Why Do We Dance When We Need to Pee?
Seriously, what is it about jiggling up and down that staves off the most frantic of all urges??
Some of us cut a rug better than others, but the one dance everyone can do — even more so than the hokey-pokey or that thing where you pretend to reel someone in with a lasso — is the pee-pee dance, that weird, universal jiggle people resort to when busting for a leak. It’s a dance that brings minimal joy but frequent relief, not so much dancing your ass off as dancing your pee in.
“The observation is correct,” says Professor Frank Chinegwundoh, Consultant Urological Surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust in London, when asked if the jiggle really makes any difference. “But the mechanism is less clear.”
In other words, while science agrees that the pee-pee pogo is definitely A Thing That Helps, there is no mass consensus on exactly why. As you might expect, this has more to do with the endless list of more pressing medical issues to solve than any mysteries particular to the restroom rumba, but doctors certainly have a few theories.
“We think that by jigging up and down, nerve impulses run up the nerves in the legs to the spinal cord and ‘turn off’ the nerve impulses to the bladder,” says Chinegwundoh. What this essentially means is that, as your body ferociously expresses a desire to relax the muscles surrounding the bladder, doing the wee-wee waltz kind of overrides this. Rather than relaxing and ruining your socks, your bladder muscles remain tightly clenched, for a while at least.
There are other possibilities, too: Some doctors point to the idea of the take-a-leak tango functioning as a psychological displacement activity, your own sick moves distracting you from the real chance you’re about to wet yourself. However it works, though, it’s only ever going to buy you a few minutes, so it’s much better to respond to your body’s cues when they first arise, as excessively holding it in can lead to bladder issues. So pee sensibly, avoid doing the don’t-drip dance for too long and preserve your dignity, your bladder and your underpants.
DSC Very Useful Tip #33
You wouldn’t think we’d need to even say this, but here we are: Yes, you need to wash your hands after peeing. Bathrooms are crawling with multiple people’s bacteria and fecal particles, which if ingested can lead to stuff like E. Coli and hepatitis. Wash ’em!
What’s the Deal With Stray Pubes?
One of life’s few immutable truths is that any time you use a public urinal, you’ll see at least half a dozen pubic hairs already in there, waiting for you. But why do our pubes seem to leap from our bodies with such abandon? Surprising as it may sound, pubes don’t actually shed any quicker than any other hair (we lose anywhere from 50 to 100 hairs per day, from all over). In all likelihood, pubes end up in the urinal simply because they’ve already detached from the skin and fall from the underwear they’re trapped in as soon as their owner pulls down his briefs. Still, if you feel like you’re constantly shedding, you know what the solution is! (Hint: We make razors.)
Oh FAQ: Do I Really Have to Wash My Face Before Bed?
1. You really, really do. “It’s especially important to wash your face before bed if you have oily skin, because a buildup of oil and sloughed-off skin cells on the skin’s surface can contribute to whiteheads and blackheads,” says dermatologist Rajani Katta.
2. Washing your face twice a day helps to remove the unwanted gunk that clogs up your pores. And it’s important to do it even if your skin is on the drier side — just be sure to moisturize thoroughly afterwards.
Check Out This Week’s DSC Podcast
DSC Not Very Useful Tip #94
Bored of dancing to put off visiting the bathroom? Try doing it for other things, too! Going to the store, renewing your driver’s license, doing your taxes, all can be held off for precious seconds simply by jiggling your leg vigorously up and down, probably.