Specialist's Corner
Colour of your urine is important health indicator
People experience many physiological changes during the times of the year when one season merges into another or, simply put, winters give way to summers and vice versa. In fact, you may experience one or more of over 40 different symptoms associated with weather changes. In other words, a changing weather can stress out your immune system, making you more vulnerable to infections and viruses.
Common health problems that occur due to weather changes include fatigue, stress, skin irritation or rashes, loss of appetite and cough. So, how can you prevent weather-related illnesses? It is important that you boost your immune system. A healthy and well-balanced person is seldom sensitive to a sudden weather change. If you are a healthy and strong person, you can actually endure the stress caused by weather changes and not show any signs of discomfort or sickness. Try to keep your house clean and free from dust as much as possible to remove the allergens. Avoid cigarette smoking as well as eating strong spicy food.
Then, Vitamin C is definitely an immune system booster. It is also effective in the prevention of colds and flu, or to quickly recover from an illness. Because vitamin C is water soluble, it enters the bloodstream directly and your kidneys can excrete the excess vitamin when needed. Vitamin C and other water-soluble vitamins are not stored in the body so you need to replenish it continuously.
Like it is important to partake nutritional food, it is equally or even more important to flush out the waste from our bodies. This waste is excreted through urine and stools. Kidneys filter out the waste products from the blood into the urine that is formed in the kidneys. The useful or essential nutrients are retained in the blood. This process is called reabsorption. This process is very important for a healthy body. However, when certain useful products such as protein or red blood cells start to get excreted through urine, it is not a normal condition. Thus, we can say that the colour of the urine is an important health indicator. It is an indicator of kidney diseases or other conditions prevailing in the body. Thus the colour, smell and consistency of urine can tell a lot about the condition of our body. If we have an idea, we can get a signal about the changing health status of our body. For example, a straw yellow colour is the colour of healthy urine. However, often urine colour change can be attributed to how much or how little water we have been drinking. The other factors that can affect the colour of the urine are food and some medications. But the colour of urine should return to its normal once the medication is stopped.
Here are the different shades of urine and what they indicate:
Transparent: Clear urine is usually a sign of being well-hydrated. However, in some cases it can signal that you might be drinking too much and are risking water intoxication. Over-hydration means that you are drinking more than you need and you might be harming your body by overly diluting the salts. This doesn't usually cause any serious health issues, but just don't force yourself to drink beyond what you need.
No Colour At All: Having a more transparent urine colour can be an indictor of diabetes. If your urine has no colour at all, this can also be a sign of diabetes. The other symptoms include constant thirst and frequent urination. If you feel you need to drink all the time, you must take a diabetes test. No colour of your urine is also an important health indicator.
Pale Straw to Amber or Honey: A straw yellow colour is the colour of healthy urine. As the colour becomes darker, this can be an indicator that you are becoming dehydrated and need to drink liquids. When your urine gets more concentrated, this is usually accompanied by a stronger odour. Some foods can also make your urine dark yellow. For example beet roots can make your urine darker.
Syrup or Brown: Brown coloured urine can be a symptom of an underlying condition. People with liver disease can have brown urine. If your liver is not working properly, the bile salts that should be eliminated with faeces might be excreted through urine as their concentration in blood is high. Hepatitis, an inflammation of the liver, is an example of a liver condition that colours pee dark. It can also be a sign of dehydration so you might need to get it checked by a doctor.
Pink to Reddish: Red colour can come from blood in the urine, a condition known as hematuria. Red is usually the most alarming colour. Red urine causes are many such as urinary tract infections, stones in the kidneys and bladder or some cancers of the kidney, prostate or bladder can all cause bleeding and colour your urine red. Urination can be accompanied by pain in these cases and it might be difficult to urinate. Red or pink urine colour can also come from certain foods and substances you ingested, so you need to rule this out first. Foods that give urine a red shade include beets, blackberries and rhubarb. If colour change is not due to any food and it happens more than once, this can also signal that there is a serious health problem.
Blue Colour: There is also a rare condition known as porphyria. This is an inherited enzyme condition that can make the person's urine blue or purple. However, urine can have a bluish tinge to it. This is most commonly caused by certain foods and medications that contain dyes. The medications which cause your urine to become blue are triamterene (a mild diuretic) or Viagra use.
Green: If there is some pus in the urine, this can make it green-looking. Urinary tract infections are the most common cause of that. This can also be caused by food such as asparagus is the main culprit. You will also notice a distinct smell after you've eaten it. It can also be due to eating black licorice or any food that contains strong colourings which don't get absorbed in your intestines. Medications can also make your urine greenish such as some antibiotics.
Foamy Urine: It may be caused by the presence of proteins and needs to be investigated further, as it can be due to a kidney or gallbladder problem. If you continually experience foamy urine, go and see your doctor.
Cloudy Urine: Milky urine can signal the presence of microscopic blood. It can also be caused by a urinary tract infection, bladder infection or kidney stones. Some sexually transmitted diseases such as gonorrhoea can change your urine colour. Vaginal discharge can also make the urine cloudy.
Black: Black colour may be due to chemicals and health issues. You must see your doctor and get it checked.
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