It’s an inevitable part of any night out: you’re two or three drinks into an evening of civilized conversation when you get up to make your first trip to the bathroom.

“Don’t break the seal!” someone shouts.

By now, we’re all familiar with the concept: urine begets more urine, and once you’ve unleashed the fury, you’ll be returning to the bathroom every 10 minutes. The theories as to why it happens are endless – your brain doesn’t recognize your bladder’s existence; alcohol makes your urethral sphincter contract; peeing sucks more water into the bladder. It’s a Happy Hour Urban Legend that’s as old as time.

It’s also complete crap.

“There’s nothing in the structure of the kidneys nor the urinary tract that’s responsible for the notion,” explains Dr. Gustav Lund, a nephrology resident at Sweden’s Ljungby Hospital. “It’s the work of hormones, but above all, [hormone transporters] that affect the process.”

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  Filed under: Columnists & Editorials
  Tagged under: Bathroom, Bladder, Don’t break the seal!, Peeing, Urinating