HAVE you ever find yourself running to the loo frequently during the cold seasons?
Well, that experience is called cold diuresis, a phenomenon that occurs for reasons that are not entirely clear.
When it’s cold, your body temperature starts to drop, your body will attempt to reduce heat loss by constricting blood vessels and reducing blood flow to the surface of the skin.[ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type=”show” ihc_mb_who=”2,3″ ihc_mb_template=”1″ ] When that happens, your blood pressure will rise, because the same volume of blood is flowing through less space in your body.
In response, your kidneys will pull out excess fluid to reduce your blood pressure, making you have to pee.
As for cold-water induced urination, researchers believe that a different mechanism may also be at play.
The 2006 edition of the book Hypothermia Frostbite and Other Cold Injuries: Prevention, Recognition, and Treatment says rather than—or in addition to—urinating because your body is trying to stay warm, it’s possible that the hydrostatic pressure of the water on the skin squeezes fluid from your limbs into your core, from which it is then excreted.
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