How to tell your State of Health by Urine Colour

Urine is one topic that is hardly discussed because we barely give it a passing glance it is flushed down the toilet bowl. But do you know that the colour and smell of urine can provide many clues to what else is going on in the body? It also tells how healthy one is. RALIAT AHMED- YUSUF writes.


Urine is a liquid by-product of the body that is secreted by the kidneys through a process called urination. The urine contains hundreds of different body waste and what you eat, drink, how much you exercise, and how well your kidneys work can affect what is in the urine.

A senior laboratory scientist, Mr . Ernest  Aina, explains: “the appearance of urine sometimes tells more than one can imagine and most times doctors recommend a urine test to determine what is wrong with a patient”.Urine test is like a screening test because it indicates or helps to find out if somebody has sugar in the system or if there is infection. If there is protein, it means there is urinary tract infection, he said.

Also, if there is billirubin, it means there is an infection of the liver while the presence of nitrates shows that there is a urinary tract infection, he added.

Urine analysis gives a doctor an idea suggestive of further test or more defined analysis to rule out whatever what might have been seen in the urine, he affirmed.

When you talk  of colour, if  it is clear or amber, it is normal --  probably the person has been drinking a lot of water. Apart from the inconvenience of going to the toilet many times a day because the bladder is filling up with fluid faster, there may  really be  nothing medically worrisome about having a light colored urine. Sometimes, the colour might not really matter as it could depend on fluid intake. If you  don’t take enough water or drink very little  your urine is bound to be concentrated, he stated.

Deep yellow, cloudy or turbid urine shows that there is an infection while a urine with a spot of blood signifies danger, he said. If  urine has a brownish colour, that could be a sign of  dehydration and the kidney is producing more concentrated  urine. Another reason for dark urine ,especially if it does not lighten up after  drinking  a few glasses of water—is that the cause could actually be blood. It may not be as obvious as a bright red drop in the toilet, but it could be a sign of bleeding higher up in the kidney which could indicate an infection, kidney disease or even cancer. The doctor would suggest further tests to confirm or rule out any of these ailments, he said.

He states further that if urine smells, especially if it had not been kept overnight; when urine is kept overnight it breaks down and smells but if it is fresh and it has a foul smell, it is a clear indication of a problem. A sugary smell might indicate the presence of blood sugar that is being discharged into the urine. A high concentration of blood sugar in the urine is a sign of diabetes. The kidney acts as a filter for waste  products that flows through the body. But if your filter is damaged, waste could leak out of it and end up being passed in the urine. In the case of diabetes, excess blood sugar sneaks out through a leaky filter and shows up in the urine. If you are pregnant, changes in the kidney filtration system can result in the presence of sugar in the urine, he states.

If you see blood in the urine, even once, it requires you to see a doctor, said Marshall Stoller, a professor of urology at the University of California, San Francisco in a report. It could be nothing,” he said, but it could be an early sign of a kidney stone or a cancer of some sort.

Red urine isn’t the only indication of danger. Sometimes the urine has a sort of Coca-Cola color,”Stoller said. It could be due to old blood from a tumor or kidney stone or a blood clot in the kidney, which is more common in people with sickle cell disease.

Another reason that people could have that (cola) colored urine is when you have someone who’s being crushed, Stoller said. Crush injuries, like those sustained during earthquakes, cause muscle to break down, and bits of crushed tissue enter the bloodstream and are filtered into urine by the kidneys.

Liver damage can also lead to brownish urine, as can porphyria, an inherited blood disorder.

But not all abnormal urine colors are bad news. In fact, if you’ve eaten significant quantities of beets or blackberries, don’t be surprised to find yourself producing red or pink urine. Certain laxatives can also turn it red.

The same goes for orange urine, if you’ve been taking a urinary tract painkiller containing phenazopyridine, which can make pee look like Tang. Of medicines that affect urine color, that’s the classic, Stoller said.

URINE FACTS

• Freshly made urine from the kidney is sterile but when it leaves the body, it is exposed to bacteria present in the surrounding or on the skin.

•Alcohol and caffeine have a diuretic effect, that is, the body makes more urine.

• Pregnant women may experience an increase in urinary frequency and stress incontinence due to the additional weight on the bladder.

• Some people with vertigo have high levels of mercury in their urine tests and hair analyses.

• Anxiety can affect the nerves that control the bladder which promptly results in more trips to the restroom.

• Urine is made up of water, urea, sodium chloride, potassium chloride, phosphates, amino acids, uric acid, organic and inorganic compounds, urobilin, hormones and enzymes.

• The kidneys make urine by filtering out unwanted water, waste products, chemicals, sodium and potassium ions from the blood through a set of filtering systems called nephrons.

• When the nerves of the bladder send out a feeling-of-fullness signal, urine is now ready to be dispensed through the urethra.

• The average amount of urine excreted in 24 hours is 40 to 60 ounces.

• The acid found in urine gives off that typical urine smell. In diabetics, urine may smell fruity due to the presence of glucose.