A medical professional has highlighted a contentious shower habit that is common among two-thirds of Americans, warning it could lead to embarrassing issues in the future.
The debate over what people do in the shower has been heating up recently, with confessions ranging from snacking to dental hygiene routines taking place in the bathroom.
Adding to the controversy is the ongoing discussion about how frequently we should bathe.
Experts largely concur that one prevalent habit, which 62 percent of Americans confessed to in a YouGov survey, may not be beneficial for your health.
This practice is not limited to the general public; celebrities like Kelly Clarkson and Madonna have also admitted to it, yet it may be worth reconsidering.
Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas has pointed out that a seemingly innocuous shower habit can actually affect your bladder health and disrupt regular toilet habits.
The focus is on urinating in the shower.
While it may not be considered polite, especially if you share your shower space, many people engage in this behavior.
If you are among those who urinate in the shower, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas advises reconsidering this practice.
“We want to avoid training our bladder to associate certain signals with the urge to pee. In this case, peeing in the shower associates the sound of running water with urination or with submersion in water,” she said on TikTok.
“This can often transition into being triggered by other sounds of running water (like when you’re running the faucet to wash your hands or the dishes) or when you’re in bodies of water.”
https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/6956594764888198406
To mitigate the risk of a weakened bladder, it’s better to reserve urination for the toilet.
Similar to ‘pushing out’ urine and ‘hovering over the toilet,’ urinating in the shower can be particularly detrimental to women’s pelvic structures, as they are not designed for standing urination.
Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas notes in her video that standing while urinating does not promote pelvic floor relaxation.
In an interview with BuzzFeed, she explained that cisgender men have the convenience of the prostate to support the bladder, but cisgender women and individuals who have undergone gender-affirming surgeries lack similar support.
Additionally, Dr. Jeffrey-Thomas advises that to strengthen our bladders, we should reduce the frequency of urination.
She elaborated: “Normal time between trips to the bathroom is every three to four hours during the day but a minimum of two and ideally, you should not be getting up at night.
“We know that as your bladder steadily fills up, the intensity of the feeling of needing to go will increase more and more and more until we get to this peak but that wave will come back down and it will settle back down.
“The goal is to be able to use these techniques to kind of ride the wave so that we are not giving in at that high level of intensity to go.
“If you’re constantly giving in and going at the top of that wave, it’s training your body to send that really urgent signal more often, you’re perpetuating the cycle.”