A friend and i were discussing whether this would be possible - both of us acknowledge that it’s a really bad idea and obviously unhealthy. To my awareness nobody is planning or expecting to do this.
If a person was in a situation where they had no access to restroom facilities for 48 hours, what would their best strategy be for avoiding the need to urinate?
My speculation with no medical knowledge is that the average healthy adult could probably make it through 48 hours if they emptied their bladder immediately before and spent hours, say, -4 through 46 not consuming any liquids. If they also consume no solids, that’s the entirety of the preparation they need to do, and they’d pass the no-pee-48-hours-challenge. That would suck and you’d have the risks of dehydration to face towards the end of it.
Is that even how urination works, biologically, or would they succumb to some other dehydration side effect i’m not considering?
TMI, but (males) try to avoid sexual arousal. An erection can press on the bladder.
(It works the other way, too, as most men know: a very solid erection helps hold urine in. But it’s a short-term approach, and counterproductive to the long-term retention the OP envisions.)
You are correct. Definitely dehydrating yourself will keep you from peeing. I know from personal experience. For 48 hours? Not sure on that part. If you’re dehydrated your body will attempt to hold onto and absorb all the liquid it can. Working against you a bit is that your body will want to clear out toxins filtered out by the kidney and liver and urination is a normal way to get rid of these materials.
Your question is what is the best strategy. Dehydration is a bad strategy and I would say you would need a very strong reason to risk your health by doing this. 48 hours plus the lets say twelve additional hours before the 48 begins is a long time to go without water. Sometimes if you are going in for certain types of operations they will have you stop drinking liquids the night before.
I know I pee at least ten times a day, maybe more. I drink a lot of water. If you have a heavy color in your urine where you can’t see through you’re not drinking enough water.
In most jurisdictions in the USA, this is a felony or a very serious misdemeanor. People who have done so found themselves posting sex-offender signs on their front lawns for the rest of their lives.
A lot of people are pee-shy, and can’t just pee on the side of the road next to a bus full of passengers. Our culture has made them that way. There are a lot of countries where people have no problem with it.
Loading up on salt will help–but it is hell on the kidneys. The day after I’ve eaten a salty meal, I hardly pee at all, but the next day or two I pee every couple hours, including waking up to go.
Re: IV fluids. No, that’ll make you pee in a jiffy (as anyone who’s ever had an IV can attest to).
Note that you generate about a cup of water a day just through your metabolic processes: Metabolic water. Water is a by-product of the energy-generating chemistry in your body. (Incidentally, this is why some animals can get by with little or no drinking water.)
Then again, though, you’re also constantly excreting water via your lungs (which, contrary to popular misconceptions, are by far the body’s primary excretory organs).
I’ve been told. Military snipers, the dedicated ones, will soil themselves. It can take hours and hours of waiting and you don’t want to give away your location while waiting for the one golden opportunity to take out an important target.