary tract infections, ... because urine is an ideal environment for bacteria to grow. Common diseases when holding urine for too long:

- Uncontrolled urination

The habit of holding urine for too long will cause the body to lose its reflexes, no longer urinate according to the cycle, damage the pelvic floor muscles - the urethral sphincter muscles, not allowing urine to flow out, which can lead to urinary incontinence. Although not dangerous to health, this disease affects the quality of life. Therefore, you should limit holding urine too many times to reduce the risk of this disease.

- Holding urine causes kidney stones

One of the causes of kidney stones is the imbalance of water, salt and minerals in the urine. The habit of holding urine has unintentionally created an abnormality, the amount of water in the bladder exceeds the allowable level, leading to an imbalance, forming kidney stones.

Kidney stones cause pain and bleeding every time the patient urinates because during the movement of the stones, they damage the urinary tract. Depending on the size of the stone, there will be different treatment directions. If the stone is small, it only needs to be treated with medication and drinking enough water, for large stones, surgery is required.

- Urinary tract infection

Holding urine has created a favorable environment for bacteria to spread and develop, leading to urinary tract infections. They penetrate the bladder, urethra and can reach the kidneys. Common symptoms of the disease are cloudy urine, bloody urine, frequent urination, burning sensation when urinating, etc.

Lower urinary tract infections can be treated by taking antibiotics and intravenous antibiotics if in the upper urinary tract.

- Kidney failure due to holding urine

Holding urine for too long causes urine to flow back to the kidneys, leading to kidney failure. When kidney function is impaired, it cannot filter waste and toxins from the blood, they accumulate and cause a series of symptoms such as bruises, bloody stools, lethargy, mood swings, and decreased physical strength.

The treatment for kidney failure is to balance the fluids in the blood, remove toxins from the body to restore kidney function. Some severe cases require dialysis or kidney transplant to avoid danger to life.