Don’t Go Thirsty: How Dehydration Triggers 3 Urinary Issues
By: Alec Wilson, M.D.
Don’t think of that bottle of water as just a way to restore your summer workout sweat. Think of it as 32 ounces of urinary pain prevention.
Prolonged dehydration, which is more likely to occur in the summer months, can contribute to a number of surprising urinary conditions, including urinary tract infections, kidneys stones, and an inflamed prostate, or prostatitis.
Your own risks of developing these conditions in the summer might be higher than you think. Nearly half of all U.S. adults drink far below the recommended amount of water daily. That’s not factoring in the increased need for hydration in hotter months and climates, particularly while on vacation.
Replenishing what you sweat away is essential to preventing the health problems that occur when your urinary system lacks enough water to flush away toxins, waste, and bacteria. However, not everyone knows how much water that means for them, let alone if they’re even dehydrating.
Further, you might not recognize the warning signs of urinary stress.
What Happens When Your Body Lacks Fluid
Your body runs on water. You muscles and kidneys consist of 79% water, according to Medical News Today. Your brain and heart are 73% water, and your lungs are 83%.
When the amount of liquid you take in lags behind what you lose – through sweating, humidity, and normal body function (such as flushing out waste through urination) – your body loses electrolytes. These essential minerals (sodium, potassium, magnesium, and calcium) balance water throughout your body, nourish and remove waste from your cells, support muscles, and maintain a healthy heart rate.
In summer, the risks of losing too much water, and electrolytes, can be easy; especially if you grow accustomed to thirst. One study of military personnel concludes the body can lose three to four quarts of sweat per hour when exercising in the heat.
Yet your body might be dehydrating before you realize it. Thirst is an obvious symptom. But if you are urinating less frequently, notice dark urine, have drying skin, and experience fatigue, light-headedness, and/or headaches, you might be dehydrated.
Summer Bummers: Urinary Conditions That Rise with Heat
In the urinary tract, a lack of water will enable the waste, toxins, and minerals in your body to concentrate and linger. As a result, risks of UTIs, kidney stones, and prostatitis tend to climb in the summer, research shows.
Here’s a look at each condition and what happens when it develops.
Urinary tract infections (UTIs) – A UTI usually occurs when harmful bacteria enter the urethra and work their way up into your bladder. Dehydration raises the risks of a UTI because when dehydrated, your kidneys make less urine to flush out the bacteria, so they remain and multiply. Further, highly concentrated urine can irritate and strain your urinary tract, making it prone to infection. Symptoms include a strong, frequent need to pee but passing little, burning urination, and urine that is cloudy and/or strong smelling. Learn more about UTIs here.
Kidney stones and disease – When your urine lacks water, it becomes highly concentrated with minerals excreted by your kidneys. These minerals, which include salt, calcium, and uric acid, crystalize and bind together to form hard pebble-like clusters. Stones can be very painful if they move from the kidneys into the ureters (tubes) that carry urine to the bladder. Other symptoms include blood in the urine, burning urination, and a more frequent need to go. Chronic dehydration also can lead to kidney disease, because dehydrated kidneys reabsorb and retain fluids, allowing waste to build up. Read up on other causes and treatments for kidney stones.
Prostatitis – This frequently painful condition has two causes: a bacterial infection in the urinary tract or prostate (bacterial prostatitis), or inflammation of the bladder or pelvic floor muscles (non-bacterial prostatitis). Because the prostate is close to the urinary system – it sits right below the bladder and the urethra runs straight through it – both dehydration-caused UTIs and kidney stones can complicate prostate function. Telltale symptoms include painful or burning urination, difficulty urinating despite an urgency to go, blood in your urine, and painful ejaculation. Visit our web page about prostatitis here.
What to Expect If You Experience Urinary Symptoms
If you test positive for any of the above conditions, expect the following treatment options:
For UTIs – UTIs typically are treated with antibiotics to clear the infection. To monitor or prevent future infections, ask your doctor about UrinDx, an at-home health-monitoring device you can easily snap inside your toilet bowl. The system, when linked to your smartphone, sends daily urinary health information to a remote care team, who will contact you if a clinical issue arises.
For kidney stones – Stones smaller than 1 centimeter (0.39 inch) might pass on their own with fluid, muscle relaxers (Flomax), and mild pain medication. Larger stones will likely require surgical removal. Options include non-invasive shockwave therapy, which delivers sound waves that dissolve the stone from outside the skin; or removing the stones using a scope inserted into the urethra or small incision in the back, through which a laser and/or specialized tools break them up.
For prostatitis – In cases of bacterial prostatitis, patients are prescribed anti-inflammatories such as Ibuprofen and, if the condition is acute, antibiotics. Patients with non-bacterial prostatitis may undergo physical therapy to relax and stretch the pelvis, acupuncture, and medications to relieve symptoms such as pain and difficulty urinating. Surgical options involve removing excess prostate tissue using a scope inserted through the urethra (minimally invasive).
How Much Is Enough Hydration, and Tips for Getting It
The top rule for staying hydrated is drinking as much water as you lose before you feel thirsty. If you live in a temperate climate, this means about eight 16-oz. servings a day if you’re a man, and a little more than six 16-oz. servings if you’re a woman. But variables apply, based on your size, activity levels, location, and diet.
We recommend these practices:
Eat lots of water-rich foods. Fruits and vegetables, especially cucumbers, celery, grapes, watermelon, and berries, deliver plenty of water with each serving. Other options include cottage cheese, yoghurt, and shrimp.
But watch out for water-expelling foods. Skip spicy foods as well as caffeinated and alcoholic drinks. These items can be dehydrating.
Add water to some medication. Certain medications, such as beta blockers, diuretics, laxatives, antipsychotics, and anticholinergics (for asthma, COPD, overactive bladder, and IBS), can trigger frequent urination.
Drink for your age. As you mature your water content declines because: your kidneys work less efficiently, you lose water-storing muscle, and you tend not to feel thirsty. As a result, up to 40% of people older than 65 have chronic dehydration, UCLA Health reports.
Protect against the sun. When skin burns, it inflames in reaction to ultraviolet radiation. To relieve the inflammation, the body naturally draws fluid to the skin’s surface, away from the rest of the body, contributing to dehydration.
Keep Your Urinary Health Afloat
If you experience symptoms described in this blog, or want to consult a physician about you urinary health, search our web site for a location near you. Or you can request an appointment here.
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