New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on his weekly radio show Friday morning that one of the keys to his success was essentially being chained to his desk -- including spending the least amount of time possible on bathroom breaks.
"I always tried to be the first one in in the morning and the last one to leave at night, take the fewest vacations and the least time away from the desk to go to the bathroom or have lunch," the outgoing mayor said, thinking back on his successes building his media empire, Bloomberg L.P. "You gotta be there."
The mayor notably drew criticism in 2010 for not being there at the beginning of a blizzard that clogged city roads and slowed emergency services from responding to people in need.
This isn't the first time that Bloomberg has spoken out against bathroom breaks, as the Daily Intelligencer noted this morning. "Don’t ever take a lunch break or go to the bathroom, you keep working," Bloomberg told TechCrunch in 2011. "You don’t ever know when that opportunity is going to come along.”
What the mayor may not realize is that infrequent urination can have particularly painful effects on a significant segment of the population.
Women are far more prone to getting urinary tract infections than men -- and holding it for too long, as well as not drinking enough water, both increase the risk of contracting one.
How to avoid them? "Urinate when you need to. Don't hold it," a fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services advises.
It's kind of hard to lean in when you've got a UTI.