Pee, or urine to sound professional, is something that can tell us a lot about the inner workings of the body. The different colors in the toilet bowl can be alarming, or maybe you’re not the type to pay your urine any attention. If blue liquid came out of your body, though, wouldn’t you want to know the reason for this abnormal occurrence?
If your pee comes out in an unfamiliar color, it usually has a non-threatening cause. One thing that you should know is that healthy urine is slightly yellow and transparent. This isn’t always the case. If you’ve ever been dehydrated, for example, you may have noticed that your pee was a dark yellow. We want to give you a list of possible urine colors, just so you know what they mean.
Pale Yellow
This is probably the healthiest urine, which is made up of about 96% water and minute waste. The body eliminates a nitrogen compound (urea) when there are too many amino acids to convert to sugar. Sugar remains and urea goes out. If this didn’t happen, the pH of your bloodstream would fall.
Totally Clear
This color may be a result of you taking “pee pills” or diuretics. This is common for people who drink a lot of water. This isn’t a bad thing, it just means you are probably making more trips to the bathroom than normal from being hydrated.
Orange or Dark Yellow
This means you are probably dehydrated. It is important that you drink enough water every day to keep your body healthy. Drink 8-10 8oz glasses of water each day will help you stay sufficiently hydrated. If your urine is orange, it could be a sign of hepatitis, but it could also mean that you eat too much food with beta-carotene. If you drink a lot of carrot juice, that could be the reason.
Bright, Neon Yellow
The body cannot handle large amounts of nutritional supplements and cannot store a lot of vitamin B2. The excess of either of these usually results in bright yellow pee.
Blue
This one might be shocking if you see it. Do you eat a lot of frosting or candy? If you eat a lot of food with blue dyes, this can turn your urine blue. Methylene blue is used to treat accidental cyanide poisoning or urinary tract infections, and that can cause blue urine.
Green
There are a couple reasons you might have green pee, which can also be alarming. Let’s start with the benign reasons. If you drink a lot (and we mean a lot) of green tea, you can have green pee. The most common reason for women to have green pee is when bacteria are transferred to the urinary tract when you wipe forward, as opposed to backward, with toilet paper. Profofol, an anesthetic, can cause green urine, and so can medications for Parkinson’s disease. It can also indicate poor liver function, or even liver cancer, which you can help by cleansing the liver.
Purple
This is really attributed to a disease called porphyria, which commonly affects people in the UK or South Africa. It only affects about 30,000 people.
Red or Pink
Red or pink urine is commonly attributed to bleeding in the urinary tract, which is a common side effect of having kidney stones. If you have taken a blow to the kidneys or bladder, you can also have red or pink urine. In rare cases, it may mean you have kidney or bladder cancer.
Brown or Black
The sight of brown or black urine may scare you. If your diet is high in beans like velvet beans, this can darken urine because they have high amounts of dopamine. Certain medications can cause the change in color, but so can laxatives made with sennacot.
Cloudy or White
This is commonly an indication of a bacterial infection. Men, however, will sometimes have cloudy urine after sex, or if they haven’t ejaculated for long periods of time.
Foamy
While this isn’t a color, it can result from the same causes as cloudy or white urine. It can also mean that there is an overflow of protein from diseased kidneys.
We hope this helps because it can be shocking to see any number of these colors in the toilet. While most reasons are benign, you may need to address the state of your health if any of these persist.
