'Holding it in' may increase heart attack risk

I had a friend in elementary school who used to hold in his pee for as long as he could, only because he said he liked the feeling of relief he experienced once he finally went. Strange kid. He also used to pick his nose and put the boogers in library books, but that's highly irrelevant. Anyway, I have no idea where he is today, but being that he's obviously much older than he was during our grade school days, I hope he's changed his pee-holding ways. It could save his life.

Men's Health reports that the stress of having a full bladder can up a person's heart rate by as much as 9bpm. When your bladder expands, it increases activity in your sympathetic nervous system, sometimes causing coronary vessels to constrict. This, in turn, forces your heart to beat more often, elevating your risk of heart attack.

So, even if you're not a strange little kid, you still should think twice about "holding it in." The last thing you want to do is to give yourself a heart attack because you were too lazy to pee. If you're lucky enough to survive, you'll never live that one down.