Nocturia

Frequent nighttime urination is a condition known as nocturia. Elderly men often suffer from this condition as a symptom of other diseases, medications being taken or simply because of changes the body undergoes as it ages.

British urologist Lucy Abraham and colleagues note that 60 percent of men in their 70s experience this problem.

How Urination Occurs:

Urine is produced by the kidneys and travels through the ureters to the bladder to be stored. The bladder is a muscular sac that holds urine until it is ready to be released into the urethra, the tube that connects the bladder to the outside of the body. The bladder is emptied when the detrusor muscle, the muscle within the bladder wall, contracts thereby squeezing urine out of the body. At the same time the bladder contracts, the urinary sphincter relaxes. The relaxed sphincter acts like an open door, which allows the urine to pass and exit the body.

Aging Body

As the body ages the bladder muscle becomes less able to hold the amount of liquid that it becomes filled with. It sends messages to the brain that it needs to be emptied more frequently than it used to.

Prostate Cancer

Nocturia is a common symptom of prostate cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute. Other urinary symptoms of prostate cancer are having trouble starting and stopping urination, and having a weak flow.

Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes may be the cause of nocturia in older individuals. According to Japanese urologist Koji Yoshimura and colleagues in their study of more than 6,000 subjects, diabetes is a risk factor for nocturia. In addition, they note that individuals aged 70 and older have a six times greater risk for nocturia than individuals aged 49 or younger.

For both men and women there are multiple factors that could cause nocturia including:

- Behavioral patterns
- Diuretic medications
- Caffeine
- Alcohol
- Overactive bladder treatment
- Excessive fluids before bedtime
- Diminished nocturnal bladder capacity- This can be due to decreased functional or nocturnal bladder capacity. Urine production will then exceed the bladder capacity causing the individual to be awakened in order to void.
- Fluid redistribution- When a person lies down to sleep, fluid is reabsorbed into the blood stream. During the day, gravity causes fluid to accumulate in the body’s lower extremities. When this happens, the kidneys clean the increased fluid in the blood by producing more urine. This leads to excess fluid in legs, ankles, and fingers causing them to swell.