• Question: can your wee change coluor

    Asked by jellytots54 to Enda, Jean, Kate, Kev, Tim on 16 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Jean Bourke

      Jean Bourke answered on 16 Nov 2012:


      IsYes it can. Sometimes it can change colour for perfectly normal reasons. The simplest way to change the colour of your urine is to change your level of hydration. The more dehydrated you are the dIarker your urine (amber). The more hydrated you are the paler your urine.

      Urine is usually clear but can become cloudy because of an infection or the crystallization of salts.

      What you eat or drink can effect the colour.
      Beetroot contains a compound called betanin which, for some people, can turn urine pink. Asparagus can make it green-yellow and a bit funny smelling. If you consume loads of b vitamins, your body will not use them all and will get rid of the leftover in urine. Drinking the vitamin drink berocca is a common way for that to happen and as a result your urine will be bright yellow-orange.

      There are less innocuous things that can change the colour of your urine. Being jaundiced can give you brown urine. Blood in the urine will change the colour and can be an indication of various problems. It’s not necessary to panic but your doctor will need to run some tests to find out what exactly is wrong. Often it’s just an infection that can be cleared up with some antibiotics. Black urine is not a good sign:in see a doctor. Brown urine can be due to a condition called porphyria (rare genetic disorder).

      There a few drugs such as rifampicin (an antibiotic used to treat various things including tuberculosis) that can cause orange urine.

      So essentially you can have a rainbow of colours

    • Photo: Tim Downing

      Tim Downing answered on 17 Nov 2012:


      Nice answer Jean

      Jellytots – test this out with berocca or beetroot!

      Tim

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