Physiological effects of peeing in your wetsuit

[123Scuba.com]

Never eat asparagus the day before you intend to pee in your wetsuit.

 

[cruiser]

Soap & water
does wonders to kill bacteria.

So does direct sunlight

 

[archman]

True, caffeine can encourage dehydration if enough is consumed.

But kep in mind that the OP asked about urination in regard to wetsuits.

Which is why I quoted and amended to your statement.

Wetsuits have NO bearing on hydration status. It doesn't matter if you urinate in a wetsuit or in a toilet. Your fluid balance isn't affected by WHERE you urinate.

There are two potential caveats to this.

There have been (anecdotal) claims that "overly tight" wetsuits may exert pressure on some nerve(s) that makes you want to pee more. I guess a doctor would have to weigh in on the validity of this. Maybe this is linked to immersion diuresis... beats me. Some air force dude told me once that G-suits make you pee more. I don't know if that's true or not either.

The other potential caveat has to do with thermal diuresis, which Gene touched on. In this case, you pee more if you're chilly. Since divers who get chilly are commonly in cool waters and wearing wetsuits, there is a misplaced correlation between wearing of the wetsuit and more peeing, vs. getting chilly and more peeing. People in warm water sans wetsuit are less likely to "hold it in" vs. their counterparts wearing wetsuits, thus there's more wetsuit divers philosophizing about why they're peeing all the time. This "the wetsuit makes me pee more" phenomenon may actually explain (and discredit) the "tight wetsuit makes me pee" hypothesis.

The Tight Wetsuit Make Me Pee More Hypothesis. I should make a Facebook group for that and see who joins up. Ha ha.

 

[Walter]

Yes, you lose a lot of heat each time you urinate while diving. Also the warming affect on your skin causes the body to vaso dilate which moves the warmth of your core to your skin where the heat you created is lost to conduction and convection. The opening up of the veins to your extrimities is because the warm pee over your skin makes your body think that the external environment is warming up, when it really is not.

Yes, peeing in your wetsuit gives you an illusion of warmth, but it actually cools you faster.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

DAN Divers Alert Network : Immersion Diuresis (Urge to Urinate)
There are actually three types of divers. The third doesn't pee nor lie about it. 800+ dives in wetsuits, zero pee dives.

 

[Thalassamania]

A) It all depends on HOW MUCH/OFTEN you are peeing on a given dive....a normal stream of urine will not dehydrate you unless you were predisposed of that to begin with.

If you chose to void or not to void it has NO EFFECT on your hydration.

B) Your body temp does drop with the release of urine regardless of in water or not...but being in water does aggravate the cool down.

You move liquid at body temperature out of your body, that's heat loss. In addition that warmth is spread out on your skin and the resultant vasodialation will result in what is known as paradoxical cooling as cold blood from the skin is moved back into the core.

 

[fisherdvm]

Urine is a good antifungal, it will keep the mould from growing in your suit. Your suit also stinks (believe me, I've smelled you before - it really stinks), and we will give you plenty of space in the dive boat. Just don't drip over my gears.

Urine is the ingredient for salt peter, a preservative in processed food. And is the ingredient for gun powder. I wonder if your wetsuit would be more flammable if you peed in it alot.

 

[Hemlon]

Urine is the ingredient for salt peter, a preservative in processed food. And is the ingredient for gun powder. I wonder if your wetsuit would be more flammable if you peed in it alot.

Let's get that rumor started. I'm sure we can get a gullible person or two to believe it.

 

[rhadamantus]

i can recommend my wetsuit for the experiment. but someone has to buy me a new one.

Let's get that rumor started. I'm sure we can get a gullible person or two to believe it.

 

[texdiveguy]

IMO if a diver in a wet suit feels the strong urge to 'pee',,,go for it.