What Is Pneumaturia?
Having small bubbles in your urine is called pneumaturia. It isn’t a diagnosis on its own but can be a symptom of certain health conditions. Common source causes for pneumaturia include urinary tract infections (UTIs) and passageways between the colon and the bladder (called fistula) that don’t belong.
If you have pneumaturia, you’ll feel gas or a bubbling sensation interrupting your urine stream. Your urine may appear to be full of small air bubbles. This is different than urine that looks foamy, which is usually an indicator of too much protein in your urine. Since pneumaturia is a symptom of other conditions and not a condition all by itself, you may want to look out for other symptoms that sometimes come along with it, such as:
- burning sensation while urinating
- difficulty urinating
- feeling the need to “go” all the time
- discolored urine
All of these symptoms could indicate an infection in your urinary tract. Common causes:
- One common cause of pneumaturia is infectious bacteria. Pneumaturia can indicate a UTI, as the bacteria create bubbles in your urine stream.
- Another common cause is a fistula. This is a passage between organs in your body that doesn’t belong there. A fistula between your bowel and your bladder can bring bubbles into your urine stream. This fistula can be an outcome of diverticulitis.
- Less often, deep sea divers will have pneumaturia after a period of time underwater.
- Sometimes pneumaturia is a symptom of Crohn’s disease.
What Is Pneumaturia?
Everyone has gas in the digestive system. Gas in the bladder that passes with the urine is not normal. This condition, called pneumaturia, is rare and can be a symptom of something serious. Here's what you need to know about pneumaturia, its causes, and how it is treated.
Having gas in your bladder is not an illness. It's a symptom of another condition. If you have pneumaturia, you probably won't know it. Sometimes, those with pneumaturia make unusual noises while urinating. Some people describe the noise as a whistle. Others have described it as a barking sound.
Causes of Pneumaturia:
- Sometimes gas starts in the bladder rather than traveling there from the bowel. A urinary tract infection may be the cause. Several types of bacteria and yeast can form gas in the bladder.
- A condition called emphysematous cystitis can cause gas in the urine. If you have this, your bladder is inflamed, and there are gas bubbles in or on the bladder wall. This condition is most common in people with diabetes, especially older women. Excess glucose in the body can feed the bacteria that create the gas.
- Emphysematous cystitis has symptoms similar to an ordinary urinary tract infection. It can be serious if not diagnosed and treated promptly. The bladder can rupture and spread the infection, sometimes resulting in death.
- A condition called fistula can cause pneumaturia. That's a passageway between two parts of the body that should not connect. An abnormal connection between the bowel and the bladder can allow air to enter the urine. Sometimes feces pass into the urine as well. This type of fistula can have several causes.
Frequent Urination And Increased Passing Gas
These symptoms are present in a wide variety of conditions, including diabetes and bladder infections. To diagnose a bladder infection, your doctor may need to run some tests. You should report your symptoms to your doctor.
While the list below can be considered as a guide to educate yourself about these conditions, this is not a substitute for a diagnosis from a health care provider. There are many other medical conditions that also can be associated with your symptoms and signs. Here are a number of those from MedicineNet:
- Urinary Tract Infection - A urinary tract infection (UTI) is an infection of the bladder, kidneys, ureters, or urethra. E. coli, a type of bacteria that lives in the bowel and near the anus, causes most UTIs. UTI symptoms include pain, abdominal pain, mild fever, urinary urgency, and frequency. Treatment involves a course of antibiotics.
- Type 2 Diabetes - Type 2 diabetes is a chronic condition that may be reversible with diet and lifestyle changes. Symptoms include excessive thirst, frequent urination, weight loss, fatigue, and an unusual odor to your urine. Most people don't know they have type 2 diabetes until they have a routine blood test. Treatment options include medications, a type 2 diabetes diet, and other lifestyle changes.
