Urination that occurs more frequently than normal can markedly depress quality of life. It often indicates an underlying medical condition, which may or may not be a disease of the bladder. Frequent urination may indicate a symptom of an illness or condition elsewhere in the body. Sufferers should seek medical care to receive a diagnosis and treat the condition, as it may become life threatening. Most occurrences of frequent urination respond favorably to medical treatment.
Diabetes
The American Diabetes Association lists frequent urination as a symptom of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes. This relates to high concentrations of blood glucose. Once blood glucose levels reach about 180 mg/dL, the kidneys increase urination in an effort to flush excess glucose out of the body. Using a test strip to determine the presence of glucose in urine provides quick and easy results. Urine from a healthy body has no sugar present.
The National Diabetes Information Clearinghouse or NDIC reports more than half of people with diabetes have bladder problems due to nerve damage. One problem is overactive bladder, the frequent urge to urinate caused by erroneous nerve signals contracting the bladder at inappropriate times.
Ketosis
When the cells in the body do not have access to glucose, ketone bodies form from fat as an alternative source of energy. This occurs in diabetes when the body cannot use sugar due to a lack of insulin production or decreased cell reception to insulin. It also occurs in very low carbohydrate diets when the unavailability of sugar results because of a lack of dietary intake. The body identifies ketones as a toxin in the body, and attempts to flush them out of the system through frequent urination. To prevent dehydration, diets promoting ketosis intake recommend adequate fluid intake of at least 8 glasses of water per day.
Pregnancy
Early in pregnancy, the embryo produces a hormone called human chorionic gonadotrophin, or hCG which is thought to stimulate more frequent urination. Later in pregnancy, the pressure of the fetus on the bladder increases urinary frequency. Women's Health Care Topics explains that fluid volume in the body increases throughout the term, and this is another contributor to frequent urination.
Bladder Pressure and Irritations
FamilyDoctor.org describes how prostatitis in men causes frequent urination: The prostate gland lies just below the bladder and surrounds the urethra the tube that carries urine from the bladder out of the body. When the prostate becomes enlarged or inflamed, pressure gets exerted on the bladder and urethra, increasing urinary frequency. Medications usually correct the problem once a physician diagnoses the cause.
Another condition, called interstitial cystitis, or IC, can cause frequent urination. For unknown reasons, the bladder becomes irritated and inflamed and sometimes sores or bleeding develops. There are medications and dietary approaches aimed at controlling this condition, but there is no cure. FamilyDoctor.org reports an estimated 1 million Americans have IC, which occurs more in women than men.
