why do you pee so much from drinking alcohol?

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Like even if it’s just a few shots, why does the body produces so much urine from just a few shots or drinks?

In: Biology

5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Among other mechanisms, there is a hormone your body is able to secrete that is commonly known as ADH which is short for “anti-diuretic hormone”. “Diuretic” means “leading to (increased) production of urine” – hence what this hormone does is make you urinate less by a number of different mechanisms in your kidneys which more or less all lead to a raised reabsorption of water. (This becomes important e.g. when you haven’t had enough water to drink – it would be a bad decision to urinate, i.e. excrete water when your body needs that very same water.)
Back to your question: What alcohol does is block a certain kind of ion channels in the neurohypophysis (the gland where aforementioned ADH is secreted). With these channels blocked, ADH cannot be released anymore. Now, with less ADH circulating in your system, your kidneys won’t reabsorb as much water and so you’ll end up with more urine to excrete.

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