- Intestinal Gas (Belching, Bloating, Flatulence) - Intestinal gas and painful bloating are common. Learn about what causes gas pain and how eliminating certain foods from your diet can help relieve symptoms.
- Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS) - Irritable bowel syndrome or IBS is a GI disorder with symptoms of constipation, abdominal pain, bloating, and gas. IBS treatment includes medications, dietary changes, and lifestyle changes.
Why do you sometimes fart before peeing?
You go to the toilet to empty your bladder but before you even start you fart. And if you are using a public toilet you think of one or the other way to mask your smelly fart. But before you panic over this, let us tell you that passing gas before peeing is very common and normal. But have you ever wondered why this happens to you? We got Dr Ajit Shukla, consultant urologist at Metro Hospital, Delhi to answer your question.
You relax your pelvic floor muscles when you pee. But relaxing your pelvic floor muscles not only helps your flow going but also allows the rectum and the anus to slacken. This can cause you to pass gas especially if you have eaten some gassy food in your last meal. Often when you exert intra-abdominal pressure to urinate, this same abdominal pressure may also expel gas from the rectum. However, if you feel like you are farting through the urethral opening when peeing, the chances are that you may have a fistula (tube) connecting your colon to the bladder. In this case, though you would have other symptoms like change in colour of urine. So it is best you consult with your urologist if you experience this. Here are reasons you keep farting every now and then.
While farting before peeing is healthy, you can still take steps to avoid the stinky situation. Just increase your fibre intake. Soluble fibre from rolled oats, linseeds, ripe fruits and non-starchy vegetables (carrots, celery, bok choy and lettuce) may be the easiest to tolerate for those susceptible to bloating. Also, drink plenty of water to get things move along in your body and say goodbye to gas. Also, reduce the intake of simple sugars and refined carbohydrates These could cause more gas by preferred pathogenic bacteria fermentation and encourage the growth of fungi such as Candida.
Why Do We Fart When We Pee?
Have you ever found yourself wondering why the most unexpected things happen at the most inconvenient times? Why do we often let out a little toot when nature calls, and we’re sitting on the porcelain throne? Well, prepare to dive into the mysterious world of bodily functions as we unravel the intriguing question: Why do we fart when we pee? Get ready for an enlightening journey through science, biology, and some good old-fashioned humour – because there’s much more to this seemingly embarrassing phenomenon than meets the eye!
Farting and peeing are two natural bodily functions that we have all experienced. However, have you ever noticed that sometimes when you pee, you also let out a fart? This may seem like an odd occurrence, but there is actually a scientific explanation for it. When we urinate, the muscles in our bladder contract to release urine from our body. These same muscles can put pressure on the nearby rectum, where gas is stored in the body. This pressure can cause a small amount of gas to be released alongside the urine stream. Additionally, our abdominal muscles relax during urination, and our pelvic floor muscles contract. This combination of muscle movements can also lead to gas release from the rectum.
Furthermore, when we sit down on the toilet to pee, it puts pressure on our entire pelvic area. This increased pressure can stimulate the nerves in this region and trigger more contractions in both the bladder and rectum, resulting in farting while peeing. Another factor that contributes to this phenomenon is gravity. When we sit or stand upright while urinating, gravity pulls everything downwards towards our pelvis. As a result, air bubbles trapped within our digestive system may also be pushed out through our anus during urination. The type of food we eat can also play a role in farting while peeing. Certain foods such as beans, broccoli, cabbage, and other high-fibre vegetables contain complex carbohydrates that our bodies cannot fully digest.
What are the Causes of Frequent Urination?
If you need to urinate more than usual, it may be a cause of worry. The issue can occur with men, women and even children but certain conditions enlarge its possibility in some people.
A normal person pees for up to 8 times a day. Anything more than that can be termed as frequent urination. It could be related to the kidneys, bladder, or urethra, which together form the urinary tract. Any irritation, injury, disease or infection in the bladder can cause the urge to pee. This effect on the bladder can also result from changes related to nerves and tissues in the urinary tract.
