What the Colour Of Your Pee Says About Your Health

Your tinkle’s colour, smell, texture can be an indication of your health

Whether your stream is amber, golden, cloudy, smells funky or sweet- don’t ignore it because that’s the best health guru at your service (Photo: iStock)

Your bladder ain’t gonna send some smoke signals about your health. The colour, odour, consistency of your pee indicates a lot about what’s going on in your body. So in the next trip to the loo, take a peek at your tinkle before you flush.

Scroll below for our guide and learn the course of action for each hue:

You Can Tell a Lot By Looking At Urine

(Photo: The Quint/Nikita Mishra)

The right shade of urine should be a pale yellow, or straw coloured. If it’s too clear then it indicates you’re an aquaholic drinking gallons of water! Slow down, because there is such a thing as too much water.

Deeper shades of yellow or a golden tint indicate dehydration. Rush for a glass of water and avoid caffeinated beverages which will dehydrate you further for a few hours till your pee is the right colour.

Orange is a cause for concern. This hue is mostly an indication that all is not well with your liver - a bile duct, impending jaundice or any other aberration in the liver. Schedule an appointment with a doctor immediately.

Any unusual shade like a bright, neon yellow, blueish, or greenish tint is not to be worried about. A weird colour is either because of food colours or the pills you’re on. While your body can absorb vitamins from supplements, it can’t store them so it sends down the extra stuff through urine.

Cloudy urine is often trouble. Considering you aren’t pregnant, foamy pee is a sign of a urinary tract infection (UTI) but if there is no fever and increasing water intake ain’t making it clear, chances are that there is a high presence of protein in your pee, which in turn is an early sign of a kidney disease.

Other Warning Signs

Your pee smells awful even though you haven’t had foods which make it stinky? Could be a sign of infection (Photo: iStock altered by The Quint)

Pee is not supposed to smell like lavender but if the odour is strange, foul like rotten tomatoes, then it’s time to get an urine examination. Your body is probably reeling under an infection.

However, sometimes your leak smells funky because of the foods you ate - like asparagus and too much garlic. But if the stream is both pungent and cloudy, there is surely a problem - don’t blow it off by ignoring the warning signs.

The Feeling That You Gotta Go Just Doesn’t Go Away!

Now this is both a classic sign of dehydration as well as UTI - in which your bladder becomes swollen and sensitive, leaving you with the feeling of constantly having to go.

Check in with your doctor before things get any worse (or stankier).

Related Read: Watch Your Mouth! Your Tongue Says a Lot About Your Health