What’s one of your main precautions when you’re about to go for a long ride?
Bring enough snacks? Keep water and hydration handy? Or maybe, the most common “better pee before you leave”?
But as common as this one sounds, a TikTok video revealed that this is one of those “you-thought-was-correct” kinds of tips. Because apparently, peeing just in case is something we shouldn’t be doing.
A stitch video on TikTok finally laid the score on the issue of peeing just in case.
Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas posted a video as a response to TikTok user Sindeyraz. The said TikTok user claimed that people should go to the bathroom whenever they can.
His content is filled with things that “he didn’t learn until his 30s”. Some of these are surprising but the others, much like his claim, can be incorrect.
Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas explained why peeing just in case is wrong.
“Pelvic floor physical therapist here, and I work with a lot of people with overactive bladders, stress incontinence, urge incontinence, the whole nine yards,” Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas began her clip. “And here’s why you shouldn’t go ‘just in case.”‘
Then, she presented an illustration of a person’s bladder.
The said drawing had three lines which stood for the three levels of bladder sensation.
“The first one is just an awareness level that tells you that there’s some urine in the bladder,” she said in her TikTok video. “The second one is the one that tells you to make a plan to use the toilet, and the third is kind of the panic button that says, ‘Get me there right now, I’m about to overflow.’”
So how do these three levels of sensation relate to this particular concern?
According to Dr. Jeffrey-Thompson, when we go to the toilet to pee just in case, our bladder is filled somewhere between the first two levels. So when we go to the bathroom before we actually get the urge to do so, our body remembers these signals.
“If we’re doing this all the time … then our bladder starts getting these data points and says, “OK, maybe we should be sending the signal a little sooner, so let’s shift this line down.” She said in the video.
This means that our bladders “shrink”.
“Now, we’re going to start getting that urge to go a lot sooner than before. Over time, this compresses those three levels together, so the difference between feeling like there’s some urine in your bladder and feeling that panic button like you’re about to pee your pants is going to happen in a much shorter amount of time.” She continued.
“Avoid the “just in case” unless you’re going to be in the car for longer than an hour, once before bed, or before or after sex.”
Other doctors also weighed in on the matter. According to gynecologist Elizabeth Farrell, medical director at Jean Hailes for Women’s Health, only go to the bathroom when your body tells you to.
On the internet, everything seems like the truth.
Fortunately, there are real experts who go out of their way and correct the information we’re being fed. Safe to say, we’ll just stick to the tip of not drinking too much water right before a long drive.
You can learn more about your bladder and other medical concerns in Dr. Jeffrey-Thompson’s TikTok account.
Watch how a doctor debunked an age-old tip about peeing.
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