Urology Shivers: Why Cooler Temps Lead to Certain Urinary Conditions

Urology Shivers: Why Cooler Temps Lead to Certain Urinary Conditions

This is the title of an article that sheds considerable light on my current condition that manifested once I arrived in a chilly Melbourne a few days ago. Here are some excerpts from the article.

Ongoing research indicates that while our bodies adjust to colder temperatures, some functions have to catch up, and this can cause a lapse in efficiency. In the urinary systems, the lapse could contribute to overactive bladder (OAB) and urinary tract infections (UTIs). 

You may have noticed that when you are out in the cold, you have to go to the bathroom more often This is because the kidneys are making more urine to compensate for other bodily cold-weather “tricks.”

1. Trick one: The body preserves warmth around the internal organs by reducing blood flow to the skin.  

1. Trick two: This change causes blood pressure to increase, meaning more blood pumps through the body. 

1. Trick three: The kidneys, which filter waste out of all that blood, must produce more urine to meet their filtering demand.  

1. Trick four: We sweat less in the winter and therefore lose less fluid, so there’s more urine stored in our bodies. 

The result: We have to pee more.

People whose bladders are weakened due to age, excess weight, or childbirth, might not be able to keep up with this increased frequency. It doesn’t help that when our body temperature lowers, the muscles around the bladder are prone to tense up or spasm, leading to the urgent need to urinate.

So this article certainly explains why my condition developed but hopefully I seem to have improved to the point where I won't need to take antibiotics to resolve the lower UTI. It's interesting that when I arrived in Melbourne last year in the depth of its winter I suffered from OAB initially but not a UTI. This time around the suffered from both. I guess I'm an example of a person whose bladder has been weakened from old age. The cooler weather certainly does not agree with me and I look forward to a return to the tropics.

Another term for my condition is Cold-Induced Diuresis explained as follows (source):

During cold diuresis, blood vessels constrict, and blood flow decreases to warm your internal and vital organs. This causes your blood pressure to increase, making your kidneys filter excess fluid and blood to decrease your blood volume, which causes a full bladder and makes you pee more.

Moringa Leaf

I watched a video recently promoting the benefits of ground-up Moringa leaves in treating rhematoid arthritis and decided to purchase some capsules online.

The capsules containing the ground-up leaves do not contain gelatin and so once my online purchase arrives in a couple of days, I'll be ready to test the efficacy of leaves. At the moment, my fingers are slightly stiff and sore when I move them but I'm not really inconvenienced. However, it would be nice to regain the complete freedom of movement that I had before my unfortunate fall. In the video that I watched, the affected person gained remarkable relief within a couple of weeks.

I've also been taking an infusion of seeds twice a day for some weeks now. These were recommended by my psychic healer and they have definitely had an ameliorating effect on my rheumatoid arthritis. I don't know what the name of these seeds are but I'll attempt to find out. Currently, I've come down with what seems like a mild cold. I was sitting in a coffee shop that was rather chilly beforehand and this may have triggered its onset. My immune system has clearly become rather delicate in my old age, so I need to be extra careful and I need to keep a jacket in the car at all times that I can use if needed.

Naturally I've been apprehensive as Uranus is grinding to a halt in the heavens in close proximity to my natal Moon on the cusp of the Second House. This station of the planet will reach exactitude on September 1st. Whatever will be, will be. So all I can now is wait ...

Transits to my natal chart
for 1st September 2024

Recovery Continues

So August is here and what's happening with my body. By day, I'm feeling pretty good. I can walk more or less normally but my left ankle is still not quite right. After walking 4.7 km today, my left foot was visibly swollen but not painful. Some Arnica applied to the region reduced the swelling. My fingers still feel slightly stiff but I can play the guitar without difficulty and my grip strength has largely returned to normal.

By day things are generally OK but the nights are a little different. Awakening from sleep, I often find my fingers kind of frozen and I need to move them to regain normal mobility. Sometimes my shoulder or wrists can be painful. Overall, I'd say that I'm about 80% of my former self, that is to say my pre-fall self. Whether I'll ever recover the lost 20% remains to be seen. 

