Nocturia
Frequent urination at night is called nocturia.
Nocturia: causes, features, diagnosis
With nocturia, there is a predominance of nighttime urine volume over daytime. Obviously, the process is accompanied by regular disturbance of night sleep. As a result, patients develop chronic fatigue, increased fatigue, decreased performance, etc.
In a healthy person, nocturia may result from drinking caffeinated drinks in the evening. Everyone's favorite tea, coffee, and alcohol have a visible diuretic effect. It is believed that one trip to the toilet per night is a variant of the norm. If the need to urinate occurs two or more times, then this is a signal that a medical examination is necessary.
Nocturia, as a symptom, indicates a combination of a number of diseases. So, its appearance may be accompanied by the inability of the kidneys to sufficiently concentrate urine. Diabetes mellitus, liver failure, or heart failure may also present with the need for frequent nighttime urination.
The course of treatment with a number of drugs can also be accompanied by nocturia. It also accompanies an overactive bladder.
An enlarged prostate gland in older men prevents full urination. Some of the urine returns back to the bladder and further leads to the development of nocturia.
If there are appropriate complaints from the patient, for the purpose of diagnosis, a urine test according to Zimnitsky is prescribed. Its essence lies in the fact that every three hours during the day the patient urinates in a separate bowl. Then, in the laboratory, daytime and nighttime urine is compared in terms of volume and specific gravity. With nocturia, night urine is larger (about 2/3 of the daily volume), and it is not sufficiently concentrated.
When clarifying the diagnosis in older people, as a rule, the level of antidiuretic hormone is necessarily examined, the function of which is to reduce the amount of urine at night. With age, the production of such a hormone by the body decreases, as a result of which nocturia can develop.
The diary, which is recommended to be kept by patients with nocturia, provides valuable information for medical analysis. It records the drinking regime and the regime of urination.
A number of serious medical studies carried out in Japan and the United States convincingly prove that the presence of nocturia can seriously increase the risks to the patient's health, up to and including death. That is, the mortality rate in those with this symptom is higher than in people with similar underlying diseases, but without nocturia. Of course, this fact is not a reason for panic, but a reason for a timely appeal to a specialist.
Nocturia in women
If the most common cause of nocturia in men is prostate adenoma, then nocturia in women often develops due to cystitis. It can also be caused by urinary incontinence (in particular, due to atrophy of the pelvic floor muscles).
Treatment of nocturia
The signal for going to the doctor is frequent (two or more) trips to the toilet at night in the absence of a large amount of liquid drunk in the evening.
When the symptoms are confirmed by laboratory means, they begin to treat nocturia. In fact, it is the diagnosis and treatment of the underlying disease.
For the treatment of nocturia with hyperactivity of the bladder, various antimuscarinic drugs, for example, Solifenancin, are successfully used.
Also, patients with nocturia, especially older women, are recommended to systematically train the muscles of the pelvic floor and exclude heavy drinking in the evening.
YouTube video related to the article:
The information is generalized and provided for informational purposes only. At the first sign of illness, see your doctor. Self-medication is hazardous to health!
