A change in the color or consistency of your urine is one of the first signs your body is giving you of a problem. It can be as simple as dehydration, but sometimes it can be caused by kidney stones or damage to the glomeruli.
Urine color can reveal the following about kidney health:
Yellow or dark brown urine
Dark yellow urine is often the most common sign of dehydration. When the body is dehydrated, the kidneys concentrate urine to retain water, increasing the pigment urochrome, the natural pigment that gives urine its characteristic yellow color. This results in dark urine, according to the health website Verywell Health (USA).
Urine color can sometimes reveal a lot about your health. PHOTO: AI
However, if your urine is dark brown or tea-colored, it is not just dehydration. Tea-colored urine can occur when the liver releases bilirubin into the urine. Bilirubin is a yellow-orange pigment produced when the body breaks down old red blood cells. This is a sign of liver disease.
Another cause of dark urine is when the body releases myoglobin, a protein in muscle cells, when muscles are damaged. Some acute kidney diseases, especially post-infectious glomerulonephritis, can also darken urine.
Therefore, if after a few hours of drinking water the color is still very dark or accompanied by symptoms of fatigue, jaundice, back pain, you need to see a doctor to rule out serious causes.
Pink or red urine
Pink, red, or bloody urine may be due to blood in the urine. The causes are varied and can include kidney stones, urinary tract infections, trauma, aneurysms, tumors in the kidney or bladder, and glomerular disease.
Blood in urine can be visible to the naked eye or requires testing. People should not be subjective when they discover blood in their urine, especially if this condition persists or occurs in the elderly. In the worst case, this can be a symptom of urinary tract cancer.
Other strange colors
Urine can appear in unusual colors such as green, blue or purple. This is sometimes due to the effects of medications, food colorings or certain bacteria that produce pigments. Orange urine can be due to the effects of medications.
An interesting example is that eating beetroot can also cause urine to turn a slightly reddish color. Although it looks scary, this is harmless and not due to blood in the urine.
Foamy, thick urine
Foamy urine can be a sign of proteinuria, which is the leakage of protein into the urine when the glomerular filtration barrier is damaged. Prolonged proteinuria is an early sign of chronic kidney disease. This is a poor prognostic factor if left untreated, increasing the risk of kidney failure, according to Verywell Health.