Excessive peeing can be caused by certain diseases, such as:
- Anxiety disorders
- Bladder stones
- Diabetes
- Kidney infections
- Prostatitis
- Urinary incontinence
Pneumaturia
Pneumaturia is the passage of gas or "air" in urine. This may be seen or described as "bubbles in the urine". A common cause of pneumaturia is colovesical fistula (communication between the colon and bladder). These may occur as a complication of diverticular disease. Pneumaturia can also happen if a urinary catheter was recently in the bladder.
Other key differentials:
- Crohn's disease
- Carcinoma of the colon or bladder
- A gas-producing UTI (emphysematous cystitis: rare)
- Emphysematous pyelonephritis
Male scuba divers utilizing condom catheters or female divers using a She-p external catching device for their dry suits are also susceptible to pneumaturia. Diagnosis is made by patient history of passing air or a sputtering urine stream. CT scans may show air in the urinary bladder or bladder walls.
Flatulence
Flatulence (also known as ‘farting’ or ‘passing wind’) happens when gas builds up in your digestive system and passes out of your bottom (anus).
The average person farts around 5 to 15 times a day. Farting has a few different causes, but most aren’t anything to be concerned about.
Flatulence can sometimes become very uncomfortable and embarrassing, especially in social situations, so it’s important to see a doctor if it’s causing you distress. It can sometimes be a sign of an underlying health condition too.
Hematochezia: Blood in Stool
Advice About Bright Red Blood in Stool
Blood is supposed to stay in your body. Seeing blood in your bowel movement is very frightening. It is an indication that something is not working right, but it is not always a herald of colon cancer. Rectal bleeding has many causes, but only one of them is colon cancer.
When You Note Blood in the Stool - The best action you can take now, to advocate for yourself, is to pay attention to this symptom and be prepared to discuss it with your doctor. Ask yourself these questions:
- Was the blood in the stool, toilet bowl or on the toilet paper?
- Was the blood bright red or dark red?
- Approximately how much blood did you see? (Keep in mind, a drop of blood in a toilet bowl will turn all of the water red.)
- Did you have to strain to pass the bowel movement?
- How frequently do you have bowel movements?
- Do you have other symptoms?
- When was your last colon screening exam or colonoscopy?
- Do you have a history of polyps or a family history of polyps?
- Hemorrhoids
- Inflammatory Conditions
- Colon Polyps
- Constipation
- Bowel Infections
- Colon Cancer
read more
Hematuria: Blood in urine
Hematuria is the presence of red blood cells in the urine. If there are enough red cells, the urine can become bright red, pink or cola colored. Often, however, the urine appears completely normal because there is not enough blood to cause a color change. In this case, the condition is called "microscopic" hematuria. There are many possible causes of hematuria, including:
read more
Hematuria is the presence of red blood cells in the urine. If there are enough red cells, the urine can become bright red, pink or cola colored. Often, however, the urine appears completely normal because there is not enough blood to cause a color change. In this case, the condition is called "microscopic" hematuria. There are many possible causes of hematuria, including:
- Urinary tract infection — Hematuria can be caused by an infection in any part of the urinary tract, most commonly the bladder (cystitis) or the kidney (pyelonephritis).
- Kidney stones
- Tumors in the kidney or bladder
- Exercise — Exercise hematuria is a harmless condition that produces blood in the urine after strenuous exercise. It is more common in males than females.
- Trauma — Traumatic injury to any part of the urinary tract — from the kidneys to the urethral opening (the connection between the bladder and the outside world) — can cause hematuria.
- Drugs — Hematuria can be caused by medications, such as blood thinners, including heparin, warfarin (Coumadin) or aspirin-type medications, penicillins, sulfa-containing drugs and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan).
