Clear urine sends a clear message: You may be drinking too much water. Now it's true your body needs water to stay hydrated and function properly.
Colorless urine may indicate over-hydration. While not as dangerous as dehydration, over-hydration can dilute essential salts, such as electrolytes, creating a problematic chemical imbalance in the blood.
If your urine is cloudy, brown, blue, or green and doesn't return to a pale straw color, schedule an appointment to speak with a doctor.
This coloring is primarily caused by the pigment urochrome, also known as urobilin. Whether your urine is diluted by water or in a more concentrated form determines the appearance of the pigment. The more water you drink, and the more hydrated you become, the lighter the pigment in your urine.
Pale, odourless and plentiful urine is often an indication that you are well hydrated. Keep drinking at the same rate.
When kidneys are failing, the increased concentration and accumulation of substances in urine lead to a darker color which may be brown, red or purple. The color change is due to abnormal protein or sugar, high levels of red and white blood cells, and high numbers of tube-shaped particles called cellular casts.
Overhydration occurs when the body takes in more water than it loses. Overhydration can occur when people drink much more water than their body needs. People, particularly athletes, who drink excessive water to avoid dehydration can develop overhydration.
Is clear urine always a good thing? In most cases, clear urine is a sign that you're well hydrated. And that's a positive thing because good hydration helps your body function at its best. But, in some cases, clear pee may mean that you're drinking too much water and you're too hydrated.
If your urine is dark, think back to what you've eaten. If you've had beets, berries, rhubarb, or fava beans, these can all cause your urine to appear dark. Some medications can cause dark urine. Usually your doctor will let you know beforehand that this is a possible side effect.
High-dose vitamins can turn your pee a bright, almost neon yellow color. The most common culprit is vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin, which is found in most multivitamins. The neon color in pee is just a harmless sign that you're taking more than your body needs, and the excess is mixing with your pee.
If you have diabetes insipidus, you'll continue to pee large amounts of watery (dilute), light-colored urine when normally you'd only pee a small amount of concentrated, dark yellow urine.
Diabetes can cause cloudy urine when too much sugar builds up in your urine. Your urine may also smell sweet or fruity. Diabetes can also lead to kidney complications or increase risk of infections of the urinary tract, both of which can also make your urine appear cloudy.
When should I worry about my urine? Changes in the smell and color of your urine are normal, but sometimes these changes can indicate a medical issue. If it becomes darker, cloudy, or if you see blood or experience pain when you urinate, there might be a problem.
If your urine is dark yellow, then that means you're still doing alright but that you should probably drink some water soon. This doesn't mean that you're dehydrated; instead, it means that you're still healthy and doing fine. Just make sure to get a bit of water in you soon after and you'll be great.
The darker the colour of the urine, the more concentrated it is. Because people tend to sleep for several hours without having a drink, their urine is normally darker when urinating first thing in the morning.
Dark urine is most commonly due to dehydration. However, it may be an indicator that excess, unusual, or potentially dangerous waste products are circulating in the body. For example, dark brown urine may indicate liver disease due to the presence of bile in the urine.
An occasional clear pee isn't a big deal. But if it's an ongoing issue you may be lowering salt and electrolyte levels below what your body needs. What if your urine is clear and you're not knocking back glass after glass of water? That may signal an underlying kidney problem or diabetes.
A simple way to gauge your level of hydration is to pay attention to the color of your urine. If your urine is very dark and has a strong odor, you are definitely dehydrated and should increase your water intake. If your urine is completely clear, you are likely drinking too much.
The relationship between urine colour and hydration status
The issue is that, whilst urine colour can definitely be somewhat indicative of hydration status, there's definitely not a simple and linear relationship between actual hydration status and the colour of your pee.
But how much water is too much? "Drinking more than the kidneys can eliminate could cause hyponatremia in some people," says Hultin, noting that the kidneys can eliminate 27 to 34 ounces of water per hour, or a total of 676 to 947 ounces (20 to 28 liters) per day. More than that might put you in the danger zone.
Urine that is dark orange, amber, cola-coloured or brown can be a sign of liver disease. The colour is due to too much bilirubin building up because the liver isn't breaking it down normally.
Foamy, frothy or bubbly urine.
The usual color of urine is straw-yellow. Abnormally-colored urine may be cloudy, dark, or blood-colored.