Can Constipation Cause Frequent Urination?

The growing stress in our lives affects our well being. We often tend to pay the prices of these extreme stressful conditions through our health. Constipation is a very common problem that most of us have faced quite often in our lives. Constipation is medically defined as a condition in which an individual faces difficulty in emptying his/her bowels. This is mostly associated with hardened feces.

However, such an issue of constipation does not usually come as a lone visitor. There are some associated problems that persist along with it. Frequent urination is one such associated faced by many individuals. But it would be interesting to find out whether constipation can cause frequent urination.

Can Constipation Cause Frequent Urination?

The answer to this basic question is that yes constipation can cause frequent urination. According to Urologists (doctors treating specific symptoms and causes of urine and urinary discomforts), frequent urination is a situation where the individual needs to pass urine or urinate more than eight times in a particular day. The logic of this too is simple.

The bowel is quite close to the bladder in the human body. When the bowel is overfull with stool, the vowel automatically takes a larger space which does not allow the bladder to expand completely to hold the urine well. Since the bladder is pressed by the over-full bowel, the amount of urine held would have limited space availability and thus the individual would require passing urine sooner. Thus, constipation leads to frequent urination.

Constipation can also affect the flow of urine since the individual might feel like passing the urine but cannot pass it completely owing to constipation. Since constipation causes the bowel to distend thus exerting pressure on the bladder, individuals suffering from constipation might as well suffer from Nocturia or frequent urination at night. Constipation and frequent urination can also affect children.

Among adults, constipation can affect the control of bladder and urine continence. This is because prolonged constipation can affect the pelvic floor muscles of the individual. Strength in the pelvic floor muscles is very important in order to gain control over bladder and bowel. The pelvic floor muscles are like a trampoline stretch starting from the pubic bone in the front to the coccyx or the tailbone at the back.

This trampoline like stretching muscle can get weak by the constant or persistent straining from the pressure of constipation. Some other reasons which can weaken the pelvic floor muscle include heavy lifting, duress of pregnancy and childbirth. This pelvic muscle strength essentially helps the individual to hold on their bowel and bladder releases.

Though Constipation is one of the reasons which can lead to frequent urination, it is advised that such issues should be consulted with a medical practitioner as soon as possible since there are certainly other causes of frequent urination too such as urinary tract infection. The problem of frequent urination can only be cured if the underlying cause can be treated. Therefore, appropriate diagnosis and testing are recommended as soon as possible. Appropriate medications, acupuncture, and physical exercises to strengthen the pelvic floor muscles are some of the treatments for solving the problem of frequent urination.

[Read – Abdominal Pain and Frequent Urination in Female]

Home Remedies For Frequent Urination

In case, the medical practitioners do not provide any other medical condition causing such frequent urination, then the individuals can undertake the following home remedies to solve the issue of frequent urination

• Adopting home remedies for solving the problem of constipation such as taking the adequate diet which should include high fiber food or fiber rich food items, involving in physical activities, and avoiding caffeinated beverages.
• Practising Retraining the Bladder in order to stop frequent urination, which might take time up to 12 weeks. The individual merely needs to try to hold urine for slightly longer time than previous every time the individual feels the urgency to pass the urine. This way the urinary bladder slowly and gradually gets trained again to hold the urine and urinate less frequently, thus solving the problem of overactive bladder syndrome.
• Practising Kegel Exercises which help in strengthening the pelvic floor muscles. The individuals need to squeeze the pelvic floor muscles for three seconds and then relax for another three seconds. The process needs to be repeated for 10 to 15 times in each session. The individual needs to do three such sessions each day. The effectiveness of such exercises is only achieved when practised regularly and thus results in toned muscles in the pelvic floor muscles.
• Making dietary modifications, especially by avoiding diuretic substances such as alcohol, carbonated drinks, caffeine, artificial sweeteners, chocolates, spicy foods, and tomato-based products. The diet should include high fiber rich products which would help in solving the problem of constipation too.
• Maintaining proper intake of fluids. Fluids are an essential component of our body and thus, fluid intake becomes important both in order to solve the issue of constipation and avoiding over concentration of urine. At the same time, it is best to limit the intake of fluid for at least four to five hours prior to bedtime. This might help in solving the issue of nocturia or frequent urination during the night.

Constipation can cause frequent urination. Thus in order to solve the problem of frequent urination, one should try to solve the issue of constipation first.