If you do, you will know how irritating it is to have to get up several times a night to go to the loo. It disrupts your sleep and the sleep of those around you.
Maybe you think that it’s just how you’re made, but maybe it isn’t. What if you could normalize your bladder action just by adjusting your diet?
If you need to pee two or more times per night you are considered to be suffering from nocturia, the need for frequent night urination.
If you need to pee frequently day and night the condition is referred to as Over Active Bladder (OAB).
What causes Nocturia and Over Active Bladder?
The two main causes of nocturia and OAB are kidney problems and an acidic pH balance in your urine.
We took a look at studies performed by the Department of Urology, at the Ankara Training and Research Hospital in Antalya, Turkey. These studies proved conclusively that OAB is linked with a high acidic pH balance in your urine.
The study looked at more than six hundred people who showed no other signs of poor health, but who all suffered from the same irritating need to pee several times a night.
What they found is that people who have high acid levels in their urine sample are far more likely to suffer from OAB and nocturia than those with alkaline urine samples.
In the journal of urology, a study also found a high instance of OAB and nocturia in people with kidney infections, kidney problems and inflammation of the kidneys. This makes perfect sense because your kidneys are part of your urinary tract system, so anything that affects your kidneys is likely to affect your urine and your bladder by default.
Your kidneys help to eliminate toxins, fats and acid loads from your system. They then pass this waste into your urine to be removed from your body. When you have kidney dysfunction you will need to pee much more frequently.
How can you improve your bladder health and stop needing to pee so often at night?
The first step is to get your pH balance down. To do that you must alkalize your body. This helps to reduce the amount of work your kidneys have to do and as a result you will need to pee less frequently.
Take a look at your diet. If you eat and drink a lot of highly acidic foods and beverages you will have a higher internal pH level. That means your kidneys are working hard to regulate your pH balance and as a result you will see a higher pH balance in your urine.
If you have an over active bladder, the following foods should be consumed sparingly or avoided all together:
– Caffeine in coffee and tea is acidic and acts as a diuretic (something that makes your bladder active) and makes you need to pee more often than regular water would.
– Carbonated (bubbly) drinks all contain carbonation that triggers your bladder;
– Alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine, and spirits are seen as toxins by your body. Your body tries to flush them out which makes you urinate more and it dehydrates you. Skip that glass of wine for dinner for a week and see if it helps.
– Tomato based products being acidic, can irritate the bladder and cause nocturia.
– Studies have shown that citric acid in citrus fruits, including grapefruit, oranges, limes and lemons, can affect bladder muscle contraction and hence aggravate the symptoms of overactive bladder symptoms and should be avoided if you have nocturia;
– Hot spicy foods like cayenne pepper and jalapeno chillies irritate your bladder and make you need to pee more.
– Raw onions seems to trigger when they are not cooked. However they do not seem to irritate your bladder when they are cooked.
– Cranberry can help in urinary infections because it helps to rid the bladder of bacteria. However, it can be a culprit in worsening overactive bladder. A little is okay but drink it sparingly.
– Chocolate, because it contains caffeine and other bladder irritating compounds like theobromines;
– Sugar, honey, and artificial sweeteners all over-stimulate the bladder and should be avoided, especially close to bed time. If you are prone to “something sweet’ before bed it could be the reason why you need to pee all night.
– MSG is an irritant to your system. Your body tries to flush it out quickly, making you pee more often. Whenever you consume MSG it will trigger your bladder and make you need to pee.
– Oregano and dill also have a diuretic action. Oregano leaf is used to promote urine as it is stimulating. Hence you want to avoid it when you have overactive bladder.
Common sense measures to reduce night peeing
Drink plenty of water during the day so that you can stop drinking at least two hours before bedtime without getting thirsty. If you limit your fluid intake up to two hours before you go to bed you are less likely to need to pee in the night.
Consume fewer toxins. Your body will always try to get rid of things that are bad for it. Usually it does this by flushing them out through the kidneys and eventually your urine. The fewer toxins you put into your system the less it will have to get rid of. Your kidneys won’t have to work so hard and you will have less chance of developing kidney disorders.
Boost your kidney. As mentioned earlier, your kidney and bladder work hand in hand to eliminate wastes from your body. Getting up to pee in the night might be a sign that your kidney is weakening. To stop your bladder from getting out of control during the night, you might want to look at how to boost your kidney.
Go to the next page to learn more about some amazing medicinal herbs that boost your kidney. These ingredients are so powerful that they help to boost your immune system too.
About the Author:
Emma Deangela is the best selling author of The Alkaline Diet Program and 80/20 Fat Loss. She has helped over tens of thousands of men and women to lose weight and transform their health with sound nutrition advice.
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