I am walking nearly everyday but I've sadly neglected my isometrics. My thymoma is noticeable mainly when I move about in bed at night but during the day it's hardly noticeable. Transiting Uranus will station within a couple of degrees of my natal Moon on September 1st and I'm hoping that this won't lead to any unexpected health problems. I won't go into the astrology here as that's better addressed in the appropriate blog (AstroWatch).

I have been making sure that some days I walk around 10 am when the Sun is rising but it still hasn't reached the meridian. The Sun in Jakarta is too powerful after that to do any sustained walking until about 3 pm. I'm hoping that this will boost my Vitamen D levels.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

There's no doubt now that I am suffering from rheumatoid arthritis but not osteoarthritis which is characterised by degeneration of the cartilage of certain joints. My wrists, hands, shoulders, feet and sometimes other parts of my body are being attacked by my immune system to varying degrees, causing stiffness and pain.

The condition was definitely triggered by my fall about three months ago because prior to that I only had sporadic pain in my right shoulder and nowhere else. I'm not too troubled at the moment. The soreness and swelling in my left foot has subsided. There was one night when my wrists were causing me considerable discomfort. Ironically, this had been caused by finger exercises that I had been doing to ameliorate the stiffness in my fingers.

I have been walking between 2km and 4km a day, sometimes more, but I notice my knees are weaker than they used to be and sometimes hurt when I'm walking up stairs. I definitely need to resume by leg band exercises and squats. I just have to accept that the arthritis is not going away anytime soon. The more I can find out about the condition and how to manage it the better. This post was prompted by this YouTube video and is where the screenshot came from.

The body's decline creeps like a vine.

Day to day, the changes can be imperceptible.

You adapt. 

Then something happens that finally makes it clear

That things are no longer the same.

My condition is certainly not severe at the moment. There is no redness and swelling of the joints of my hands and certainly no deformities. Maybe that will come later. Maybe it won't. One thing is incontrovertible. My body is in decline. The price one pays for longevity. Fortunately, my mind seems largely intact. Let's hope that continues.

Monitoring My Exercise And Diet

My resting pulse rate is 63 beats per minute and, with light clothing on, I weigh 70.9 kilograms. I've been walking regularly of a morning, at a fairly brisk pace, and covering about 2.2 kilometers. However, yesterday (Saturday 14th July) I had a not so good day. My right shoulder joint had been hurting in the night and I woke up feeling stiff in my fingers with my ankle causing discomfort as well. I also felt discomfort in my chest when getting out of bed.

Today, Sunday, I feel a lot better comparatively speaking. I wonder if it's diet-related. Yesterday I had my usual toast in the morning following by pasta at two different times of the day plus a couple of pastries in between. On the Thursday and Friday prior my bad Saturday I'd two eggs with mayonnaise on toast, even though I'd been advised to eat only the whites of the eggs and not the yolks. Could this have triggered my subsequent discomfort?

I did some very brief and mild isometric exercises for my arms on either Thursday or Friday. Could this have triggered the discomfort behind my sternum? It's hard to say and thus it's probably a good idea to monitor my intake of food and drink as well as the amount of exercise that I undertake. Should I start another Airtable database or should I record the information using some other software, perhaps a spreadsheet? Before deciding, I should carry my phone with me whenever I leave the house so that any distances that I walk can be recorded. My daily walk around the block is about 2.2 kilometres.

For the moment I've opened a fresh document in Google Docs and will begin recording there. I'll see how that goes. I'm rather averse to phone apps or other online methods of monitoring diet and exercise. A simple pedometer is sufficient for recording distance walked.

