Lowering salt intake can significantly reduce excessive night time toilet trips, a condition which is also known as nocturia, a new study has found. For the study, 223 volunteers were asked to cut their salt by 25%, from 10.7 grammes to 8 grammes per day, their average night time toilet expeditions fell from an average of 2.3 trips to 1.4 times.
In contrast, when 98 subjects increased their intake from 9.9 to 11 g they found that their need to urinate increased from 2.3 times to 2.7 times every night. “This is the first study to measure how salt intake affects the frequency of going to the bathroom,” said Matsuo Tomohiro, of Nagasaki University in Japan. “Night time urination is a real problem for many people, especially as they get older,” said Tomohiro. “This work holds out the possibility that a simply dietary modification might significantly improve the quality of life for many people,” he said.