Urinary Health Day丨Be careful! When urine turns yellow, your body is "reporting" these things to you

Experts in this article:

Wang Bin, Department of Andrology, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Chief Physician, Associate Professor, Master Supervisor

Zhang Huanan, Department of Andrology, Dongzhimen Hospital, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Master's student

Today (June 16) is Urinary Health Day.

In daily life, the color of urine has become an important reference indicator for us to judge changes in our physical health.

Many people often sigh when they go to the toilet: "Oh, my urine has turned yellow again. I've been a little irritable lately!"

So what does yellow urine mean? And what health tips can urine give us? Let's take a look.

What problems may be hidden behind yellow urine?

The color of urine is our most intuitive judgment. Normal urine is mostly light yellow or orange when observed with the naked eye. When the body is sick, the color of urine will change accordingly.

The most common change in urine color is red, with hematuria being the most common, and is often seen in urinary system stones, inflammation, injury and tumors. Severe hematuria may present as dark brown urine.

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The dark yellow urine is mostly due to the presence of a large amount of conjugated bilirubin in the urine, which gives it a dark yellow, soybean oil-like appearance. After shaking, the urine foam is still yellow. This is common in cholestatic jaundice or hepatocellular jaundice, and in severe cases can be seen in bile duct cancer. In addition, taking certain medications or foods can also make the urine appear yellow, such as vitamin B2, rifampicin, furazolidone, etc.

In addition, blue urine is more common in blue diaper syndrome, and light green urine is more common in Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection. These two conditions are relatively rare in life.

I feel like going to the toilet as soon as I drink water. What’s going on?

There is another situation in life: you want to go to the toilet as soon as you drink water, which is the so-called "frequent urination". Is this a disease?

Answer: Not entirely. When the kidneys are functioning normally, this situation will occur if you drink too much water or eat foods that are high in water content. At this time, the water metabolism of the kidneys reaches a cycle similar to "saturation", resulting in the need to urinate as soon as you drink water.

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Under pathological conditions, frequent urination is common in urinary and reproductive system diseases.

Problems such as urinary and reproductive tract inflammation, bladder stones, tumors, and prostate hyperplasia can cause inflammatory edema or reduced bladder elasticity, resulting in reduced bladder capacity; or bladder emptying disorders can cause urinary retention, which reduces the effective volume of the bladder and reduces the urine storage function, leading to frequent urination. Lower urinary tract infections can also cause frequent urination, such as cystitis, prostatitis, and epididymitis. These diseases are often accompanied by symptoms such as urgency and pain when urinating, and pain and discomfort in the perineum and lower abdomen.

In addition to the above diseases, diabetes, diabetes insipidus, and renal concentrating dysfunction can also cause frequent urination. This type of frequent urination often increases the number of urinations, but the amount of urine each time does not decrease, and may even increase. When encountering this situation in life, you should pay attention to the primary disease. In addition, mental factors such as anxiety, tension, and fear can also cause frequent urination. If such a situation occurs, you should seek medical attention in time.

Bad habits such as holding urine, sitting for long periods of time, and drinking less water can have a serious impact on our urinary health. Among them, holding urine is one of the important causes of many urinary diseases.

Where does the urine that is held back go?

When the urine stored in the bladder exceeds a certain limit, the nervous system will prompt urination. However, if you consciously hold it back at this time, it will often cause serious psychological and physiological effects on the body.

Psychologically, holding urine will create a huge psychological burden, which will cause psychogenic enuresis in the long run. For example, when you hear the sound of water or see the toilet, urine will be discharged involuntarily.

Physiologically, the held urine will be stored in the bladder, expanding the bladder. When the limit of the bladder sphincter is reached, it will burst out, which is called overflow incontinence.

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Holding urine for a long time will cause the bladder muscles to relax and become weak, and the bladder's contraction ability will decrease, resulting in symptoms of dysuria such as waiting to urinate and incomplete urination. If the urine holding is severe, the bacteria and even urine in the bladder will flow back to the upper urinary tract through the ureter, causing reflux kidney disease or pyelonephritis.

If things go on like this for a long time, holding urine can cause damage to the kidney's structure and eventually lead to renal failure. In addition, studies have shown that the habit of holding urine can also increase the risk of bladder cancer.

Therefore, in life, pay attention to developing good living habits, avoid holding urine, drink more water, exercise more, pay attention to changes in your body, seek medical attention in time if you feel unwell, seek professional guidance, and protect urinary health!

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