You produce between two - three pints of urine every day, but most of us still pay little
attention to our liquid waste. So, what does your pee say about you? And could it be a
clear indicator of your body's overall health?
Before you pee, the kidneys filter water soluble waste by absorbing the nutrients it needs
to keep, like sugar, back into your body, and getting rid of the things your body doesn’t
want, like toxins. The liquid waste then flows to your bladder where it is stored until eventually
being peed out.
If your urine is brown, it could be from eating a lot of rhubarb, fava beans or aloe. It is
also a side effect of some medications such as laxatives, muscle relaxants and antibiotics.
More seriously it can be a sign of liver disorder or kidney disease.
If you’re seeing purple, you may be suffering from a rare inherited disorder known as porphyria.
Porphyrias cause your body to be deficient in the enzymes which produce heme, an essential
part of red blood cells.
Green urine? It could be from a new medication or vitamin. Some green food dyes don’t get
absorbed by your body and can be excreted in your urine, so a green stream is not always
something to be alarmed about, especially after St. Patrick's day.
If your urine is blue, you likely have familial hypercalcemia, an inherited disorder found
in children which is caused by excess calcium in the blood also known as blue diaper syndrome.
Some medications have methylene blue in them which can cause urine to turn blue / green.
If your urine is pink or red, there may be blood in the urine. This could be due to a
variety of conditions from an enlarged prostate, bladder cancer or even chronic lead poisoning.
But red urine can also be caused by different types of medications or from eating richly
coloured foods like beets and blackberries. In fact beeturia is the technical term for
peeing pink after eating too many beets.
If your urine is orange, it could be from eating excessive amounts of food containing
high levels of vitamin C or carotene such as carrots. It’s also caused by drugs, like
a painkiller called Pyridium given to people with urinary tract infections which turns
urine bright orange.
Normally, urine should be a shade yellow, and it gets this yellow colour from the pigment
of urobilin, which is a product of the breakdown of heme, an essential part of your blood.
Depending on how much water you have in your body your urine will either be diluted or
concentrated with urobilin. Honey coloured? It means your body has reabsorbed a lot of
water to keep you hydrated so now there is a higher concentration of urobilin in your
urine making your pee appear amber coloured. You need to drink water right now. Dark yellow,
this is normal, but there is more urobilin so you will want to drink water soon. No colour
at all means you have been drinking a lot of water. It could also mean you have consumed
caffeine or alcohol which inhibits the ability for your body to reabsorb liquid in the kidney,
meaning you pee out way more water.
Transparent yellow, you’re normal and healthily hydrated.