Recrudescence

A recrudescence is defined as the recurrence of an undesirable condition and that's certainly a word that applies to me at the moment. For a while there, I thought that my stiff fingers, weak wrists and dodgy left ankle were on the mend and that the discomfort caused by my thymoma was largely in abeyance. However, the last few days have seen a rise in finger stiffness and a noticeable uptick in thymoma-related discomfort. My ankle remains tender but then again I've been walking fairly regularly of a morning so that's to be unexpected. Overall, my mobility and ease of movement have declined and I tend to dodder about the house being particularly careful when negotiating any stairs.

While on a walk, I can generally stride about as I did in the old days but with the constant awareness that all is not right with my left ankle. Apart from the morning walks, I'm engaging in very little physical activity around the house. I found my old resistance band that was fashioned from pantyhose but have yet to make use of it. One can only speculate on the cause of this decline and what the dire consequences might be if I were I to suffer another fall. I've spent no time at all on introspection designed to discover what remedial action is necessary on my part to stem and perhaps reverse this decline.

I've adhered to my a significant reduction in my intake of fried foods, assisted by use of an air fryer. This is a healthy choice of course but I don't whether it's sufficient in itself to turn things around. I need to look deeper into the underlying causes, both physical and psychological. To this end, I decided to take another Etorvel (Etoricoxib) tablet. I still had four tablets left following my tooth extraction. It was 2:30am at the time of ingestion and this gave me about four hours before my morning walk to monitor the changes in my physical condition.

If there's a noticeable reduction in my finger stiffness, ankle soreness and general restricted mobility, then my problem is definitely of an inflammatory origin. The body is attacking itself. I've written about the effects of this drug in my recent post titled Tooth Extraction. As I said in that post, it's not a drug that you'd want to take in the long term given its side effects but this one off experiment should prove useful. So how is the experiment progressing?

• After about half an hour, the physical effects are quite noticeable. I feel quite flushed and I'm sure my blood pressure is elevated. My brain is not working all that well. I don't feel like concentrating on anything too taxing. I have an inclination to listen to some music which I'm doing. My fingers still feel stiff so not much change there.
  
  
• After about an hour, there is a noticeable reduction in finger stiffness and wrist weakness and overall a general feeling of well-being. I'm continuing to enjoy the music.
  
  
• After about an hour and a half, the flushed feeling has subsided and my mental faculties have returned. The general improvement in my fingers and wrists remain but has far from disappeared entirely. I'm definitely moving more freely and am feeling far less stiff as I walk about.
  
  
• About three and a half hours later, I went for my morning walk and felt particularly strong with my ankle giving me very little trouble. It would be good if I always felt like this but I have the drug to thank in part this time.

What conclusions are we draw then from this little experiment? It would seem that the drug is working as it's supposed to:

Etoricoxib works by selectively inhibiting an enzyme called cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). COX-2 plays a role in the production of prostaglandins, which contribute to pain, inflammation, and fever. By blocking COX-2, Etoricoxib helps reduce these symptoms.

The question is why is my body continuing to produce prostaglandins that cause pain and inflammation. As Google's Gemini explained:

Prostaglandins are major contributors to the inflammatory response. They trigger processes like: 

• Increased blood flow to the injured area
• Increased permeability of blood vessels, allowing white blood cells to migrate and fight infection
• Pain perception by sensitizing nerve endings

 This process is what led to my DOMS but the problem is that the process never stopped.

ADDENDUM:

A day later and I'm still feeling very good. I have very little stiffness, my ankle is not troubling me and even the discomfort from my thymoma is greatly reduced. It will be interesting to see how long this feeling of well-being will last. Doubtless, the production of prostaglandins is still being inhibited by the Etoricoxib. 

Tooth Extraction

The decaying canine on the upper right side of my mouth has gone and only a gaping hole remains. So it goes. I had to wait two hours before entering the dentist's surgery but after that it all went smoothely. I fear that there may be more problems ahead but for the time it's all good. Only a few hours after the extraction, I can eat and drink normally.

I have taken the once-a-day pain killer that was prescribed and the fingers of my right hand are feeling a lot more flexible. Whether this is the result of the medication or not remains to be seen. I'm not in any pain so I won't take the medication again and I'll see if the fingers still remain relatively flexible tomorrow. I hope that's the case (see addendum at the end of this post).

