Actor Mallika Sherawat's snake outfit for upcoming movie Hissss, doesn't allow her to visit the loo for upto 10 hours. iTALK finds out why that is not a good idea for anyone, not even a sex siren

It might make a lot of mere mortals feel good that sometimes, film stars experience the same distress they do. The latest addition to the breed is actor Mallika Sherawat, whose unusual role of a snake in the film Hissss, requires her to be dressed in a serpent suit that cuts down her mobility, and the chance to pee for as long as 10 hours.

Mallika, like several other women who commute for hours at a stretch, or work at call centres that allow employees to take a pee break once every three hours, is as risk of developing health hazards, say experts.

The actor could land herself with kidney stones, a urinary tract infection, urinary incontinence, even a neurogenic bladder.

What's Mallika at risk of developing?

Kidney stones: It's a hard mass developed from crystals that separate from the urine within the urinary tract. It's a painful urologic disorder.  If the crystals are tiny enough, they travel through the tract and pass out of the body in the urine. But everyone is not always that lucky.

Urinary tract infection: When the flow of urine is obstructed, the stage is set for an infection. An enlarged prostate gland also can slow the flow of urine and raise the risk of infection. Diabetics run a higher risk of contracting the infection because of changes in the immune system. Women are especially prone to UTIs.
Neurogenic bladder: Refers to dysfunction of the urinary bladder due to disease of the central nervous system or peripheral nerves involved in the control of micturition. Symptoms include frequent urination, persistent urge to urinate despite recent voiding, a constant feeling that the bladder is not completely empty or pain or burning on urination.

Urinary Incontinence: It's the involuntary leakage of urine, and is a common and distressing problem that may have a impact on the quality of life. Urinary incontinence almost always results from an underlying treatable medical condition. One common incontinence is the Stress Urinary Incontinence (SUI), essentially due to pelvic floor muscle weakness. It is loss of small amounts of urine with coughing, laughing, sneezing or other movements that increase intraabdominal pressure and thus increase pressure on the bladder. Physical changes resulting from pregnancy, childbirth and menopause often cause stress incontinence, and in men it is a common problem following a prostatectomy.

Her job doesn't allow her to pee
Vida James, 26, BPO employee for 3 years Takes inbound and outbound calls
Erratic work timings have taken a toll on my health. My shift changes every week, and so, my body hardly gets the chance to get acquainted with a new cycle. I've had indigestion problems, suffered from a chronic backache, irritable bowel syndrome and sleep disorders.
We have to meet daily targets and can't take breaks whenever we wish. There have been times when I've suppressed the urge to relieve myself for upto two hours.

She made a film on the pee problem
Paromita Vohra Mumbai-based documentary filmmaker
Focuses on public toilets to illustrate the outcome of gender issues in India. The film asks the question, "Who has to queue to pee?" to understand the connection between the pleasures of roaming the city and access to public toilet facilities. In its quest for an accessible, clean, women's toilet, the film takes us through locales and into conversations with different urban women, who are plagued by inequality in gender, class and lack of urban development.

Your urinary system
It holds the kidneys, ureters, bladder and urethra. Your kidneys remove excess liquid and waste from the blood in the form of urine. The kidneys also keep a stable balance of salts and produce a hormone that aids the formation of red blood cells. Narrow tubes called ureters carry urine from the kidneys to the bladder. Urine is stored in the bladder and emptied through the urethra. The amount of urine varies, depending on the fluids and foods a person consumes.

What happens to your body when you hold your pee?
Dr Hemant mehta Nephrologist
The urinary bladder is a muscular structure. The passage of urine is governed by the contraction and relaxation of the bladder. You can't control it voluntarily. But over-stretching it can cause loss of elasticity and, over time, it may not contract or relax at will.
When you control your urge to urinate, the urine collected in your bladder gets stagnant, leading to an infection. Your bladder can hold 400 ml urine, and that's enough to give you a feeling that you need to pee. If you allow 800 ml to collect, your bladder becomes weak and so do the nerves, causing a Neurogenic bladder, where you can no longer control your urine.
The only solution is to drink plenty of water and micturate regularly.

School girls have Lazy Bladder
Dr Samir Desai Urologist, Lilavati Hospital
Many school going girls stay away from the school toilet because of poor sanitation, and control the urge for 6 to 7 hours. This leads to the Lazy Bladder Syndrome, where the bladder distends artificially, causing recurrent urine infections and kidney stones.
Don't confuse your bowel bladder
Your bowel bag is trained from childhood, to pass excreta once a day, and your bladder, several times  a day. But when you try to control your urge, the organs receive different signals. This leads to urine leakage, and the inability to contract the bladder.