- Glomerulonephritis — Glomerulonephritis is a family of illnesses that are characterized by inflammation of the glomeruli, the filtering units of the kidneys. Glomerulonephritis is a rare complication of certain viral and bacterial infections (including strep throat). It can also occur in people with certain auto-immune diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus (lupus or SLE) and vasculitis. Sometimes there is no identifiable cause.
- Bleeding disorders — This includes conditions such as hemophilia and von Willebrand's disease.
read more
Nocturia: Excessive Urination at Night
Nocturia is a condition that causes you to wake up during the night to pee. This condition is also called nocturnal urinary frequency — having to pee more often at night. Nocturia becomes more common as people age (usually older than 60) and occurs in all genders and sexes, sometimes for different reasons. It can be common for people to wake up once during the night to pee, but peeing more frequently may be a sign of an underlying condition or problem.
When a person pees too much during the daytime, but can limit the amount of trips to the bathroom at night, it’s referred to as frequent urination. Nocturia is strictly using the bathroom multiple times after bedtime and before you wake up in the morning. Whether it’s happening due to an underlying medical condition or something else, it can leave you feeling tired because your regular sleep cycle is disrupted.
How common is nocturia? Nocturia is a common condition affecting more than 50% of adults after age 50. It’s more common in men and people assigned male at birth (AMAB) after age 50. Before 50, nocturia is more common in women and people assigned female at birth (AFAB). It affects up to 1 in 3 people over the age of 30.
Constipation and Urinary Incontinence
Bloating and cramps are two common symptoms of constipation
Being constipated means your bowel movements are tough or happen less often than normal. You might be constipated if you have less than three bowel movements per week.
Constipation is very common. Around 2.5 million people visit their doctor each year in the U.S. because they are constipated. It's usually not serious, and home remedies can get you back on track. How often should you poop? The normal length of time between bowel movements varies from person to person. Some people have them three times a day. Others have them just a few times a week.
But going longer than 3 days without one is usually too long. After 3 days, your stool gets harder and more difficult to pass. Constipation Symptoms You may have:
- Few or no bowel movements
- Trouble having a bowel movement (straining to go)
- Hard or small stools
- A feeling that everything didn’t come out
- Belly bloating
- A feeling like your rectum is blocked
- A stomachache or cramps
Acupressure Points for Constipation
Acupressure can help in relieving constipation symptoms such as abdominal pain, bloating and gas by applying pressure to specific points on the body. The following are the commonly used acupressure points to relieve constipation that you can do on your own. Instead of pressing with your fingers, you can also use acupressure stick:
- Tianshu (ST25) - Tianshu can improve digestion. You can place three fingers parallel and alongside the centre of the belly button. Tianshu is located at the edge of the last finger, away from the belly button. Use your thumb or forefinger and apply pressure or you can do circular motion with finger.
- Guanyuan (CV4) - Guanyuan is used for relieving abdominal pain and diarrhea. It is located at 3 inches below your belly button. Use your thumb or forefinger and apply pressure or you can do circular motion with finger.
- Zhigou (TE6) - Zhigou is an effective pressure point for relieving chronic constipation. It is located at 3 inches up the back of your arm from the crease of your wrist. Use your thumb and apply pressure or you can do circular motion with thumb. This procedure should have been repeated for the other wrist.
- Zusanli (ST36) - Zusanli can strengthen the digestive system. It is located on the outer calf, about four finger widths under the knee bone. Use your thumb or forefinger and apply pressure. This procedure should have been repeated for the other foot.
