Health Watch is a Public Service of the Office of News and Publications and is intended to provide general information only and should not replace the advice of a medical professional. You should contact your physician if you have questions about any of these topics.


This week on Health Watch, we're talking about taking in fluids and what happens to them in your body. Dr. Philippe Zimmern, a urologist at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, says his patients often ask him what's a normal number of times to go to the bathroom each day.

That depends on the amount of fluid you drink. Your body doesn't usually store fluids unless something's wrong, like heart or kidney disease. The kidneys filter the blood, and then excess fluid is excreted as urine. The more you drink, the more you urinate. A healthy adult bladder holds 10 to 15 ounces of urine, so someone who drinks about eight glasses of water a day will probably have to go to the bathroom about six times a day. Someone with a smaller bladder or someone who drinks more fluid may need to go to the bathroom more often.

Next: When you have to go too often.

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^{May 2006}

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