Getting rid of the chronic abscess that lurked above my decaying tooth can only have a positive effect on my overall well-being. I've currently been advised by my psychic healer not to eat fried foods, peanut butter, egg yolks, baked beans and a plethora of other foodstuffs. If my stiffness disappears completely, then I can perhaps indulge in some of these forbidden foods again if the prohibitions can be at least relaxed in the future.

My umbilicus remains sensitive and this inhibits me from doing any exercises that put a strain on that area and my thymoma inhibits me from any exercises that put a strain on the solar plexus area. The stiffness in my hands doesn't help and so overall my upper body is slowly atrophying due to sarcopenia. I need to develop an exercise regime that maintains muscle mass in my upper body without exacerbating my existing sensitivities.

Walking regularly helps to thwart sarcopenia in the leg muscles but additionally I need to return to my squats and other leg exercises. Since my fall, I've noticed that my leg muscles have become noticably weaker. I tend to sleep in two sessions nowadays: two or three hours before midnight and then four or five hours beginning from four, five or six in the morning. Currently I weigh around 71 kilograms.

Of course, having completed my course of antibiotics, I need to rebuild my gut biome. To this end, probiotic foods like Kimchi, a spicy fermented Korean cabbage rich in beneficial bacteria like Lactobacillus Kimchi, and Kombucha, a fermented tea drink that may contain probiotic bacteria depending on the brand and brewing process. Choose kombucha with unpasteurized and unfiltered varieties for the most potential probiotic benefit.

ADDENDUM 

My fingers remains flexible and no stiffness has returned. I asked Google's Gemini about the pain killing tablet that I took yesterday. Interestingly, the medication is an anti-inflammatory drug as well as having pain-killing properties. The dosage that I took, 120 mg, is quite strong and I may still be feeling its effects. If the stiffness returns then we'll know that I definitely have some sort of chronic inflammatory condition. If it doesn't then I'll be very much relieved. Clearly it's not a drug you would want to take in over a long period of time. Here was Gemini's response to my query:

Etorvel (Etoricoxib) is a prescription non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to manage pain, inflammation, and stiffness caused by various conditions. Here's a breakdown of key information about Etorvel:

Uses:

Treats pain, inflammation, and stiffness associated with:

• Osteoarthritis (wear and tear of joint cartilage)
• Rheumatoid arthritis (chronic inflammatory joint disease)
• Ankylosing spondylitis (inflammation of the spine and large joints)
• Gout (sudden and severe joint pain caused by excess uric acid)
• May also be used for short-term relief of moderate pain after dental surgery.

How it Works:

Etoricoxib works by selectively inhibiting an enzyme called cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2). COX-2 plays a role in the production of prostaglandins, which contribute to pain, inflammation, and fever. By blocking COX-2, Etoricoxib helps reduce these symptoms.

Dosage and Administration:

Dosage depends on the specific condition being treated, its severity, and the patient's individual needs. Always follow your doctor's instructions for dosage and duration of treatment.

Etorvel is typically available as tablets and is usually taken once daily, with or without food.

Side Effects:

• Common side effects of Etorvel include:
• Stomach pain, heartburn, diarrhea, indigestion
• Headache, dizziness
• Upper respiratory tract infection
• Fluid retention

Important Considerations:

Risks: Etoricoxib can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke, and stomach ulcers, especially with high doses or long-term use. It's crucial to discuss these risks with your doctor before starting the medication.

Contraindications: Etoricoxib is not suitable for everyone. Inform your doctor about any allergies (especially to aspirin or other NSAIDs), a history of stomach ulcers, heart problems, high blood pressure, kidney disease, or liver disease.

Pregnancy and Breastfeeding: Consult your doctor before taking Etoricoxib if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or planning to become pregnant.

Interactions: Etoricoxib can interact with other medications. Be sure to tell your doctor about all medications you are taking, including prescriptions, over-the-counter drugs, vitamins, and herbal supplements.