Stress, Anxiety, and Urine: The Evolutionary Tactics to Survival and How We Became Anxious in Public Restrooms.

Abstract

Copyright © 2023 Korean Continence Society This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The act of voiding is intricately related to a specific behavioral pattern. What, then, is the behavioral voiding pattern of human beings, and how does this translate into a clinical picture? What does this tell us about the origins of human voiding behavior? Pet owners are keen to the behavioral characteristics of other animals. Well known is the fact that felines actively seek to cover their excrements in sand. Less known is how canines seek places to urinate or defecate far from their habitual sleeping and eating locales. Despite being an appendage of very recent evolutionary development, the functional control of the urinary bladder, i.e., voiding behavior of mammals are distinct from other vertebrae. As pointed out by P.J. Bentley in 1979, grossly piscine and tetrapodal urinary bladders differ in evolutionary origin entirely, displaying different electrophysiological properties on the outset [1]. The piscine bladder showing qualities of low electrophysiological potential, similar to gall bladders and other less muscular cul-de-sacs. Furthermore, tetrapodal urinary bladders further diversify in characteristic, as amphibian and reptilian urinary bladders share with the kidney additional regulatory functionality in terms of fluid resorption; this function is entirely lost in mammals, as mammalians have become capable of hyperosmolar condensation of urine within the kidneys itself. To relegate fluid reabsorption activity in the bladder would be unnecessary distribution in terms of central cohesive control, and thus, extraneous and wasteful in terms of evolutionary economy. Thus, behavioral patterns in mammals in utilizing their urinary bladder, i.e., voiding, is a recent and intrinsically behavioral activity associated closely with the connection between higher and lower neurological functions, viz a viz, the limbic system [2,3]. This may express itself from simple mental conditions such as anxiety, stress, or in more urological terms, urgency [4]. This may also be expressed in higher mental functions, such as seeking behavior for voiding locations, seeking isolation to void, eliciting high stress in crowded areas when containing urine, and, of course, sensitivity to the sound of running water [5]. The implications of human voiding behaviors such as avoiding crowds, seeking isolation and the proximity to water, especially fresh running water, as well as feline or canine voiding behaviors are highly suggestive of prey-predator behavior. Biochemically, the central aspect of urine is to process nitrogen, which, no matter how a species evolve the process into less pungent forms such as uric acid or urea, inevitably gives off some portion of its byproduct as ammonia, a widely diffusing gas which can be detrimental to prey and predator alike [6]. Hence, the function of the urinary bladder became a weapon and shield for survival itself. Storage of urine became a tool to disguise movement by creating a discontinuous trail by containing and depositing urine with cognitive control, avoiding creating a scent entirely by utilizing fresh flowing water, allowing either prey or predator the element of strategy. Editorial