Why is urine yellow? lol

Hey all,

Serious question here, enough that I pondered for a good minute between finding it a good home between here and OOP. Anyway here goes, I'm looking for a scientific reason why piss is yellowish. I can guess it's from the different mineral but say I drink a lot of blue stuff in a day, more than my body can absorb/use it will come out when I have to go right? Where did the blue color go?...

Ok, I might have had to many amber ale and I'm wondering why I still piss yellow.

Most likely it's one of the "B" vitamins that is turning your urine yellow.
Shooby

[BluffTHIS!]

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Most likely it's one of the "B" vitamins that is turning your urine yellow.
Shooby

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This is correct and could be an indication that you frequent what one of my doctor buddies calls the quack medical section of your pharmacy (the vitamin section).

[KeysrSoze]

Its caused by a by-product of blood cells degraded by the kidneys. Urobirin or something like that.

Step 1: Type 'Why is urine yellow" into google
Step 2: Click the FIRST LINK that comes up
Step 3: I've saved you the trouble:

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The kidneys serve two major functions: they keep the salt content of the blood constant, and they filter waste out of the bloodstream. So, the main components of urine are (salt) water and waste products. The major waste product from cells in the body is ammonia, and the major waste product from blood is a broken form of heme called bilirubin. In the liver, each of these is converted into a less hazardous form: ammonia is converted to urea, and bilirubin is degraded to urobilins. Salt, water, and urea are all colorless, but urobilins (which come from degraded pigments) are yellow. So, if you drink a lot, your urine will be more dilute and clearer, and if you get dehydrated, your urine will contain less water and be darker yellow.

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Regarding your other question...the pigments in food are broken down in your intestines by bacteria and in your liver. It's amazing what the body can break down.

One of the few pigments it doesn't break down: The red pigment in beetroot. In certain genetically susceptible individuals, the pigment passes into the bloodstream where it is excreted by the kidneys. The result: red urine. Doctors are taught this in med school as occassionally a patient turns up freaking out, thinking they're pissing blood. Beetroot can also turn stools the color of blood.

[tek]

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One of the few pigments it doesn't break down: The red pigment in beetroot. The result: red urine. Beetroot can also turn stools the color of blood.

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Note to self: File this under future practical jokes...

Reminds me of younger days when my brother and I put red food dye in peoples' food [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

Wow I never thought of that. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

It's only in susceptible people though who don't break down the pigment, I think it's around 17% of the population (I read it a long time ago). Canned beetroot doesn't work either. I guess the best way is to get a friend to try a 'health drink' with raw beetroot and apples, or maybe a salad sandwich...

This could be fun.

[Siegmund]

If you're given pyridine to treat an infection, there'll be a warning included with the medicine not to be alarmed when your urine turns orange.

But there are very few products that affect the colour of it. And all of the approved food-colouring additives, of course, are digestible.

[whiskeytown]

all I know is the longer I wait to piss, the yellower and stinker it is -

I wanna know if I'm kidding myself or if it really does smell like soy sauce after a trip to the chinese resturaunt - I'd swear a couple times I'd piss in a urinal and smell the chinese I ate two hrs before -

RB

Easy answer that fits any question: It's God's will.


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