Have you noticed how when the weather is cold, you tend to urinate more?
I’ve always been kinda puzzled by that. Happily, the other day while wandering around on the net, I found the explanation!
No, it’s not your imagination. We really do pee more in cold weather. Scientists even have a name for it: cold diuresis.
Michael Byrne of Motherboard says there are two explanations:
1. When you get cold, your blood vessels, particularly those in your fingers and toes, constrict because of something called vasoconstriction. In an effort to maintain a warm core temperature, the body tries to keep blood away from more susceptible extremities. Because you’re sending less blood out to the extremities by reducing the volume it can occupy in those extremities, you have more blood elsewhere. The same total amount, but less space—this, naturally, equals higher blood pressure. To regulate that, your kidneys move to pull liquid out of the body, which leads to more liquid in your bladder than there would normally be. Result: you pee more.
2. Proteins called aquaporins form channels between the inside of your cells and the outside for water to travel more rapidly. In cold weather and/or under the influence of booze, these are inhibited in certain places around the body, like the brain and kidneys. When water isn’t pouring into those cells, it remains in the bloodstream, where all of the sudden there is too much of it. Hello, pee!
~Eowyn
