Overview

Have you ever wondered what the color of your urine means? What does the color of urine mean for your health? The urine color says a lot about your health, so next time you urinate, make sure you take a look before you flush!. Do you need to get alarmed? When do you need to see your doctor, and when can you hold off, hydrate, and see if it clears up.

Urine is made up of 95% water, and the other 5% is made up of things like sodium, chloride, other electrolytes,  urea, and creatinine. These components have certain products in them that make the urine yellow and the normal urine color is yellow. Let’s review what the other colors of urine mean:

Clear

If your urine is clear that means you are over hydrated. While occasionally that’s not a big deal, if you’re consistently over hydrated you could get electrolyte imbalances, or reduce the sodium in your blood which can create significant problems. Consider cutting back on your drinking a little bit if you have consistently clear urine or see your primary care doctor if you aren’t drinking that much but your urine is still clear.

Yellow

Yellow is the normal color of urine, but there’s a spectrum, the color that you want to aim for is a light pale lemonade yellow, that is the ideal color. It means that you are drinking just the right amount of water. Your urine looks healthy and light, and you are not too concentrated.

Dark yellow: When your urine gets concentrated, it can become a dark yellow or amber color. This means that you are not drinking enough water or fluid.

Recommendation: Make sure you increase your fluid intake, plain water is a great option to increase your fluid intake. If you don’t like the water you can add some flavoring to the water but, drinking too many sugary drinks can have other negative factors for your health.

Orange

Orange urine can result from:

Medications: Orange can sometimes be a byproduct of certain medications that you’re taking. For example, a medicine that I often prescribe, Pyridium or Azo, is used for people who have burning pain urinate, and can turn your urine orange. It can also be due to other medicines like sulfasalazine or laxatives that contain senna, so if you’re taking any of these medications, orange urine might be a normal byproduct of taking that medication.

Food: If you’re eating a lot of orange-colored foods that have beta carotene in such as carrots or sweet potatoes that can turn your urine color orange.

Recommendation: My recommendation for all of these things will be to increase your fluid intake and see if your urine clears up.

Red

Red urine is the color of urine that people get most scared about because of possible blood in the urine. Red urine can be caused by:

Food: Certain things like beets, rhubarb, or blackberries can turn urine red.

Medications: Medications that treat tuberculosis can often turn your urine or even your eyes a little red.

Recommendations: Drink lots of fluid and see if you can flush it out; otherwise, it may be a sign that there’s blood, and this is a reason to see your doctor.

Brown or coca-cola colored urine

Brown urine can result from:

Extreme exercise: Extreme exercise such as very long-distance running, heavy weight lifting can cause rhabdomyolysis. When this occurs your muscle fibers break down which can be toxic to your kidneys. You may have symptoms such as pain or weakness in your legs, your thighs, or your shoulders and you may notice brown-colored urine. This is a serious problem and you need to get to an emergency room to start treatment right away to ensure that your kidneys are preserved.

Medical conditions: Brown urine or coca-cola colored urine can be a sign of kidney or liver disease.

Medications: Certain things like Tylenol intoxication to be taken too much Tylenol or acetaminophen or paracetamol can cause your urine to turn brown.

Green or blue urine

If you have green or blue urine, this is pretty uncommon. Green or blue urine can be caused by:

Food: Foods that you eat like asparagus or blueberries can turn your urine shade of green or blue, respectively.

Medications: Certain medications can change the color of your urine.  During surgery, urologists sometimes use medications like Indigo Carmine, methylene blue, or fluorescein that can turn your urine blue or green. There is also a medicine called Uribel that can turn your urine blue. Other medications that change your urine color include propofol, a medication that’s commonly used in anesthesia and amitriptyline, an antidepressant medication, which is used in Urology sometimes to treat a condition called interstitial cystitis.

Cloudy urine

Cloudy urine can be a sign of urinary tract infection (UTI).

Recommendation: Drink lots and lots of water, and that should help you clear out that cloudy urine. If you have symptoms of a UTI which include pain during urination, pressure in the lower belly, fever, or pain in your flank or upper back or sides, please see your primary care doctor.

Foamy urine

Foamy urine can often cause a lot of alarm, and it is caused by:

A fast urinary stream: Sometimes simply urinating fast can cause bubbles to arise in the urine.

Fistula: Foamy urine can be caused by a fistula or a bladder connection between the bladder and the bowels.

Kidney disease: It can be a sign of protein in the urine which is caused by abnormalities in the function of the kidneys.