Could your diet soda be causing frequent urination?

No one enjoys making frequent trips to the bathroom, day and night.  The urgency and sometimes pain accompanying increased urinations can not only be embarrassing but can disrupt your daily activities and ability to get a full night’s sleep. 

The typical causes of excessive need for urinating could be drinking lots of fluids, medication, or a health condition.  But one possible cause behind your numerous urinary rushes to the bathroom might be found in your beloved diet soda. 

You would assume a product with no sugar, fat or calories would not bother your bladder. 
If your main beverage each day is frequent sipping on a diet soda, it may be time to rethink that.  Here are three things about diet sodas that could be causing urinary sensitivity in some people:

1.  Caffeine

Found in regular and diet cola beverages, caffeine may stimulate the bladder causing your body to make more urine.  Often referred to as a diuretic, each individual’s reaction to caffeine depends on the amount consumed, the type of product and their tolerance level.  People prone to urinary incontinence, may experience a greater urgency to urinate after consuming a caffeinated beverage.  The best way to know if diet soda is increasing your urination is to monitor your reaction and tolerance to caffeine to see how it affects you.  Water is still the recommended choice for optimal hydration, so cut back on diet soda to no more than one or two 12-ounce cans a day and make water your main go-to daily beverage. 

2.  Carbonation

Soda is typically a carbonated beverage whether purchased in a bottle, can or from a fountain.  Carbonated products, such as diet soda, can be an irritant to the bladder.  Some people’s bladders simply don’t like those fizzy, bubbly beverages like diet sodas. It is not clear why carbonated drinks cause bladder irritation but if they do, it is best to avoid them whenever possible to prevent frequent urination.

3.  Artificial and sugar sweeteners

The artificial sweeteners found in diet soda and even sugar found in nondiet sodas, both can be culprits for setting in motion frequent trips to the bathroom.  Again, these beverages can set off the symptoms of overactive bladder leading to feelings of urgency and frequency associated with this condition. 

Test your sensitivity to diet sodas

If you are experiencing frequent urination and you suspect if could be your diet soda habit, should you stop drinking it?  If you think you may be sensitive to its possible effects, the simplest way to find out is by process of elimination.  Stop drinking any diet or nondiet sodas for two weeks to see if it makes a difference.  If so, you can try adding a little diet soda back into your diet to see what amount you can tolerate without bringing back an overly sensitive bladder.