The need to pee at night (nocturia) -- which affects most people over the age of 60 -- is related to the amount of salt in your diet, according to new research presented at the European Society of Urology congress in London.
Most people over the age of 60 (and a substantial minority under 60) wake up one or more times during the night to go to the bathroom. This is nightime peeing, or nocturia. Although it seems a simple problem, the lack of sleep can lead to other problems such as stress, irritability or tiredness, and so can have a significant negative impact on quality of life. There are several possible causes of nocturia. Now a group of Japanese scientists have discovered that reducing the amount of salt in one's diet can significantly reduce excessive peeing -- both during the day and when asleep.
...
223 members of the group were able to reduce their salt intake from 10.7 gm per day to 8.0 gm/day. In this group, the average night-time frequency of urination dropped from 2.3 times/night to 1.4 times. In contrast, 98 subjects increased their average salt intake from 9.6 gm/night to 11.0 gm/night, and they found that the need to urinate increased from 2.3 times/night to 2.7 times/night. The researchers also found that daytime urination was reduced when salt in the diet was reduced.
There's a slightly longer summary here: Cutting salt could cut night-time loo visits; and some mainsteam media have also covered the story in a more readable form: Could eating less salt reduce nighttime bathroom trips?. And for balance, some people on the internet think the opposite is true.
[Update: Replaced ScienceDaily link with a link to original source article. --martyb]
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Tuesday March 28 2017, @09:47AM (3 children)
> demands JavaScript
In fact the "demand" is made by JavaScript. Turn off all JavaScript for the site and you should be good.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 28 2017, @10:55AM
Confirming.
The page opened for me fine, FireFox, NoScript.
Now, about the salt. Salt makes you thirsty.
Bar owners know this and put salty stuff out for free.
( Then you are incentivized to buy those ten-dollar beers ).
Then you are full of beer or some other liquid.
Not long, you gotta go pee.
Another thing. You eat big meal the day before. You must drink water so you can make chyme in your intestines. If you do not drink the water, the stuff you ate is too solid to go through all the pipe properly. During the night, all this stuff ends up in your large intestine, which re-absorbs the water. So, in the morning, you gotta go do a crap. But the water went from your large intestine to your bloodstream. Your kidneys, seeking homeostasis, extracted this water. So now you have a full bowel that needs to be dumped, and a full bladder as well.
Its a wonder we get any sleep at all.
(Score: 2) by martyb on Tuesday March 28 2017, @12:11PM
Updated story to refer to original source where, at least to me, Javascript was not required.
Wit is intellect, dancing.
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Tuesday March 28 2017, @02:15PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves