New Delhi, India

Did you know, there's a rule you should follow when it comes to peeing?

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There are many ways to take care of our bodies, and this simple trick will help you monitor your bladder and keep it healthy.

Your pee can already be an indicator that something is wrong - for example, if there's blood in it, or if it's looking particularly cloudy.

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But this hack pertains to the duration of your urination, rather than what your urine looks like.

This rule was inspired by a study conducted by a group of mechanical engineering students at the Georgia Institute of Technology.

For the study, the team of researchers analysed high-speed videos of animals of all various sizes peeing and introduced the concept calling it ‘The Law of Urination'.

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The study found that animals that are over three kilogrammes (6.6 pounds) empty their bladders in about 21 seconds, while smaller animals such as rats took just a fraction of a second to empty their tiny bladders.

Based on these findings, researchers confirmed that urination duration is not solely determined by bladder pressure; it is also influenced by gravity, as explained by IFL Science.

The team wrote in the paper, which was published back in 2014, "How can bladders of both 0.5 kg and 100 kg be emptied in nearly the same duration? Larger animals have longer urethras, and so greater gravitational force driving flow.

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"These elongated urethras enhance the flow rate in larger animals, allowing them to efficiently empty their sizable bladders in a relatively consistent duration."

As to how the study relates to humans, it has provided us with a general rule of thumb to follow in terms of how long we should be urinating.

The optimal time is around 21 seconds, and if you're peeing for much longer or much quicker, it could signify that you're either relieving yourself too often or holding in for too long.

If you pee too often, it could lead to you having what's known as an 'overactive bladder', while holding in your pee for too long can cause you to develop a UTI. 

However, there's also an increased risk of kidney disease if you're an occasional toilet-goer, in addition to bladder rupture and your bladder becoming enlarged.

In addition to aiming for a duration of around 21 seconds when urinating, another ballpark figure to note is that we should be peeing around eight times a day if we drink eight cups of water, urologist Nicole Eisenbrown says.

(With inputs from agencies)