Whizzing in winter. Why being cold makes you want to ‘go.’
Ever wonder why you have to pee when you’re cold? Although there’s no consensus on why this happens, one popular theory says that when your temperature drops, your body tries to reduce heat loss by constricting blood vessels and reducing blood flow to the outer layers of your body. And because more pressure in needed to pump blood through narrowed veins and arteries, your blood pressure increases. In response, the kidneys extract more fluids from the blood — and excrete it as urine. An old, but often cited study indicates that moderate exercise can prevent cold diuresis, which is the medical term for frequent urination when you’re exposed to the cold.
