This may sound a little gross but you must check your urine every time you go to empty your bladder. This goes especially for you, ladies, who don’t get an immediate view as the men do. What you must watch is the colour and odour of your urine as these can give some indication of your health status.
If Colour Could Speak
Urine is liquid waste excreted by the kidneys. The bulk of urine is made up of water, salt, urea, and uric acid. Urine carries with it the toxins that have been filtered out of your bloodstream.Pale Yellow
Healthy pee streams very light or pale yellow in colour. A yellowish tint means a well hydrated bladder. Your water intake is spot on right. On the other hand, if your urine looks like water or is too transparent, you are overdoing your hydration; so, simply reduce your intake a bit. Transparent urine can also be a reaction to a diuretic medication you may be taking.Dark Yellow
Dark yellow urine indicates that you may not be drinking enough water which is around 8 glasses a day. The dark yellow shows more waste concentration instead of water in the urine. It also smells much more pungent than normal pale yellow pee.If you are drinking enough and yet peeing dark yellow, look to the food you have been eating. Asparagus, for instance, tends to colour urine darker and lend a strong smell as well. Beets are another food that can turn urine dark yellow. In this case, darker coloured urine is not a problem if the taint is simply from food.
What could be a problem is if the dark yellow colour is a symptom of an illness. It can be a sign of hepatitis, a viral infection that inflames the liver. Blood stains can also darken the yellow colour. If dehydration or food is not the cause of dark yellow pee, see your doctor immediately.
Orange
Food like rhubarb, blackberries, beets, and senna herbs can turn urine orange. Dyed foods and medications can also tender the same effect. When urine colour is caused by food, the colour stays for a day or two at most. When it stays longer than this, you could have some health problems.Orange may indicate that the body is too dehydrated. You may be drinking too many diuretics like soda or coffee and not enough water. Orange can also be symptomatic of hepatitis or jaundice. In this case, bile from the liver is what causes urine to turn orange. Urine that continues to show orange for a couple of days should be seen by a specialist.
Pink, Reddish, or Dark Brown
Again, food or medications may be the culprit behind this discolouration. Carrots, blackberries, and beets can taint urine, pink. Expect the following drugs to colour urine as well:- Laxatives
- Anisindione --- anticoagulant sold as Miradon
- Warfarin -- an anticoagulant sold as Coumadin, Jantoven, Marevan, and Waran
- Cerubidine --- chemotherapy drug
- Prochlorperazine - an antipsychotic with brand names: Buccastem, Compazine, Phenotil, and Stemetil
- Rifampin - an antibiotic
- Pyridium -- can taint urine orange as well
- Vitamin B -- incorporated in many supplements. This can also turn urine orange.
- Tranquilizers -- some of these have dyes which changes urine colour
Pink, reddish, or dark urine may also be a symptom of chronic dehydration. Chronic dehydration happens when there is a gradual loss of water from the body everyday. The problem could stem from drinking too much diuretic drinks like soda and energy drinks. When it comes to hydration, no beverage can adequately substitute for water; so be sure your intake is adequate everyday.
Blue or Green
As strange as this may sound, yes, some people have peed in tinges of blue or green. The colours may be attributed to food dyes or certain medications like the anaesthetic, propofol and the allergy medicine, promethazine. Because of its blue dye, Viagra has also been behind some blue-tinged pee.Porphyria can also be the unfortunate cause of blue or purple urine. Porphyria is a group of rare disorders that can cause skin and nerve problems.
Greenish urine may also be caused by food and medications; but illnesses may contribute to its phenomenon as well. Bile from a liver problem, diarrhoea, and pus from a urinary tract infection may turn urine, greenish.
Black
Peeing black is truly a terrifying experience. Anyone peeing black instinctively knows something is very wrong. Granted, a copious ingestion of food dyes can turn urine black. So can eating a lot fava beans and sorbitol. Black urine may also indicate that there is too much medication or chemicals being ingested by the body or that these medications may have harmful chemicals when taken for long periods of time. The first thing to do is stop taking the medicines and see a doctor.Black urine may be a symptom of health problems, ranging from not dangerous to very dangerous. Muscle damage, for one, is not fatal but really dark urine warns that you have been working out too much. A muscle injury can release myoglobin which can stain urine a very dark colour.
Black urine is also symptomatic of a dangerous illness called Blackwater Fever. It is a complication born out of malarial treatment using quinine. Urine turns black from the presence of a lot of haemoglobins. Blackwater Fever virus literally tears the cells apart so that haemoglobin in them leaks out into the bloodstream. If left untreated, this disease can eventually cause kidney failure and then death.
If Odours and Appearance Could Tell a Tale
Healthy pee smells pungent but it should not be overwhelmingly so. Should it smell heavily of ammonia, it is warning you of high bacterial action so a urinary tract infection may be looming up ahead.Regular foamy urine may signal excess protein in the body so have your kidneys checked.
Like it or not, our body always tries to tell us what’s wrong or going to be wrong. We need to be in tune with our body and act on changes that seem out of the ordinary. Make it a habit to observe your wastes, urine and fecal matter, as these are good “weather signals” of your system’s health.
