What Your Urine is Telling You About Your Health
By Sally Wadyka for MSN Health & Fitness
A trip to the toilet may be more revealing than you think.
“ The appearance and smell of your urine—as well as the frequency
With which you have to go—can provide many clues to what else is going
On in your body,” says Dr. Michael Farber, director of the Executive Health
Program at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, N.J.
Looking pale
If your urine is as colorless as water, well, that’s probably because
you’ve been drinking a lot of water. And besides the inconvenience
Of going to the bathroom many times a day because your bladder is
Filling up with fluid faster, there’s really nothing medically worrisome
About having a light colored output.
T oo dark
If your urine has a brownish, iced tea-colored tinge,
That could be a sign that you are dehydrated and the kidney is
Producing more concentrated (as opposed to diluted) urine.
“ The urine gives good indications of the body’s level of hydration,
” Farber says, “so if a patient complains of dizziness or lightheadedness,
You would want to check the urine to rule out dehydration as a cause
Of the problem.” The ideal shade to strive for is the color of straw.
Another reason to get yourself checked out if you see dark urine—especially
If it doesn’t lighten up after you drink a few glasses of water—is that the
Cause could actually be blood. It won’t 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.
Sweet smelling
Catching a whiff of something sugary sweet after you pee might
Actually be a clue to something very serious going on in your body.
“A sugary smell might indicate the presence of blood sugar that’s being
Excreted in the urine,” says Farber. And a high concentration of
Blood sugar in the urine is one sign of diabetes. The kidney acts as
A filter for all sorts of waste that flows through the body. But if your
Filter is damaged, things can leak out of it and end up being excreted
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. Whether pregnant or not, if a doctor finds sugar
In your urine, he or she should order further tests to determine if
Diabetes is a concern.
Funny smelling
It can be a little bit disconcerting, but, smelling an
Odd odor when you pee is probably nothing to be worried about.
Certain foods—asparagus, most notoriously—produce a sulfur-containing
Amino acid. So when the food is broken down in the digestive system,
Those smelly substances are released, filtered through the kidney,
And then make their way into the urine where they create an unpleasant
Scent. As soon as the food responsible has been fully digested
And flushed from your system completely, the smell will vanish as well.
Bright yellow
Urine that looks nearly neon-colored may seem somewhat
Alarming, but the cause is most likely nothing more than sinister
Than your daily multivitamin pill. “ The B vitamins and carotene in particular
Give the urine a deeper, more golden color,” says Dr. Deborah J. Lightner,
Associate professor of urology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester , Minn.
And don’t worry: That brightly colored urine means you’re simply pissing
Away all of your expensive supplements. The urine color can be affected
As the vitamins filter through your system—even as they are being
Absorbed and utilized.
A spot of blood
Seeing a splash of red in the toilet can mean many things—
Some quite benign, others quite serious. “For that reason,
You should always have your doctor check your urine if you see blood,”
Warns Lightner. “In an otherwise healthy young woman,
The chances are overwhelmingly in favor of it being a sign
Of a urinary tract infection, but blood in the urine is also one
Of the seven deadly signs of bladder cancer in both women and in men.”
Beyond the possibilities of infection or (worst case scenario) cancer,
Blood in the urine can also be caused by microscopic trauma or tears
(not uncommon after an endurance event like a marathon), kidney stones,
Or as a side effect of taking blood-thinning medication or daily aspirin therapy.
Always gotta go
You’ve seen the commercials of people racing to the bathroom
In a panic because they have to go so often and so urgently.
There are a variety of possible causes, and unless you are going
so often that it’s truly affecting your life, frequent bathroom urges
probably are not cause for concern (or for taking the medications
advertised in those commercials). Look first at your diet and lifestyle.
If you’ve suddenly picked up the habit of toting a water bottle with
you everywhere and have greatly increased your H2O intake, the reason
could be as simple as the fact that you’re filling your bladder up more
often and more quickly than you used to—and, consequently,
it needs to be emptied more frequently than it used to.
Or maybe you’ve recently changed your diet to include foods that
contain more water (such as fruits and vegetables) and act as diuretics,
or begun taking medications (like drugs used to treat high blood pressure)
which are also diuretics. One of the common symptoms of a urinary
tract infection is an urgent need to pee (often without being able to once
you get to the toilet). Growing older can also be to blame for increased
frequency and urgency in both men and women—as the way the kidney
and the bladder make and discharge urine changes with age.
For men, however, the prostate may play a role.
It’s not uncommon as men age for the prostate to
become enlarged and cause an obstruction that causes
weak urine flow and prevents the bladder from emptying
effectively, which then creates the need to go more often.
A little leakage
It’s one of those topics no one likes to talk about,
but a lot of women—even very young women who have
never gone through childbirth—experience some type of
urinary incontinence. “Stress incontinence is a condition in which the
muscles of the pelvic floor can’t handle the increased pressure of high
impact activities like running or gymnastics, or even something like
coughing or sneezing,” Lightner says. And when the pelvic floor is
too weak to withstand that sort of pressure, the result is that a small
amount of urine will leak out. The situation often begins—or gets
significantly worse—after a woman gives birth.
The best solution is to strengthen the pelvic floor by regularly
doing Kegel exercises (in which you repeatedly contract and
release those muscles as if you were trying to stop your flow of urine).
Another type of urinary incontinence is called urge incontinence,
and it is characterized, not by weak muscles, but by a bladder malfunction.
“ The bladder will fire without your permission, so you won’t necessarily
get the signal to head to the bathroom before your bladder
decides it’s time to empty itself,” says Lightner.
A burning sensation
If you are suddenly experiencing pain when you pee,
it’s highly likely that you are experiencing one of the first signs
of a urinary tract infection. Such infections are incredibly common among
sexually active, pre-menopausal women, thanks to the fact that the female
anatomy puts a relatively short urinary canal in close proximity with the vagina and rectum.
That proximity makes it very easy for bacteria to find its way into the urethra and
up the urinary canal. Oral antibiotics can clear the infection up within days,
and increasing fluids can help flush out bacteria to shorten the duration of the
infection. The male anatomy makes urinary tract infections a much rarer
event for men, but they can happen—and, Lightner warns, similar signs
and symptoms in men can also signal an infection of the prostate.
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