Middle-aged men who are physically active are at lower risk of nocturia — waking up at night to urinate.
 

That’s the upshot of a new study by researchers at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, published online in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise.
 

The findings, by researcher Kate Wolin and colleagues, are based on an analysis health records of men 55-74 years old participating in the so-called Prostate, Lung, Colorectal and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial. The study is tracking symptoms related to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in which the enlarged prostate squeezes down on the urethra, which can cause urinary urgency.
 

Wolin’s analysis included more than 33,000 men in the PLCO trial with BPH. The results showed men who were physically active one or more hours per week were 13 percent less likely to report nocturia and 34 percent less likely to report severe nocturia than men who reported no physical activity.
 

“Combined with other management strategies, physical activity may provide a strategy for the management of BPH-related outcomes, particularly nocturia,” Wolin and colleagues wrote.
 

Nocturia is the most common urinary tract symptom in men and increases with age, occurring in more than 50 percent of men 45 and older.
 

The study funded, in part, by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.