In a devastating blow for lazy bathroom users everywhere, doctors have revealed that peeing in the shower might actually be bad for you.
While not a habit that anyone should get used to anyway, it is undoubtedly one we have all been guilty of at some point or another. But that may be about to change, following some new medical advice.
Indeed, turning your shower a darker shade may have some health drawbacks. At least that's according to Dr. Teresa Irwin - an obstetrician-gynecologist - who took to TikTok to explain why you should save your lazy habit for the toilet bowl and not the shower drain.
Peeing in the shower can "train" your bladder to "leak" every time you're around running water, according to Dr. Irwin.
“It’s the correct standing-peeing position to empty the bladder - but you don’t want to do it all the time,” the doctor reveals in her TikTok video.
“What happens is every time your bladder hears running water, it’s going to want to pee.”
To further back up the theory, Dr. Irwin draws on Ivan Pavlov's 1897 findings from a study in which he was able to train dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell. Pavlov would repeatedly ring the bell and feed the dogs, teaching them to expect food when the bell was rung. Pavlov noticed that the dogs would then begin to drool even when no food came after the bell.
“So whenever you wash your hands, take a shower, wash the dishes, if there’s running water, your bladder is going to be salivating because it wants to go and pee,” Dr. Irwin continues in the video, “So you need to stop peeing in the shower.”
Another doctor, Dr. Alicia Jeffrey-Thomas, a pelvic floor physical therapist from Boston in the US, agreed with Dr. Irwin's theory.
In a TikTok of her own, the Massachusetts based doctor says, you are “creating an association in your brain between the sound of running water and having to pee.
“The combo is going to potentially lead to some leak issues when you hear running water outside of the shower. Unfortunately, those of us that were assigned female at birth and have that anatomy, we’re not designed to pee standing up.
“Your pelvic pose is not going to relax appropriately, which means we’re not really emptying our bladder super well. So try to pee before you turn on the shower water - and if you get the urge while you’re in the shower, kind of ignore it.”
