What Your Urine Color Says About Your Health | Urinary System Breakdown | #DeepDives

a quick peek into the toilet bowl can reveal a lot about your health of course you've heard the color of your peek and help you figure out how hydrated you are but that's not the only thing your pee can tell you urine color can vary and while those changes are usually nothing to worry about sometimes a shift in the hue of your p can signal that something's wrong we asked keith and bidani vice chair of urology at mount sinai to explain the rainbow of possible p colors if you think of urine it's like a thermometer for the body not that it tells you the temperature but it tells you what's going on inside the body the urine is what the kidneys make when they filter your blood and so if you have things like fluid shifts so if you're dehydrated or if you're well hydrated right the urine color will vary based on how much fluid there is in your bloodstream and how much filtering your kidney is doing so what is p supposed to look like there isn't one exact hue that's considered the gold standard of normal urine but your pee should fall somewhere on the yellow spectrum urine gets its yellow color from urobilin also known as urochrome a compound excreted by your kidneys the organs that filter your blood and produce pee your urine can contain traces of thousands of different substances mixed in with plenty of water in general the more water you drink the clearer your pee will look because you're diluting the other substances coming out of your kidneys if you guzzle lots of water and your pee is completely clear you can probably safely cut back on your fluid intake a bit after all it's rare but possible to actually drink too much water if your pee is the color of pale straw or looks like a transparent shade of yellow that's also a good indication that you're probably well hydrated straw colored is like the good urine and when it's very diluted from water then you don't really see the yellow it just looks very clear if you go to the bathroom after you drink a lot of water or gatorade or even even liquor like caffeine and alcohol are diuretics they make you create more urine you'll notice the urine is very clear very white it's just because it's getting rid of all that extra fluid now if you see a darker shade of yellow in the bowl or a different color altogether it could be a sign of trouble here's what to watch out for if your pee is dark yellow like amber or honey or dark orange you might not be consuming enough water kidney filters blood right and it filters blood for a couple of things it regulates how much water is in your body and in your bloodstream on the flip side if you're dehydrated if your body's saying we need more water we need more fluid what it does is it actually sucks water back into your body from the kidney so urine is made and then there's a mechanism that says we need actually all the water we can get and it will actually take the water out of the urine and put it back into your bloodstream so what you're left with is urine that has much less water content in it and so those solutes what we call them the electrolytes and the proteins and all the stuff that could be in urine is highly concentrated and it changes the color additional signs of dehydration can include fatigue chills bad breath sugar cravings or muscle cramps first try upping your water intake doctors recommend 1.5 to 2 liters of water daily in addition to other fluids if that doesn't help schedule an appointment with your doctor to rule out any other issues keep in mind too that certain medications can turn your pee dark yellow or orange examples include finazzo pyridine a treatment for pain for a urinary tract infection or uti and sulfasalazine a treatment for ulcerative colitis if your pee looks dark brown like black tea brown ale or cola ask yourself did i recently eat rhubarb fava beans or aloe these foods can lend your pee a brownish hue however dark brown urine can also be a sign of severe dehydration past the stages of dark yellow or orange pee you're so dehydrated that your urine is turning brown that's bad i mean that's really your body screaming for more fluids and that could actually be very damaging to your kidneys you know when you don't have enough water to hydrate and get the kidneys going and multiple organs are affected by that another possibility is related to your medical history if you've recently undergone a urologic procedure the brown you're seeing could be the result of blood slowly dissolving in your urine in addition some antibiotics laxatives and other medications can turn your pee brown dark brown pee can also be an indication of something more serious that warrants attention from a medical provider though it can be a symptom of rhabdomyolysis a dangerous condition in which muscles break down other symptoms can include muscle cramps and severe pains and feeling weak or tired after a muscle injury or extreme exercise another possible concern has to do with your liver when you have poor liver function extra bilirubin a pigmented component of bile can end up in your urine turning at a darker hue and if you have a history of melanoma definitely keep an eye out for brown tinge urine which can be a sign that the cancer is progressing if you're noticing dark brown pee regularly schedule an appointment with your doctor if your urine has a pink or red tinge you might be able to blame something you ate like blueberries beets or rhubarb yes rhubarb strikes again and as with other suspicious pee colors medications are a potential culprit for example the antibiotic rifampin has been known to turn a toilet bowl a shade of rouge however if you aren't taking new medications or filling your plate with red or purple hued foods it could be a tint of blood that's making your pee pink make an appointment with your doctor to rule out a uti kidney stones or another condition the thing to keep in mind that can fool people sometimes is that when you look in the toilet and you see blood that could also come from other places which could be nothing it could just mean that you wipe too hard or something like that but if it's dark red burgundy you know that that very cabernet wine color uh that's that's blood that needs to be investigated if you see blue or green in your toilet you might be tempted to panic fortunately these scary looking urine collars often have innocuous explanations green or blue dye in something you ate could be the cause of your cool tone tingles asparagus can also lend a green tinge to pee in addition to its infamous smell several medications from heartburn reducers to muscle relaxers can also make your pee blue or green there are some distinct urinary urine infections that cause your urine to turn green they're not common infections but fungus and yeast can cause the urine to look a greenish hint there's a bacteria called pseudomonas which can be found in the urine and that can give it a green hue and usually there's an odor and other signs of infection right burning pain fevers other things rarely blue or green urine can be a sign of familial hypocalceuric hypercalcemia a rare genetic disorder going to google and looking up p color i highly recommend against it urinary color is just not specific enough to tell you enough about what's going on it's it's enough to worry you for no reason so if you have other symptoms and you have a change in your pee quality then you can ask a healthcare professional to look into it but if it's just a normal variation of yellow morning evening next day that's normal the bottom line is that when it comes to your pee a mellow shade of yellow is best sometimes your diet or medication can change things up and occasionally something more serious is going on if you're concerned about what you see before you flush contact your health care provider [Music]

Channel: Health

Views: 11,727,593

Keywords: health, health magazine, medical advice, wellness, urine color, urinary system, urinary tract system, dark urine, cloudy urine, strong urine odor, smelly urine, maintaining good health, abnormal urine color, bodily functions, internal health, health system, why urine is yellow, dark urine in pregnancy, why urinary tract infection occurs, causes for dark urine, dark pee, why is my pee dark, why is my urine smelling very bad, what color urine is good, urinary tract health

Id: NAT40dWPlWs

Length: 8min 26sec (506 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 25 2021