Dr. McDougall's Online Discussion Board

have been reviewing many of the posts, but was unable to find anything on male nocturnal urination. Am trying to find any success's with this woe (6 months). would appreciate any help/insight in this area! thanks wally in ky

Wally,

You should sleep better as well as have less water retention. This should cause you to have less need to go at night. Other medical conditions may preclude this. I would also suggest you minimize late evening consumption of diuretics like coffee, tea or alcohol as well as excessive liquids in general.

Get checked for sleep apnea as this is a major symptom.

What is your age? Have you had your prostate examined? A DRE exam. Enlarged prostates can cause more frequent nighttime trips to the bathroom because the bladder does not completely empty.

How long has this been a problem and how many times do you have to get up during the night?

Can also try eating up to 4 pm or 5 pm and then no more food till bed time. Maybe just eat only 2 meals per day to avoid eating near bed time. If there is diabetes, mcdougall diet should also help lower blood sugars so no more need to get rid of high sugar in urine.

Redfox55 wrote:Get checked for sleep apnea as this is a major symptom.

Yes.

CONCLUSION: Most awakenings from sleep attributed by our patients to pressure to urinate were instead a result of sleep disorders, particularly sleep apnea. The fact that patients do urinate once awake likely contributed to faulty post hoc reasoning and might have limited further inquiry by patients and their physicians in clinical settings into the actual sources of awakening from sleep. Even in those patients with well-known medical reasons for nocturia, Sleep disorders were still found to be the source of almost all awakenings from sleep. Patients were extremely poor judges of the reasons they awoke from sleep. The diagnosis of a sleep disorder should be seriously considered whenever a patient reports frequent awakenings from sleep to urinate.
Excerpt from: Nocturia. A rarely recognized symptom of sleep apnea and other occult sleep disorders.

Others:
Nocturia and snoring: predictive symptoms for obstructive sleep apnea
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome Is Associated with Overactive Bladder and Urgency Incontinence in Men
The relationship between obstructive sleep apnea, nocturia, and daytime overactive bladder syndrome in women

And sometimes a full bladder causes enough discomfort to wake you up. BPH notwithstanding, I went from getting up only once on average, to 3-4 times nightly after starting on post-MI BP meds. Increased urinary output is not imaginary either (I love how the scientists conducting those studies presume they know that bladder pressure doesn't really wake you up), since the nighttime incidents are merely a continuation of the daytime routine, and any fool can tell what volume of urine they are excreting.

I am 43 male and I too have been noticing increased night time urination and I have a slightly enlarged prostate.

I am following this WOE and also I have started to supplement 3 tablespoons of flax seed everyday and 3 gms of L Arginine in the night. I saw a video by Dr Greger saying this dose of flax seed has proven to be helpful in benign prostate enlargement and also in prostate cancer.

I have also seen somewhere in the testimonials section I think a story on Dr Mcdougalls father-in-law who was diagnosed with prostate cancer 20 or years back and he started on this WOE and has been doing very well.

There are three main causes for an increase in voiding during the night, sleep apnea, enlarge prostrate and lastly but very frequent are drugs. There are many drugs that cause this problem the most common are pain medications, followed by drug for anxiety and lastly blood pressure meds.

During my weight-loss phase of McDougalling my nitely output increased significantly. I might have to get up 2-4 times...which wasn't a problem as I fell back to sleep immediately (sleep apnea, snoring, etc...all eliminated or vastly improved on the MWL plan). The increased water content of on-plan foods will definitely increase urination. Another factor most people don't realize is that a significant by-product of burning fat is water! I attribute my increase at night to both the diet itself as well as the fat-loss it caused. And yes the nitely trips did eventually go away as I got closer to my goal weight. So beyond you possibly having a medical condition that needs looking into, I would suggest simply eat less closer to bed time and if your trying to lose weight, expect a few nitely trips

Frequent urination and thirst goes with diabetes, type 2 etc. What is your blood sugar.

What is your age? It is also a symptom of enlarged prostate.

soul food