In my previous blog, I discussed how your poop describes your health status. In this blog, I shall tell you how your Pee says a lot about your health.
In a day we all visit the bathroom many times to pee but, seldom does it cross our mind to check our Pee colour before we flush it out of sight.
Urine/ Pee is body’s waste products in a liquid form mainly made of water, salt and chemical called urea and uric acid.
Kidney creates urine by flushing out toxins and all the bad stuff from the blood. A lot of factors like medications, food, and illness can affect the urine colour or odour.When there is a malfunction, it contains clues to the problem. The colour of the urine can be a helpful indicator.
Ideally, the colour of the urine should be pale yellow colour. It indicates you are well hydrated. The pale yellow colour is because of the pigment produced by the body called—UROCHROME and UROBILIN.
Let’s understand how the colour of the urine describes your health. There are three main causes for abnormal urine colour
- Food that you eat
- Drugs or Medication that you take
- Health Issues
What does Colour of the Urine Indicate?
Transparent: If the pee colour is completely clear, its sign of over hydration. Sometimes excess hydration may lead to dilution of salts in the body.
Brown colour: If you are noticing shades of brown in your urine.Then it may be a sign that you are dehydrated. It can also indicate the problem in the liver. If there is liver disease, some of the bile salts that the liver should be processing and eliminate through stool are hanging around in blood and thus end up in the urine.
Note: If you eat a lot of aloe, fava beans, or rhubarb, these foods can also turn your urine brown.
Red colour: If your urine colour is red. Foods like beets and blackberries can do it. But if it persists for more days then it can be a sign of blood in the urine(hematuria) which can happen due to kidney disease or urinary tract infections (UTI) or cancers. So, In this case, contact doctor immediately.
Blue or Green colour: Good amount of consumption of asparagus can lead to green colour. But, certain medications, genetic diseases, and UTI can also make your pee green.
Orange: When your pee is the colour of a citrus flavoured soft drink, it’s probably because of medicines like high-dose vitamin B2, the UTI drug phenazopyridine, or the antibiotic isoniazid
Dark yellow: It indicates that your body is very much dehydrated. It is also linked to your Vitamin stash- B Vitamins, especially B12 results in this dramatic hue change.
Cloudy or milky: Don’t just pay attention to the colour of your pee. Cloudy or milky urine most often indicates the presence of white blood cells and may indicate an infection.
Bubbles/frothy urine: Excessive bubbles or ‘frothing’ that happens every time you urinate can indicate an excess of protein in your urine.
Does your urine smell?
Pee doesn’t usually have a strong smell. But, some foods — especially asparagus, which has a smelly sulphur compound can change the odour. So, you should vitamin B-6 supplements. When you’re dehydrated and your pee gets very concentrated, it can smell strongly of ammonia.
Normal urine should have a slight odour. Sometimes strong odour like ammonia may indicate a urinary tract infection, and if it smells sweet, it may be a sign of excess sugar and diabetes.
How often should you urinate?
It can be different for everyone but, normally people need to empty bladder up to 8times a day.
If you notice you suddenly have to pee more often than usual, it could be a sign of a health problem like a UTI, diabetes, an enlarged prostrate in men, vaginitis in women, or a problem with the wall of your bladder called interstitial cystitis.
Urine is something that most of us must take a look and prevent any conditions to prevail.
Keep yourself well hydrated and stay healthy!!
