What The Urine Color States About Your Health

Make sure to pay attention to your urine, to its smell, color and consistency since these are the signs of your overall health, of what you are consuming and what type of illness you may have.

95% of the urine is water, but the rest is complicated brew of components such as: potassium, creatinine and other dissolved ions, organic and inorganic substances, chloride, sodium and urea. As you all know, our urine is usually yellow in color which is triggered of a biochemical waste product created from the breakdown of old red blood cells called urobilin. In this article we will present you a color chart of your urine so you can understand what’s happening to your organism:

1. Light yellow urine color.

Looks like: Pale straw color.

If your urine has light yellow color, it means that you are well hydrated so you should keep up the great work.

Appears like: An unclean martini.

This is a sign of a bladder infection. It should be mentioned that the cloudiness of the urine originates from mucus, proteins and tissues which are breaking down and coalescing.

Appears like: Water.

Transparent urine is almost always a symptom of over-hydration. Even though over-hydration is not as hazardous as dehydration, it can still water down essential salts like electrolytes, thus creating a dangerous chemical imbalance in  your blood.

4. Medium yellow urine color.

Looks like: Lemonade.

It is a sign that you are probably dehydrated, so you should start drinking water right now.

5. Dark yellow.

Appears like: Apple juice.

You should drink something as soon as possible, because if you went heavy on B vitamins, it is probably the reason why this occurs.

Appears like: Tang.

This is quite alarming since you are truly dehydrated and you need to start drinking water immediately. Beside dehydration, orange color of urine also indicated the presence of bilirubin which is in fact a yellow-colored by-product of the natural breakdown of old red blood cells. The reason why this happens is probably due to liver disease or because a gallsone is obstructing the bile duct which drains pipe bilirubin. If you take certain medications to treat urinary infections, your urine will have vibrant Tang-ling tinge.

Appears like: White Zinfandel.

According to Sur, a drop of blood in the urine can turn it into pink, and even though a general practitioner can consider this as no big deal, Sur suggests people to visit an urologist immediately if they notice pink color of their urine. It may be an infection but it can also be an early sign of bladder cancer. However, you don’t have to be frightened if you ate a great deal of beets the previous night since that can also be a reason of your pink urine.

Looks like: Coke.

According to Mayo Clinic, bingeing on fava beans or rhubarb can cause brown colored urine. They also claim that certain drugs like the anti-malarial chloroquine and an antibiotic called metronidazole can cause your urine to turn in cola- like color. Beside these reasons, this kind of urine color can also be a sign of kidney or liver disorder. It can also be causeed by exercising too hard. In order to catch oxygen for energy, your muscles utilize myoglobin, so if you exercise too much, you will trigger muscle damage so the myoglobin will seep out into your blood stream making its way into your urine. As a result, your urine gets brown color. Since too much myoglobin can overwhelm your kidneys and lead to kidney failure, you should consult your physician in order to do a myoglobin urine test and treat it properly.

9. Blue/Green.

Looks like: A Jell-O shot.

Sometimes you urine can have this type of color if you are consuming a lots of foods tinted with sythetic dyes. However, it usually occurs due to the negative side-effects of certain drugs like Uribel which people use to treat UTIs. This drug contains the components called methylene blue which is the reason why your urine turns its color into blue or green. You shouldn’t be worried about this and you can continue taking your pills with great amounts of water and take pleasure in the weirdness.

10. Darker pink.

Looks like: Cabernet.

If you notice that your urine has darker pink color, you should consult your doctor immediately since it is a sign of bladder infection or even cancer. 10% of the American population suffers from kidney stones which can also be the cause of darker pink colored urine.

11. Dark pink.

Looks like: Red wine.

This is a sign to be worried since there is definitely a great deal of blood in your urine, and even worse, it is probably an old blood which turns dark as it embolsims and breaks down. Sur warns:  “The existence of old blood is really worrisome because it suggests a substantial amount of blood. It could also mean that whatever’s causing the bleeding has actually been around for a while. He constantly errs on the side of care: If there’s a great deal of (possibly old) blood, “I want to put a scope inside. As far as I’m worried, it’s cancer up until tested otherwise.”.

To see what urine you remain in for, have a look at the full graphic below