Emily Brown
A doctor and TikTok user has explained why having a pee 'just in case' might not be such a wise idea, even if you are about to head out on a long road trip.
"Right, do you need to pee before we go?"
It's a question we probably all heard growing up, and while it might have stopped us from complaining about needing the bathroom five minutes into any journey, it might just be the source of a bad habit that many of us have continued into adulthood.
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Lots of us run to the bathroom one last time before we head out, especially if we're not sure where the next toilet will be, but Pelvic Health Physical Therapist Rachel Peck, who describes herself online as 'Dr. Rachel the Pelvic PT', has explained how this process can have negative impacts.
In a TikTok video addressed to 'All y’all who are always looking for a bathroom', Peck broke down what happens to your bladder when you do a lot of 'just in case' peeing.
"I see this a lot with some of my patients who have increased urgency and frequency and sometimes leakage," she said, before going on to explain that this happens because 'normally, the bladder fills at a certain rate and once we get to a certain point, we’ll get the first urge to go and we usually ignore that urge'.
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“It’s just letting us know that it’s filling up.” she explained.
We tend to ignore the urges until our bladder gets full, but if we get into the habit of peeing 'just in case', we're essentially training our bladders to send stronger urges at an earlier 'filling spot'.
“That kind of tricks your brain into believing that you’re more full than you actually are,” Peck explained.
As a result, your bladder stops storing as much urine.
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So on the whole you should just trust your bladder to tell you when it's time to pee, although Peck did admit there are a 'couple of times' when a 'just in case' pee is appropriate.
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“That would be once right before bed, right before a really long car trip, maybe right before you go into a movie theatre, things like that, where it is appropriate once in a while. If you're in the habit of doing it all the time, that's when it can become a problem."
Dr. Peck's advice has been backed up by Aeroflow Urology, which states 'the proper way to pee' is to listen to your body, to 'go to the bathroom when you feel the urge' and not pee 'before you actually need to'.