Antiduretics and Diving

[Soakedlontra]

Drinking water with electrolytes and holding my pee more is giving me mixed results. One time is OK, another is so bad that my gusts twist and turn.

At this point I will keep drinking water with some salt and hold the pee as much as I can but I am giving up the idea to dive with a semi-dry suit that is supposed to be semi-dry inside.

I do not have the money to buy a gadget for peeing so I guess I will get wet when everything else fails.

 

[TSandM]

Soakedlontra, here is the bottom line: For safety, you need to be well hydrated to dive. If you are well-hydrated, immersion diuresis will make you need to urinate. You can combat this with salt; if you consume it without much fluid, it will, in the short run, reduce your urine output and need to pee. If you consume your salt in the form of Gatorade, you are taking in both salt and fluid, and where the balance falls will vary with what your hydration status was before you got in the water.

Wetsuits, and semidry suits, are okay to pee in. If you don't have a lot of water flow through a semi dry suit, you may have to rinse it well after you dive, but that's not a big issue. Urine is sterile, although we don't like it much. If you rinse well, you'll get the urea out of the neoprene, and it won't smell.

 

[Soakedlontra]

Soakedlontra, here is the bottom line: For safety, you need to be well hydrated to dive. If you are well-hydrated, immersion diuresis will make you need to urinate. You can combat this with salt; if you consume it without much fluid, it will, in the short run, reduce your urine output and need to pee. If you consume your salt in the form of Gatorade, you are taking in both salt and fluid, and where the balance falls will vary with what your hydration status was before you got in the water.

Wetsuits, and semidry suits, are okay to pee in. If you don't have a lot of water flow through a semi dry suit, you may have to rinse it well after you dive, but that's not a big issue. Urine is sterile, although we don't like it much. If you rinse well, you'll get the urea out of the neoprene, and it won't smell.

Thank you for your advice and patience.

It seems to me a 'catch-22' situation...If I have to drink anyway to keep myself hydrated I don't think it would make much difference whether I take the salt in tablets or dissolved in the water, I guess.

And yes I do soak the suit in fresh water overnight and it works. Ultimately I am not worried about peeing in the suit or having a smelly suit, when I am underwater I cannot smell anything anyway.

 

[TSandM]

Well, the physiology of water and salt is complicated, but they are independent variables. You can hydrate well over the 24 hours before a dive, and then shut down your kidneys temporarily with a large dose of salt (we did this in our zoology class in college -- it was very amusing how thoroughly a tablespoon of salt decreases urine output). However, if you drink a bunch of water at the same time you ingest the salt, the increased salt concentration in your blood from the dose is attenuated by the water you've taken in, and it doesn't work as well, or perhaps at all.

Honestly, the easiest solution is to learn to pee in your wetsuit, or if diving dry, get a She-P.

 

[stanky1]

Sorry, but your username with the problem you are having is too funny! LOL

 

[Soakedlontra]

Things are improving! At last I am able to hold on the pee during the dive without feeling that my gut is going to explode. I don't drink Gatorade any more but a mixture of hot miso soup, marmite (a salty spread from yeast manufactured in Britain, not very popular in the US - that's why it's rather expensive here) and vegetable stock. So I totally scrapped the idea to take antiduretics.

When I snorkel wearing various layers of wet suits that are oversized I allow myself to pee because the water flushes in and out so much that who cares! (If I pee in my semi-dry suit I feel colder, though)

 

[Soakedlontra]

Things are improving! At last I am able to hold on the pee during the dive without feeling that my gut is going to explode. I don't drink Gatorade any more but a mixture of hot miso soup, marmite (a salty spread from yeast manufactured in Britain, not very popular in the US - that's why it's rather expensive here) and vegetable stock. So I totally scrapped the idea to take antiduretics.

When I snorkel wearing various layers of wet suits that are oversized I allow myself to pee because the water flushes in and out so much that who cares! (If I pee in my semi-dry suit I feel colder, though)

I have forgotten to mention that I added an extra layer underneath my semi-dry suit: a Pinnacle torso heater with merino wool. It keeps me a bit warmer and it may help in reducing the urge to pee.

Ironically it's my buddy who has been experiencing the worse 'pee troubles' recently. He wears a dry suit!!!

It seems that dry suits don't really solve all the problems!