is standing to be actually bad for you
have you been doing it wrong all this
time I'm Dr Rena Malik urologist and
pelvic surgeon and in this video we're
going to talk about if you should sit or
stand to urinate so recently a data
analytics firm surveyed over 7 000 men
from 13 different countries and they
asked them where in the world do men sit
down to we in the U.S just 10 of men
said they always sat down to pee while
31 said they never sit down and 17 said
they rarely do and this was pretty
similar in both younger and older men
but in Germany which was the highest
rate of sitting 40 of men sat every time
they urinated and older men were even
more likely to sit when they pee so I
remember in one of my videos I said as a
recommendation sit down stand up walk
around sit back down to pee again and
people came out at me they were like we
don't sit who sits to pee well there you
have it there are people who sit to pee
so let's get into it is it actually
better for you to sit or stand when
you're urinating so in order to answer
this question you want to know what
exactly happens when you sit so we know
that generally speaking your pelvic
floor is more relaxed when you're
sitting down and when you're standing
you often recruit some of that pelvic
floor musculature just for postural
reasons so when you need to urinate that
pelvic floor actually needs to relax in
order to allow urine to pass through the
urethra oftentimes I will see people who
have what's called a high tone pelvic
floor and they actually have difficulty
urinating and there's no other reason
for it except for the fact their muscles
are really tense and talk about this a
lot because I see it a lot I think it's
particularly under diagnosed in men
where people have stress and anxiety and
they carry it in their body for some
people they carry in their jaw when they
get TMJ and they wake up with headaches
and jaw pain but in some people they
carry it in their pelvis and they get
pain when they sit pain when they have
erections pain when they ejaculate
difficulty urinating or sometimes
urinating more frequently or more
urgently but I digress the question here
was is sitting better so based on that
fact sitting would be probably better in
general just based on that fact alone
but the other thing very specific for
men is that after the age of 50 about
half of men develop what's called BPH or
benign prosthetic hyperplasia and that
just means that your prostate enlarges
and many people have this problem in
fact up to by the time they're 80 about
80 percent of men have this problem and
it makes it more difficult to urinate
because as the prostate enlarges it
Narrows the P tube where your urine
comes out of and so it's like almost
thinking about sucking a straw right if
you're drinking out of a bubble tea cup
that has a really big straws the flow is
really fast but when you say you took a
coffee straw and tried to drink out of
that it would be nearly impossible so
similarly when your prostate enlarges it
becomes more and more difficult to get
urine to flow past the prostate and you
might notice this with symptoms such as
having to strain when you urinate having
to wait for your stream to start or your
stream kind of starts and stops some
people will dribble after they pee or it
will take just a long time to empty
their bladder and also you may notice a
weak stream and if you think about it
when you're dribbling urine or having a
weak stream it can be kind of difficult
to stand and aim the urine in the actual
toilet so sitting can be more convenient
for Hygiene purposes okay but these are
all series and if you know me and you've
been watching me you know by now I love
to tell you what the data says so
there's one study that looked at men who
had BPH and those who did not have it
and they found that in particular men
with BPH had higher flow rates meaning
that their urine flow was faster and
they had a higher voided volume meaning
that they peed more when they did
actually urinate and they left less
urine behind in their bladder or what we
call a lower post void residual when
they sat compared to when they were
standing this was not the same for men
who didn't have BPH So based on this and
the things we know about sitting if
you're struggling with urinary symptoms
or you're older than 50 and are
concerned about BPH it may be a good
idea but you may be wondering if you're
not having symptoms why do some men
actually sit so another study surveyed
nearly 200 U.S men and of those 18
preferred to sit of those men who did
sit they were more likely to have
urinary symptoms and be bothered by
those symptoms it's one thing to have
the symptoms and not really let them
bother you other people had physical
limitations that made them sit like they
had recent surgery back pain arthritis
and then had a lower desire to stand
compared to men who actually stood of
the men who liked to stand a lot of them
reported that it was really important
for them to actually pee in a standing
position other popular reasons for
sitting were to try to avoid a mess
associated with standing if they
preferred to sit at night time and
sitting feeling just generally more
comfortable than standing or trying to
get a better urinary flow and reading or
using the phone I do not recommend
reading or using the phone on the toilet
because you'll spend too much time on
the toilet and potentially put you at
risk for other issues like hemorrhoids
or things like that so what's my
takeaway if you don't have any symptoms
and you prefer to urinate standing it's
probably not a problem but at the same
time if you like to sit or if you sit
because you have issues like urinary
symptoms again totally nothing wrong
with it in fact you might be helping
yourself if you guys enjoyed this video
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this Channel with your friends and if
you like this video make sure to check
out my video on urinary dribbling
because I think it's super useful and
helpful for so many people as always
remember to take care of yourself
because you are worth it