What The Color Of Your Pee Says About Your Health

culled from:.prevention.com


Every time you pee, you have the chance to learn something about yourself—from how hydrated you are to whether some of your vital organs may be showing signs of dysfunction.
To help people decode the colors showing up in their toilet bowl, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio created an infographic detailing what a range of urine colors, from transparent to yellow to pink, may indicate about a person’s health. Many shifts in urine color can be explained simply by how hydrated your body is at any given moment, according to Dr. Daniel Shoskes, a urologist at Cleveland Clinic.
“A lot of changes simply come from the state of hydration, which is affected by a whole bunch of things you’re doing,” Shoskes told FoxNews.com. “The various shades of yellow to white to dark can just be a sign of how much fluid you are taking in versus how much you’re putting out.”
But if your pee starts to look particularly strange, other factors may be to blame. “There are colors that point to specific organs. When you have blood in the urine, that’s a sign that there’s something coming from the urinary tract, kidneys, bladder, prostate, or urethra,” Shoskes said. “If it’s something that is more brownish, it can point to a problem with the liver, but really looking at the urine grossly is just a very first kind of screening indication that maybe more needs to be done in terms of looking at it under microscope.”
Here, Shoskes helps us decode the numerous shades that may show up in your urine:
Transparent: If your pee is completely clear, it may be a sign that you are drinking too much water. “There can be rare risks with drinking a very large amount of water [including] diluting the salts in the body," Shoskes said. “But in general, if you’re drinking so much that your urine looks like water, you probably are drinking more than you need.” That being said, over-hydration rarely causes serious health issues. “You’re probably not causing yourself great harm unless you are forcing yourself to drink far beyond what you need,” he noted.
Pale straw to amber or honey: Lighter shades of yellow indicate that you are probably well-hydrated—but as the color darkens, it could be a sign you need to refuel with fluids.
Syrup or brown ale: If you’re noticing shades of brown in your urine, it could simply be a sign that you are dehydrated. However, it’s worth getting checked out by a doctor because brown urine could also be indicative of a problem in the liver, Shoskes said. “If there is liver disease or bile, some of the bile salts that the liver should be processing and eliminating through stool are hanging around in blood and ending up in urine—people with severe liver disease can have brown urine,” he said. “That’s something that can be determined rather quickly by a dip stick test of urine.” If brownish urine is starting to worry you, consult your doctor to get it checked out.