What’s Your Urine Color Saying About You?

It’s fall and everywhere the color palette seems to have shifted to yellows, oranges, reds, and browns — from leaves to decorations… to urine? What the hue?! That’s right, urine changes colors, too – not with the seasons but with other factors like the fluids you drink, the foods you eat, the medicines or supplements you possibly take, and medical conditions you may have. Urine is your body’s liquid garbage – composed mostly of water (95%), salt, and chemicals called urea and uric acid. Your kidneys make urine when they filter out stuff from your blood that your body doesn’t want or need.

If everything is chugging along normally, your urine will likely be pale yellow to gold in color. This distinctive hue actually has its own name — urochrome — and it’s created by the breakdown of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in red blood cells.

Whether your urine is clear, light, or dark has a lot to do with how much fluid you’re drinking and whether you’re well-hydrated, or not. Typically, the lighter yellow your urine the more hydrated you are. That’s because fluids dilute urochrome.

Beyond the common yellows, though, there’s a rainbow of other urinary possibilities. Refer to the chart below for a few of these colors and their potential causes.

Be sure to talk to your doctor if you have concerns or questions about changes in your urine color or experience pain, frequency, or difficulty urinating. Some urinary changes can signal a health problem or a urinary tract infection that requires treatment from a physician. If in doubt, ask for a professional opinion.

Beyond watching your urine for color changes and reacting appropriately, you can help maintain your urinary health with Cystex Urinary Health Maintenance. It contains ingredients that can benefit your urinary system including a prebiotic to help promote healthy bacteria, an anti-inflammatory to help to prevent tissue damage, an anti-adherent to help keep bad bacteria from hanging around, and an anti-oxidant to generally help protect your body. Healthy is our favorite color.

References:

1. 10 Colors that Suggest Urine Trouble. UC San Diego Health website https://health.ucsd.edu/news/features/pages/2014-04-21-colors-that-suggest-urine-trouble.aspxa. Accessed October 25, 2016.
2. The Truth About Urine. WebMd website http://www.webmd.com/urinary-incontinence-oab/truth-about-urine. Accessed October 25, 2016.
3. Urine Color. Mayo Clinic website http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/urine-color/basics/definition/con-20032831. Accessed October 25, 2016.
4. Urine Color and Odor Changes. Harvard Medical School website http://www.health.harvard.edu/diseases-and-conditions/urine-color-and-odor-changes. Accessed October 25, 2016.