How to Read your Urine :It’s such a common thing you may not think much about it. But every time you pee, your body is doing some pretty amazing things. Do you know why you pee? And do you know what your urine is made of?
How to Read your Urine
1. Why We Pee
At the microscopic level, your body is constantly working to keep you healthy, even while you sleep. Complex chemical processes take place throughout the body, including the breakdown of proteins known as amino acids. When your body breaks down amino acids, ammonia is left over as waste. That’s not something you want in your body for long—ammonia is toxic to human cells.
Since ammonia is toxic to your body, you need a way to remove it. That happens partly in the liver, where the ammonia is broken down into the less-toxic chemical, urea. Urea then combines with water and gets flushed into your bladder through the kidneys as urine, protecting your body from its own chemical processes.
2. What Is Urine Made of?
In the simplest terms, urine is about 95% water and 5% urea and other solids. But urine is much more complex than this simple formula suggests. Urine contains five to 10 times the number of chemical compounds found in other common body fluids like saliva—more than 3,000 different chemical compounds in total. Your pee contains the remnants of the various foods you eat, as well as drug byproducts, bacterial waste, cosmetics, and chemicals found in your environment.
How to Read your Urine
3. Why Study Urine?
You may be wondering why your doctor asks you to pee in a cup. This test could be ordered to look for signs of a specific disease or condition. But it can also be used to provide general information about your health.
The exact contents of your urine can tell doctors a lot about you. Medical professionals use a diagnostic tool called urinalysis to take a careful look at the chemical makeup of your urine. Urinalysis can reveal warnings signs for various diseases and conditions, such as hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), diabetes, kidney stones and many others. In the following slides, learn more about the clues left in your pee that can tip you off to your urinary health.
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4. Bloody Pee (Hematuria)
If you have blood in your urine, the color of your pee may change to red, pink, or dark brown like cola. Doctors call this hematuria, and while it isn’t usually painful, it can be a sign of serious health problems.
5. Hematuria Causes
There are many, many potential causes for blood in the urine. Some of them are moderately serious, while others are life-threatening. Potential causes of bloody urine include:
- Bladder stones
- Cancer of the bladder, kidney, or prostate
- Enlarged prostate (BPH)
- Kidney problems, including kidney stones and kidney disease
- Medications such as penicillin, aspirin, and cyclophosphamide, which is a cancer treatment
- Strenuous exercise, particularly running
- Urinary tract infections (UTIs)
Anytime you notice bloody urine, take it seriously. You should contact your doctor right away, as many of the causes are serious.
How to Read your Urine
6. Red, But Not Bloody
Urine color can sometimes be misleading. Sometimes your pee will come out red, but it’s not actually bloody. Some medicines can make urine red, including the laxative Ex-lax. Certain red foods can stain the color of your urine too, including rhubarb, beets, and some berries. Most people can’t tell the difference, but your doctor can determine whether your urine looks red because of blood or something else.
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7. What Does Blue Urine Indicate?
Is your urine blue? Blue urine is a key indicator of an inherited disorder known as familial benign hypercalcemia. It’s also called blue diaper syndrome since that’s the color it leaves diapers of babies with this condition. It’s generally not harmful, though fetuses with two sets of the responsible gene may suffer from severe neonatal primary hyperparathyroidism.
8. Urinary Tract Obstruction
Your urinary system can become obstructed at several points. You could have a blockage at your kidneys, in the tube between your bladder and your kidneys (ureter), in the bladder itself, an enlarged prostate, or a blockage in the tube that carries your urine out of the body (urethra). Wherever the obstruction, some of its symptoms may appear in your pee.
The standard place for a doctor to begin to assess urinary obstruction is with a urinalysis. In the case of this disorder, your doctor will actually be looking for a normal urinalysis to rule out other causes.. If your urinary tract is obstructed you may also notice that the force of your pee is weak or interrupted, or that urine cannot be passed at all. Blood may also appear in your pee.
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How to Read your Urine
9. Pregnancy Signs in Urine
For many couples, a home urine test brings the first news of pregnancy. Here’s how a home urine pregnancy test works. The test is designed to find a hormone called human chorionic gonadoptropin (hCG). Your placenta produces hCG in abundance during the first few days when a pregnancy begins.
To perform this pregnancy test, you will need to collect your urine sample in a cup. After you have the urine, you will use a dipstick or an eyedropper depending on the test. Some tests also call for placing a dipstick in a stream of urine. Typically you will want to wait until the first day of your missed period to test your urine. Tests vary, so be sure to carefully follow the instructions given for any particular test.
When taken correctly, home urine pregnancy tests are estimated to be accurate 97% of the time. But not everyone takes these tests correctly. If your test shows up negative but you find other symptoms of pregnancy such as breast tenderness, nausea, and missed periods, give it a week and test again or ask your doctor for a blood test.
10. Dark Urine? Could Be Dehydration
Your pee will typically range in color from clear to dark yellow when you are healthy. The darker the urine, the less water it typically contains. So if you find your urine is darker than usual, this can indicate that you need to hydrate.
Sometimes, though, urine is dramatically darker in color. If your urine is dark like syrup or brown ale, this can be a sign of severe dehydration. Of course that means you should drink some water, and soon. The color of your urine should then return to a normal range. If it does not, however, see a doctor—very dark urine can also be a sign of liver disease.
Another way that doctors can detect dehydration from your urine comes from a specific gravity test. This test compares your urine’s density to that of water. It can provide helpful clues about how well your kidneys are filtering, and can also indicate both dehydration and over-hydration.
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How to Read your Urine
11. Does Diabetes Evidence Appear in Pee?
While glucose is one urine testing method that suggests diabetes, it’s not the only sign of diabetes in the urine. People with diabetes have difficulty converting sugar for the fuel the body needs. The body needs to use a different fuel source in this case. Fat becomes a substitute for glucose, and ketones result.
Small amounts of ketones in the body are normal. But high amounts can lead to serious health problems—even death. The medical term for ketones in the urine is “ketonuria.” So it is important to test for ketones in your urine, especially if you have other symptoms of diabetes such as inexplicable thirst, frequent urination, and unusual levels of hunger and fatigue.
Some things can provoke a high ketone reading in your pee without diabetes. Spikes in ketones can also be caused by excessive exercise. Some medicines can bring it on, too. Following a very-low-carb diet or a high-fat diet can send ketone levels soaring as well.
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12. Red Pee? Could be a Urinary Tract Infection (UTI)
Urinary tract infections are as painful and irritating as they are common. They can make your urine look red, brownish-red, or cloudy. UTIs can also change the smell of your pee, and it may burn when you pee if you have one. Many people with UTIs also feel the need to urinate more frequently. Women are about four times more likely to get UTIs than men. Most UTIs are caused by bacteria.
If a UTI is suspected, your doctor may order a leukocyte esterase test. This method of urinalysis reflects how many white blood cells are in your pee—esterase is an enzyme produced by white blood cells. If you have an infection, esterase may show up in your urine. Your test may also be positive for pus in the urine (pyuria), another sign of infection.
UTIs (including bladder infections) can bring other symptoms as well. Signs of bladder infection include exhaustion, shakiness, fever, back pain, and pressure in the lower abdomen. Tell your doctor if you think you might have a UTI. If that’s the cause of your trouble, it can be treated with antibiotics. Your doctor may also prescribe phenazopyridine, a drug that relieves the burning pain and irritation of urinary tract infections.