Is Your Urine Healthy?

What is Urine?

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Urine is made up of excess water and dissolved waste materials which are secreted by the kidney via a process called filtration from the bloodstream and eventually expelled via the urethra from our body through a process called urination. It is an elimination process of liquid waste product from what we have been eating and drinking that our body wants to eliminate. Besides the mentioned materials, urine is also found to contain dead blood cells, DNA, numerous waste compounds generated by a cellular metabolism, other water-soluble chemicals as well as materials generated from various body processes. In a test known as urinalysis, these chemicals can be diagnosed, analyzed and detected, while in pregnant women, amniocentesis is a test used to analyze amniotic fluid, which is closely associated to urine. Its yellow color comes from a pigment that results from the breakdown of hemoglobin or the processing of dead blood cells in our liver, which is medically called urochrome, giving the urine a pale yellow color.

What Do Kidneys Do for Us?

Our kidneys do a great job for us by processing or filtering the blood plasma, while allowing sugars, vitamins, water, amino acids and other important substances back into our bloodstream. The excess salts, minerals, urea from protein digestion, water, waste of hormone, certain toxins, urochrome as well as creatinine generated from the muscle breakdown are then eliminated from our body via urination process.

From the video explanation, you understand that our kidneys act as filters to purify our blood by eliminating excess waste and fluids through its tiny filters called gomeruli. When our kidneys are healthy, the glomeruli can purify the blood bring by the artery and waste from the bloodstream. The blood purification process occurs in our kidneys helps eliminating waste and extra fluids out of our body via the ureter in the form of urine, while the clean blood goes out of our kidneys and back into the blood vessels via the vein. Therefore, it is very important to care for your kidneys.

Why Do Urine Tests Matter?

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A urine test check is deemed necessary as its result may give you information on different components of urine, and a waste product produced by your kidneys. The regular urine test also helps to find the cause of symptoms for certain diseases. Therefore, the test can give you invaluable information regarding the status of your health and the problems your body is facing.

According to “DNA in Urine Can Reveal Disease” written by Charles Q.Choi that was published in Live Science on August 16, 2006, a simple urine test for DNA fragments helps to detect the development of malaria, HIV, tuberculosis, cancer or other potentially dangerous diseases at its early stage. In 1996, David Tomei, a cell biologist and his colleagues discovered that short fragments of DNA from the body could cross the kidney's filters into urine. This finding is important that it might transplant organs before symptoms of inflammation manifest or genetically test fetuses for birth defects.

In a failure process of fighting off a disease due to the malfunction of some organs in our body, excess and unwanted materials can be resulted in our urine, and thereby urine is as important as feces, which can be served as a good indicator to reveal what our body has been ingesting and the condition of our body as well. Despite of this reason, certain abnormal colors in our urine can indicate health problems, diseases or the imbalances of our diet.

How to Interpret the Urine Test Results

There are more than 100 different tests involve in urine test. A regular urinalysis may include the following test:

Color

Healthy: Pale to dark yellow

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Unhealthy: Dark yellow urine is caused by dehydration; red urine is caused by the presence of blood in the urine; urine with no color indicates the resulting impact of uncontrolled diabetes as well as a long-term kidney disease. Take note that certain foods (such as blackberries, rhubarb as well as the presence of blood in the urine can turn urine red-brown) and medicines (such as Vitamin B supplement can turn your urine into bright yellow color) will also give color to your urine. Fluid balance which deals with how dark or light your urine color generally tells you how much water is in your urine. I will explain more on unhealthy urine color when we move to the subtitled “unhealthy urine” in this article.

Clarity

Healthy: Clear

Unhealthy: Cloudy or chalky. The cloudy urine is caused by blood (red blood cells), bacteria, pus, yeast, mucus, crystals, sperm, or a parasitic infection, such as trichomoniasis.

Odor

Healthy: Slightly “nutty” odor

Unhealthy: Maple syrup odor is caused by maple syrup urine disease (this condition happens when our body is unable to break down some of the amino acids); bad odor is caused by a urinary tract infection or UTI; sweet and fruity odor is normally caused by uncontrolled diabetes. Besides these reasons, certain foods (such as asparagus), starvation (can cause a sweet and fruity odor), bacterial infection (such as an infection with E.coli bacteria can cause a bad odor), antibiotics (such as penicillin), and vitamins can cause your urine to have different odors.