Urine Color and Health

16 Apr Urine Color and Health

Urine color can be an excellent indicator of any potentially serious health problems. Sometimes the color of your urine may take on varying shades of yellow, and sometimes green, red or blue. While abnormal urine color doesn’t always mean something serious, it is important to pay attention to what is happening within your body and have your doctor do an assessment.

1. Cloudy or murky urine: When you see this, this can be a good indicator for kidney stones or urinary tract infections
2. Dark brown urine: There a few reasons why urine is dark brown. For instance, foods like fava beans or rhubarb or medications, including antibiotics, laxatives and muscle relaxants, can cause urine to turn dark brown. Muscle injury due to extreme exercise has been known to create a dark brown color in urine, as well as liver and kidney disorders.
3. Blue or green urine: As odd as this sounds, urine can turn blue or green. Food dyes or dyes used for testing the kidney and bladder can create blue urine. Medical conditions, like benign hypercalcemia and pseudomonas bacteria, can also cause blue and green urine.
4. Orange urine: Medications, including chemotherapy drugs, certain anti-inflammatory drugs and laxatives can create an orange-tinge to your urine. Medical Conditions including, liver and bile duct problems, and dehydration are well-known for causing your urine to look orange.
5. Red or pink urine: Foods like beets, blackberries and rhubarb commonly cause urine to appear red or pink. Medications like laxatives that contain senna and Rifampin, an antibiotic to treat tuberculosis, are known to make urine a red/pink color. And, finally, blood in the urine, or hematuria, can cause red/pink-colored urine. Causes of blood in the urine include urinary tract infections, enlarged prostate, kidney cysts, cancerous and non-cancerous tumors, kidney stones, bladder stones, and long distance running.