Your body is a holistic system, with all its parts working together to constitute and maintain a healthy person.  So when something goes wrong with one system in your body, it will have effects on other systems.  Doctors can use these effects in seemingly unrelated areas to detect and diagnose underlying issues.  One important indication of health can be the quality of a person’s urine.  Urine’s function is the removal of certain kinds of waste products from the body.  By paying attention to such things as color, odor, and even the frequency with which someone feels the urge to urinate, doctors can tell a lot about a person’s overall health.  A urinalysis can also give insight into what’s going into the urine and reveal quite a bit about a person’s health.  It’s also important for people to pay attention to their own urine and keep an eye out for any changes before they flush it down.

Color

Urine is normally a pale yellow color, and if the yellow gets darker, the urine is likely much more concentrated, which is usually a sign that the person is suffering from not enough fluid intake.  On the other hand, too many fluids can dilute urine, causing it to be much more pale and even nearly clear.  Diuretics can also force the body to get rid of excess water, which can have the effect of diluting the urine.  Urine can also become many various colors, from green or blue to bright red.  Some medications will change the color of a person’s urine while they’re taking that medication, as the medicine will react with certain chemicals in the body and then be removed as waste.  Some of these colors are not a cause for alarm.  Even when urine is red, which is often a sign of blood in the urine, this is not automatically a dire situation.  Just one drop of blood can cause an entire toilet bowl to turn red, so it’s hard to tell how much blood is in the urine.  However, sometimes very small amounts of blood can indicate serious problems, so it’s important to figure out what is causing it.  Additionally, cloudy urine will often be a sign of some kind of infection upstream.

Odor

Urine normally does not have a strong smell, so if you start to notice that your urine is pungent or just more noticeable, it might be a sign of some kind of infection.  Diabetics will often have sweet-smelling (and even sweet-tasting!) urine because of excess sugar being disposed as waste.  Additionally, certain foods will change the smell of your odor because of the compounds from the food being excreted as waste.  Asparagus and garlic are particularly notorious culprits of this.

Frequency

Typically, a person will use the bathroom six to eight times per day, although this may increase if they are taking in more fluids than usual.  Many conditions can cause someone to feel a constant urge to go to the bathroom, including infections in the urinary tract, diabetes, an enlarged prostate, and many others.  On the other hand, blockages or infections can be a cause of not going enough.  People in certain professions or circumstances may resist going to the bathroom when they need to and instead “hold it in.”  Unfortunately, over time this can stretch out the bladder and lead to problems with fully emptying the bladder.

There are many things that can change the way urine looks, smells, and even feels coming out, so be sure to pay attention to it and ask a urologist if you have any questions.  Many doctors will also call on urologists to perform a urinalysis to help identify or diagnose conditions.  If you’d like to consult a urologist, be sure to use IPALC’s physician directory to search at www.ipalc.org/find.  Additionally, IPALC’s staff can assist you in your search or with any questions about finding a physician for your needs if you email info@ipalc.org for more information.