I took my ex to the urologist this morning. She has dementia so I have to attend appointments with her. He complaint is that she urinates too often every 15 min or so. Prior to the appointment I had her write down the time on a chart I had in the bathroom each time she urinated. No waking up at night to urine, she drinks about 4 cups of coffee in the morning and urinates about 5 times between 7 am and 12 pm. After that she sip on cola and maybe urinates 3 more times before going to bed about 9 pm. Looked pretty normal to me.
I noticed less urinating on the hot days than the cooler days and attributed that to the body sweating. The urologist told me that sweating has no effect on frequency????? Sounded like bullshit to me or am I just way off base?
because of the dementia I have been noticing the last few years a tendency to obsess on things, blood pressure, urinating, people that bug her, anything that gets her attention. I felt I should document the frequency and volume of her output. Dr. had no interest in any of this. Should I change Dr’s or mind my own business?
Your body mostly produces urine to get rid of nitrogenous waste (in the form of urea), not to get rid of water (which it has multiple other ways of getting rid of). The water’s just there to carry the other waste products.
For someone exerting themselves like an endurance athlete, or someone spending long amounts of time out in the elements like a construction worker or landscaper, it absolutely does. In fact, urine color is a trailing indicator of hydration levels; dark indicates dehydrated, while clear can mean overhydration & an electrolyte imbalance. For someone in a climate controlled environment most of the day, probably not so much.
It might not apply, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve had to reduce my caffeine intake. It’s not so much that it makes me pee more, although it is a diuretic; it’s that it makes me pee more often. I think they refer to it as increasing urgency. Back before I gave up and switched to decaf, I was hustling to the bathroom a couple times an hour for little dribbles.
Just out of curiosity, does she drink more coke when it’s hot?
How much urine you produce is related to your water intake. On hot days, sweating a lot, with the same water intake will produce less urine. It will be darker as your kidneys further concentrate the urea and other waste products. Frequency can be something entirely different though.
She goes through about 1 liter of coke per week, she doesn’t use bottled water so I have no idea how much water. Her frequency doesn’t seem near as bad as she thinks or what she is telling her Dr. I would say every couple of hours is closer than every 15 min like she seems to think.
I’m guessing your doc could possibly be right in saying that sweating doesn’t necessarily have much effect on frequency, but I’m pretty sure it would have an impact on the volume. And as someone said upthread, with less actual fluid in your system (i.e. water), the urine tends to be more concentrated (darker) and the volume, less. It’s possible that she has the urge to go even if she drinks slightly less - this could be for a number of reasons. You mentioned that she obsesses about things, so perhaps she forces herself to go more frequently or otherwise perceives the need to. With her being presumably older and suffering from dementia, I’d also be careful about her forgetting to urinate or her not making an effort to void completely.
Off on a tangent, but I’ve noticed for the first time in my life that I have occasionally been waking up with the urge to piss if I have a drink or two at night. Never had that before. I guess this is what happens when you become a middle age male. Might be time to get a prostate check.
Two things happen in hot weather that will reduce urine production. First, we sweat (as several people have already pointed out).
Second, the body routes fluids close to the surface of the skin to increase cooling, largely by dilating the capillaries near the outside of the body. This second effect reduces the amount of fluid in the center of the body, which lowers the blood pressure there and reduces the amount of urine the kidneys produce. It’s the opposite of cold diuresis, where in cold weather the body tries to conserve heat by pooling liquid at its core, causing more frequent urination. In short, everyone has experienced having to pee a lot when they get cold, and having to pee less when it’s warm is simply the flip side of this.