the many different colors of pee

[lumberjim]

just feeling a littly quirky today

and i noticed that my pee is the most flourescent shade of yellow i've seen in my life. like mountain dew.....and i dont even drink that anymore.

why does it change so drastically?

i figure one of you has to know

[Happy Monkey]

According to an Oprah clip on the Don and Mike show, you probably ought to avoid massive amounts of beets.

Not that that's much of a hardship.

[Undertoad]

All I know is that when I'm in weight-loss mode I get the best, most colorful shades. Oh yeah I also know that excess B vitamins will color pee.

[kerosene]

I heard somewhere that an overdose of vitamins will do that to your pee.

[lumberjim]

DUH....SHOULD HAVE THOUGHT OF THAT.......

i just started taking multi vitamins yesterday......

jinx bought them for me over a month ago, but it takes me a while to get going with things sometimes....

.....and im in weight loss mode........

oh well, as long as it's not red.

[SteveDallas]

I coulda sworn I posted this once before, but can't find it.

Back in 1994 I experienced a retinal hemorrhage in my right eye. There wasn't much to do about it except to document it, monitor it, and make sure it wasn't getting worse. (In fact, as things turned out, the blood was reabsorbed and there was only minimal scarring left. My ophthalmologist now says it would be difficult for him to see the remaining traces of it if he didn't know it was there.)

Anyway. One of the things they did was to take pictures of my retina (FLASH pictures, damn, that was uncomfortable), and to make the blood vessels & circulation stand out they injected me with some dye. So the perky lab assistant injected me with one kind of dye and said, "now, I just want to warn you, some people find that this particular dye makes their urine turn green. It's a normal, harmless side effect and it will go away in about a day." She then proceeded to inject the second variety of dye specified by my doctors (by this time I had my ophthalmologist and a retina specialist collaborating on me). She said, "And, the same kind of thing, this dye may make your urine turn orange."

At this point, I said, "Green... orange... so what color do the two dyes together make?"

"Ummm...... I'm not sure.... I've never given them both to the same patient!"

[Happy Monkey]

Originally posted by lumberjim
oh well, as long as it's not red.

Beets, man. Avoid the beets.

[Kitsune]

The Many Colors of Urine Webpage

Blue or green urine may be caused by a blue dye such as methylene blue, a component in several medications (Trac Tabs, Urised, Uroblue) used to reduce symptoms of cystitis. A blue pigment may also be produced by Pseudomonas infection

Wasn't this in an episode of M*A*S*H or something? We've all searched for something of this sort -- what a prank it would make!

[undone]

A few years ago my dearest friend called me in a total panic. His pee was tinged pink. He was certain he was dying. I too was concerned, until I remembered we had eaten a bushel of beets the day before.
Me: Now don't panic when you take a dump because that is going to be pink too!
Funniest day ever.

[Elspode]

Asperagus makes your urine stinky...and dehydration causes a higher contentration of bodily wastes in the urine, making it darker and more foul smelling as well. If you chronically have such a situation, and you have no other explanation (like vitamins, beets, dyes), consider hydrating yourself a bit more thoroughly, avoiding caffeine and alcohol as they are diuretics.

[lumberjim]

Originally posted by Elspode
diuretics.

Was that L.Ron Hubbard that wrote that book?

[Pi]

During a survival exercice we were told that if you don't drink enough (water) your pee will turn dark yellow. As long as it's transparent or light yellow there's no problem of deshydratation.
And yes, your pee turns blue when you "drink" methylene blue. Over here in Belgium it's common during the first weeks of a school year to see others pee having a blue dye, because at most universities they have the tradition that "les sales bleus" (the filthy blues, first-year students) have to drink methylene blue...

[OnyxCougar]

Originally posted by Elspode
Asperagus makes your urine stinky...and dehydration causes a higher contentration of bodily wastes in the urine, making it darker and more foul smelling as well. If you chronically have such a situation, and you have no other explanation (like vitamins, beets, dyes), consider hydrating yourself a bit more thoroughly, avoiding caffeine and alcohol as they are diuretics.

This is also why your urine is darkest in the morning (assuming you don't wake up at night to pee).

---The hydration thing, not the asparagus.

[zippyt]

Exactamundo PI ,
I had a LT. in the Marines who said if you arn't peeing clear you need more water , and if you arn't peeing at all you DEFENTLY need more water .

Mulit vitamins will make you pee weird colors as the body is getting rid of excess vitamins, the weirgest color i can rember was BLAZE ORANGE , the heavyest vitamin pack i could find when i was in the Marines doing LOTS of feild exersizes , walking 30+miles a day , etc,,,,,,

[ladysycamore]

Originally posted by lumberjim
just feeling a littly quirky today

and i noticed that my pee is the most flourescent shade of yellow i've seen in my life. like mountain dew.....and i dont even drink that anymore.

why does it change so drastically?

i figure one of you has to know

I supposed the others have answered your question, but as long as it's not dark (and that it's not burning when you do pee), then I think you'll be ok.

Be glad that you can still pee...I'm pretty much down to nothing now.

Here's to your healthy kidneys!