15 signs your stomach is functioning badly
A queasy feeling in the pit of your stomach, dreading even the idea of food, and having to constantly run to the washroom; these are all unpleasant symptoms of stomach issues. There are all sorts of reasons why you may have a poorly functioning stomach. Sometimes, it’s from food poisoning or a gastro bug going around; however, if your stomach is chronically upset, it might be a sign of a bigger problem. If you are experiencing any of these 15 signs that your stomach is functioning badly, be sure to make an appointment with your healthcare provider:
- Frequent and chronic diarrhea
- Blood in your stool
- Severe cramps after eating
- Chronic constipation
- Frequent heartburn
- Difficulty swallowing
- Loss of appetite
- Unexplained weight loss
- Sudden intense abdominal pain
- Feeling full after eating a small portion
- Swollen abdomen
- Anemia
- Fatigue and weakness
- Frequent vomiting
- Skin issues
What your poop tells you about your health
5 Things Your Poop Can Tell You About Your Health
Having a bowel movement is a critical part of digesting the food we eat. Stool formed by the large intestine is the body's way of getting rid of waste.
While you should talk to your doctor about any concerns, changes in poop color and consistency could show what is happening inside your digestive system:
- Rocks and Pebbles - Poop that is hard and shaped like tiny rocks or pebbles is likely just a sign of constipation. You can still be considered constipated even if you are able to pass a small amount of stool. The large intestine helps to concentrate waste by absorbing water. If muscle contractions in the large intestine are not working properly, waste left in the colon becomes even more concentrated, resulting in harder stool.
- Color Changes - A change in stool color is one of the most common concerns patients ask about. The foods you eat and the kind of bacteria living in your colon can both cause such changes, and added food colorings are frequent culprits. This is one reason why patients preparing for a colonoscopy are instructed to avoid food and beverages with certain added colors the day before. Doctors note that when they perform a colonoscopy, they can actually tell what color the beverage was that the patient drank during their preparation for the procedure. Most changes in the color of stool are not cause for concern. The exception is poop that appears black or bloody, which could signal other problems with the digestive system.
- Black and Tarry - The most common cause of black and tarry poop is taking iron supplements or a medication containing bismuth, such as Pepto-Bismol. However, it could mean you're losing blood somewhere in your gastrointestinal tract, such as in the stomach or small intestine.
- Oily or Greasy Stools - If you have poop that appears oily, has a greasy consistency and is difficult to flush, it could be a signal that your body is not able to properly digest fat. The consistency changes could be caused by an infection, nutrients not being digested due to celiac disease or a problem with the pancreas, such as pancreatic cancer or pancreatitis.
- Pencil Thin - Stool that is only occasionally very thin is not a cause for concern. It is likely due to muscle contractions in the large intestine as it helps to concentrate waste. If there is a sudden and consistent change in your stool always being thin, it could mean there is a blockage in your colon, and you should see your doctor.
Diabetes: Early Signs & Symptoms
Diabetes mellitus refers to a group of diseases that affect how the body uses blood sugar (glucose). Glucose is an important source of energy for the cells that make up the muscles and tissues. It's also the brain's main source of fuel. The main cause of diabetes varies by type. But no matter what type of diabetes you have, it can lead to excess sugar in the blood. Too much sugar in the blood can lead to serious health problems.
Chronic diabetes conditions include type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Potentially reversible diabetes conditions include prediabetes and gestational diabetes. Prediabetes happens when blood sugar levels are higher than normal. But the blood sugar levels aren't high enough to be called diabetes. And prediabetes can lead to diabetes unless steps are taken to prevent it. Gestational diabetes happens during pregnancy. But it may go away after the baby is born. Diabetes symptoms depend on how high your blood sugar is. Some people, especially if they have prediabetes, gestational diabetes or type 2 diabetes, may not have symptoms. In type 1 diabetes, symptoms tend to come on quickly and be more severe.
Some of the symptoms of type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes are:
- Feeling more thirsty than usual.
- Urinating often.
- Losing weight without trying.
- Presence of ketones in the urine. Ketones are a byproduct of the breakdown of muscle and fat that happens when there's not enough available insulin.
- Feeling tired and weak.
- Feeling irritable or having other mood changes.
- Having blurry vision.
- Having slow-healing sores.
- Getting a lot of infections, such as gum, skin and vaginal infections.