A medical student has revealed why you should never go to the toilet 'just in case' you need it later.
Sabrina Baxter is a student of Physical Therapy and uses her TikTok account to educate people about their pelvic floors.
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And in a recent post to her account, @nosuchthingastmi, she said you could be damaging your health by not waiting until you actually need to toilet before you go.
She says: "It like, when you're about to leave the house, and you're like, 'I don't really have to pee, but I may have to pee, so I'm gonna go pee'.
"Once in a while, no big deal. If you do this often, your bladder is never filling up properly. It's not filling to full capacity.
"You're peeing when it's halfway full. So you may have the urge to pee more frequently, because it's only filling halfway and it's going, 'Ding ding ding, I have to go pee right now'.
"You're essentially sensitizing your bladder to go at lower volumes than needed, and then your body gets used to that, so it's hard to get out of that. It's a habit.
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"So this is when we have to retrain your bladder."
If you find yourself in this position, Sabrina says there are steps you can take.
Firstly, it's important not to panic.
"The more nervous that you get, the more likely that your bladder is going to win," she said.
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Then, you should try and do five pelvic floor exercises, known as kegels. These are routines that help strengthen our pelvic floors and allow us to prevent urination.
If these don't work, however, Sabrina says you should go to the toilet as holding it in for too long can cause UTIs.
She added: "This information is mainly for people who are truly bothered by how often they have to pee. They don't want to go their whole day worrying about where the bathroom is, and they want to be able to fix it."
The med student was backed up by Heather Jeffcoat, DPT, a Los Angeles-based physical therapist, who has an emphasis in pelvic floor health.
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Speaking to Buzzfeed, she said we should be going to the loo about once every two to three hours.
She told the publication: "When the neurologic connection between the bladder and the pelvic floor becomes dysfunctional, instead of the pelvic floor contracting to maintain continence, they relax and the bladder contracts in a setting where it is not appropriate to do so, and urinary leakage may result - in your car, in the hall on the way to the bathroom, etc.
"The sweet spot [for urination] is a regular frequency of once every two to three hours. At night, you should be getting a minimum of six hours of straight sleep before your bladder wakes you up."
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