Normal pee has four colors. If you observe these colors you need not worry.
These are
- Light Yellow
- Pale
- Dark
- Deep Amber
However, you should be aware of the following urine colors. The urine color with reasons are given below
Amber
Amber-colored pee is created by bile pigments. The most common bile pigment is bilirubin. Its color is deep blue or green.
Another two are bilifuscin and choletelin. The first one is red-colored and the second one is yellow-colored.
Due to some disorders, these elements are released through our urine. As a result, our urine turns into amber color
Brown & Black Tea
Cascara: cascara is a herb plant. It is mainly used for the treatment of gallstones.
Some people use it to cure liver and constipation problems. This herbal plant is also used in cooked beverages as a flavor.
This plant can cause brown or black tea type pee color.
Antimalarial Drugs: Some anti-malarial drugs can make the urine color like black tea or brown.
Fava beans: fava beans are used in Mediterranean recipes. These beans are another reason behind urine color change.
Alkaptonuria: alkaptonuria is also known as black urine disease. A mutation is behind this disorder.
Black urine disease took place when our body is unable to break some types of amino acids(yrosine and phenylalanine).
Due to this, our body produces homogentisic acid which changes the urine color to black or like black tea.
Levodopa: levodopa is one kind of amino acid. It is found in mucuna legume.
This acid is used to treat Parkinson’s disease. Levodopa consumption can make urine black.
Melanoma: it is one type of skin cancer. Our body produces excess melanin during this disease.
For severe conditions, cancer affects our liver. As a result, melanin starts released through our urine which promotes black-colored urine.
Methemoglobinemia: methemoglobinemia is a blood disorder. This disease produces a lot of methemoglobin.
Some nitrate drugs, enzyme deficiency, and genetic problems may cause this disorder.
Research has shown that methemoglobinemia causes black urine (1).
High blood pressure & antibiotic drugs: a few high blood pressure and some antibiotic medicines have common side effects.
These drugs affect the urine color and make it dark brown. In some cases, these change the urine color like black tea.
Kidney damage or failure: myoglobin is a kind of protein used for oxygen binding. It is found in skeletal muscles and the heart.
Kidney damage or kidney failure results releasing of this protein through urine. It affects the urine color and makes it black.
Rhubarb: rhubarb is an edible stalk used in multiple recipes. It is mainly used in muffins, pudding, jam, and cakes.
Consumption of this food can turn urine color to dark brown or black tea-colored (2).
Riboflavin: Riboflavin or vitamin B2 is found in vegetables, fruits, milk, eggs, etc.
Excess consumption of these types of foods can change urine color because of riboflavin.
Riboflavin causes dark brownish urine color.
Senna: Senna is a herbal plant that is used to treat constipation. It is also used to wash the intestines before bowel surgery.
During the treatment phase, this herb changes your urine color to dark brown (3).
Dark Yellow
Dark yellow urine color occurs due to concentrated specimens present in urine.
Dehydration and long-time exercise concentrate the urine specimens. It causes dark yellow pee.
Also drinking less liquid during a keto diet promotes dark yellow urine.
Oily Yellow
When the human body enters ketosis a huge amount of ketones are produced.
The excess ketones with body toxins are released through urine. This procedure causes oily yellow urine.
Green & Blue
Medicine: some depression and anxiety medicine cause blue or green urine color.
These drugs contain phenol or carbolic acid and some colors. Both of these are behind urine color change.
Asparagus: asparagus is a low carb vegetable mostly used in the keto diet. This food promotes green-colored pee (4).
Biliverdin: biliverdin is a green colored bile pigment. Hemoglobin breakdown produces biliverdin.
During kidney disease or jaundice, our body produces excess biliverdin. The extra amount of biliverdin is released through urine.
As biliverdin is green in color, our urine becomes green or bluish colored.
Gastric medicine: some medicines used to cure stomach ulcers or intestinal issues may cause green pee (5).
Clorets (breath mint): these breath mints are another culprit behind green-colored urine (6).
Indicans: indicans are the bi-product of abnormal metabolism or metabolism disorder.
This bi-product usually occurs in the intestine. Indicans make our urine blue or green during release via pee.
Indigo carmine: indigo carmine is an organic salt. It is prepared from indigo by aromatic sulfonation.
This salt is blue-colored and used as a food colorant in some countries. Indigo carmine injection is also used during kidney function tests and urologic surgery.
The injection causes dark blue urine after 15 minutes of injection(7). In some cases, blue urine may happen after consumption of foods colored by indigo carmine.
Pain killer medicine: arthritis, gout, bursitis, tendonitis cause severe pain in the affected body part.
Some people also face full-body pain during a high fever. For all of these cases, patients take pain killer medicine.
Some of these drugs are responsible for dark blue or green-colored pee (8).
Muscle relaxer drug: some of the drugs used to treat muscle spasms and pain are another reason behind the green or blue-colored urine.
Methylene blue: methemoglobinemia is a kind of blood disorder. In this condition, blood is unable to carry oxygen.
Methylene blue(a salt) is used for the treatment of methemoglobinemia. This salt is blue-colored.
This salt is metabolized in the body and excreted with the urine. The combination of yellow pigment and blue pigment of methylene blue causes green urine (9).
Other medicines: a few medicines used to treat anaphylaxis, common cold, nausea, and vomiting also cause green urine.
Also, some drugs used to treat sleep disorders may cause green-colored urine (10). Some phenolic metabolites are responsible for this pee color change.
Pseudomonal UTI: Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a human pathogen found in water, soil, and plants.
This pathogen causes urinary tract infection or UTI. In this infection, the pyocyanin and pyoverdin pigments are produced.
The exit of pigments during pee causes green or blue urine.
Triamterene: triamterene is a diuretic used to treat high blood pressure. A common nature of diuretic is that it produces more urine.
This potassium-sparing diuretic may cause blue-colored urine (11).
