I’ve started to drink water instead or soda, for no other reason than it’s cheaper. It doesn’t seem as though I am drinking more water than soda, but I seem to be peeing an awful lot more. What gives?
Most of us are walking around very dehydrated from drinking sodas (high in sodium, a diuretic, and/or caffeine, also a diuretic). So it is possible that it may take a while for your body to rehydrate if you have been drinking other beverages, especially soda.
I am a MAJOR waterholic and dont drink anything else. (occasional alcoholic bevs and every once in a while a Snapple I confess). I gradually moved away from drinking anything else because of cost and health. It is the BEST thing you can do for your skin (after staying out of the sun and wearing a high SPF outdoors) and helps you maintain your weight (by keeping that full feeling).
Sodium is the opposite of a diuretic. And the caffiene in soda is not so great that it would result in a net fluid deficit. Sodas do not dehydrate an otherwise healthy person.
Frequent urination is a possible sign of diabetes. Get it checked out.
QtM, MD
I switched from sweetened soft drinks to club soda, because I like the bubbles, without the calories. Any downside?
QtM, MD
Are you saying that drinking sodas is OK healthwise?
No, but they don’t dehydrate people.
Sodas contain waaaaay too much sugar. And people on sodium restrictions need to watch their intake too, or at least the amount of sodium in the soda. But there’s nothing inherently bad about a diet soda as a beverage choice.
Note also that your average glass of fruit juice contains about the same amount of sugar as non-diet soda. They’re both bad when consumed in the quantities which our society sucks them back.
There’s plenty to damn America’s drinking habits over, but the urban legend that they dehydrate people is not one of their bad points.
People like to say they are “dehydrated”, but I doubt they really are. Because the one time I was truly dehydrated, vomiting and diarrhea that lasted for about four days, I felt horrible and extremely weak.
If everyone in the U.S. was so “dehydrated”, I would be shocked that anyone ever went to work or school.
Out of curiosity, have you studied the supposed negative effects of aspartame at all? Most of the information on the internet, at least, is poorly written and seems to be written in the manner of scare tactics, but there seems, with all the commotion, there might be something behind it.
Aspartame, is some bad stuff. I usually have a migrane after to much of it. I wonder why that to happens?
Does diabetes have a sudden onset? I don’t have a family history that I’m aware of, and I seem to recall being tested two years or so ago (results didn’t show anything). I realize that you have never met me, and cannot diagnose diabetes on-line based on 1 symptom, but I do have an annual check-up coming up in April. Is this something that can wait until then to be addressed, or should I schedule something sooner?
Thanks
Insulin resistance is a progressive thing. You don’t just wake up with diabetes one day, you gradually get less and less able to deal with the sugar in your body, until at one point, the maximum amount of insulin your pancreas can create doesn’t match what your body needs - at that point, you have diabetes.
So there’s a certain point where you “suddenly” have diabetes, but the actual cause and process builds up gradually.
Casey1505, when I became diabetic, I went from drinking a couple cans of soda a day and peeing maybe twice, to drinking a glass of water every hour, and peeing every hour, including getting up in the middle of the night to pee. This change occurred literally overnight.
Over the next two weeks I lost 25 pounds. The extra water (in & out) didn’t clue me in, but when I saw the weight loss, I figured something was wrong.
It couldn’t hurt to go by a drugstore and get some of those Ph test strips, just in case. Beats a trip to the hospital.
I drink a bottle of iced tea and a bottle of water (or part of one) a day. And that’s pretty much it. I wonder if that’s enough. I’m 5’1" and weigh around 100 lbs.
While I don’t want to get into an arguement with an MD, couldn’t frequent urination be due to the large intake of water? If you guzzle tall glasses of cold water, most of it won’t get absorbed on its way out, especially if your body isn’t used to absorbing large quantities of water. Drink water slowly (like, a glass over a ten minute period) and have it as warm as you can stand (room temperature preferably) and a lot more will be absorbed into your body rather than just passing straight through and coming out as urine.
I’ve been drinking bottled water that I have in my desk, so it’s room temperature. I got a few 6 packs of 16 oz bottles. I maybe have 2-3/day at work, whereas I’d have 3-4 sodas/day. I still drink 1-2 cups of coffee in the AM. I would imagine that my overall fluid intake is about the same (maybe even less) per day.
A test strip for diabetes? What is it called? And how effective is it?
I am extremely paranoid now because I drink at least 3 tall glasses of water each hour, sometimes more in the evenings or after a workout. And I urinate almost IMMEDIATELY after finishing a glass. It almost feels like I piss out more than I drink in.
The one’s I get are for a specific machine - there are probably 40 or more different brands on the market; if I were you, I wouldn’t spend money on a monitor or test strips at this point. Some fire stations that have paramedics on staff will test your blood glucose level free - if you know of one, stop by BEFORE a meal and have them test it… if it’s over, say, 130 (although 120 is considered ‘normal’) try to schedule an earlier check-up.
That’s exactly - exactly - what my initial symptoms were and I just mentioned it in passing to my cardiologist during a three month check-up. He referred me to a endocrinologist, but I didn’t go. I waited six years to finally go to an endocrinologist and by that time my diabetes was so advanced that I was hospitalized and right now it’s one of the things that is - literally - killing me.
So I would suggest getting your blood sugar checked by a paramedic, nurse, whatever - or even seeing if you could move your April appointment up a bit.
-bbb-
ProjectOmega, are you claiming that frequent urination is not a possible sign of diabetes? If so, that’s an argument that you will not win, and one that won’t make you look bright. Hyperglycemia causes diuresis, no reputable medical scientists dispute this.
What? No, I’m not claiming anything like that, I’m just saying that it’s more likely the guy is pissing more because he’s drinking more. I mean, poor eyesight is a possible sign of diabetes, but diabetes isn’t the likely cause if the guy just spent four hours staring into the sun.
Gotcha. But while there are many causes of frequent urination, diabetes is a very common one, and one with dire consequences if not diagnosed or treated. Therefore it should be ruled out in anyone complaining of those symptoms before going on to more mundane causes.
Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions in this nation, and as has been pointed out, the onset can be rather quick in many cases.