Philip Schofield is mortified when caller admits to peeing in her ex's bath
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Combining pee and shower time has recently been advocated as an efficient means of saving water and helping the planet. In a survey conducted by Showers To You last year, 76 percent of respondents admitted to doing it. However, a US physician has taken to social media to explain why peeing in the shower is not conducive for the human anatomy.
In the viral TikTok video, physician Doctor Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, from Boston Urology, addressed the sensitive topic in a video titled “why you shouldn’t pee in the shower”.
The physician explained that the habit could affect both the bladder fitness and pelvic floor.
The video, which has already gained tens of thousands of likes, doctor Jeffrey-Thomas, explained: “If you pee in the shower, or turn on the faucet or turn on the shower and then sit on the toilet and pee while the shower is running, you’re creating an association in the brain between the sound of running water and having to pee.
“When you [combine] that with pelvic floor dysfunction, then that will potentially lead to some bladder leak issues when you hear running water outside of the shower.”
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Research on the effects of running water suggests that experiencing the urge to pee to the sound of water is a conditioned and reflexive response.
The reason for this is believed to be down to the resemblance to the noise one makes when urinating, which produces a psychological association with the action.
A second theory suggests that the sound of running water causes our brain to communicate with the sphincter – which is the muscle ring that controls the urine coursing through the urethra – to make it open.
Urinary incontinence is defined by the NHS as the unintentional passing of urine, which is believed to affect millions of people.
There are several types of incontinence, including urge incontinence, which refers to the leakage of urine that follows a sudden, intense urge to pee.
It is believed approximately half of all women over the age of 20 experience some degree of urinary incontinence in their life.
Although the condition is usually associated with ageing, childbirth is another known risk factor.
The NHS explains: “There are often only a few seconds between the need to urinate and the release of urine.
“Your need to urine may be triggered by a sudden change of position, or even by the sound of running water.”
Doctor Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, who is also a certified pelvic floor physical therapist, went on to explain that for women, the pelvic anatomy isn’t built for peeing standing up.
Unlike women, men have the prostate which supports the bladder, making it okay to urinate while standing.
Doctor Jeffrey-Thomas said: “For those of us born with female anatomy, we are not meant to pee standing up.
“Even in the Captain Morgan pose, the pelvic floor isn’t going to relax appropriately, which means that we’re not really going to be emptying our bladder super well.
“So try to pee before you turn on the shower water and if you get the urge while you’re in the shower, try to ignore it.”
Since standing is a tricky position in which the relax the pelvic floor, in some cases it can lead to residual volumes of water remaining in the bladder.
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