Fact or Fiction

someone told me today that you can tell if your dehydrated by the color of your pee?
he said if it's yellow your dehydrated and if it's clear your not
is this true?

i always just thought it was because of what you drink, like if u drink alot of water it will be mostly clear but if you drink mostly soft drink and juice and stuff it will be more yellow, but i could be completely wrong as urine is not my specialty.

i never really paid any attention to my pee till now and mine's been clear so i just wanted to know if was true or if he is just a retard.
it kinda sounds like it would make since

Yeah that's completely True, we have a saying in Wrestling, If your pee is clear, then Hydration is near. We have to take Hydration Tests for Wrestling

wow i can't belive that's true thank you

" The color of pee is caused by bile, a chemical the liver produces to break up fat. When our bodies break down bile, the pigment urochrome turns pee yellow. The lighter the color, the more liquid has watered it down.

In fact, you can easily determine if you're dehydrated from the color of your urine. Dark yellow is a symptom of moderate dehydration and is a sign that you should drink fluids right away. However, taking vitamin supplements can also cause pee to appear yellow.

Believe it or not, urine's yellow color was once believed to come from gold. Long ago, alchemists attempted to extract gold from pee. Needless to say, they were unsuccessful. However, in 1669, an alchemist named Hennig Brand discovered phosphorus while engaged in the undertaking. Among other things, this find helped to spark the creation of matches. "

I know that when you drink coffee it make your pee smell like it

thank you all

yeah, basically what s happening when you pee is your body is getting rid of all the crap it doesnt need. so when pee is clear, its because most of it is excess water

WOW didnt know that.

Yeah like everyone else said, if its clear then your fine but if its yellow/greenish then your bad.
but note: Taking vitamins could also make your pee a darker color

The yellow colour you see is a combination of urobilin (a redoxed version of bilirubin, not bile) and other pigments like flavonoids (riboflavin and B vitamins). Note the difference is that urobilin is a deeper and darker yellow colour, where as the flavonoids have almost a fluorescent yellow appearance.

When your body starts to dehydrate it will reabsorb more water (than usual) from the large intestine as well as the collecting duct (part of the nephron) due to an increase in ADH.

So basically the concept is simple dilution. If more water is reabsorbed in your body, your bladder will fill slower and with urine with more concentrated urobilin and flavonoids (among other components of urine).

The colour of urine can also be impacted by certain stress factors (physical and emotional) as well or so I've heard. I think Hepatits can also affect your urine colour.

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Posted by Rush

The yellow colour you see is a combination of urobilin (a redoxed version of bilirubin, not bile) and other pigments like flavonoids (riboflavin and B vitamins). Note the difference is that urobilin is a deeper and darker yellow colour, where as the flavonoids have almost a fluorescent yellow appearance.

When your body starts to dehydrate it will reabsorb more water (than usual) from the large intestine as well as the collecting duct (part of the nephron) due to an increase in ADH.

So basically the concept is simple dilution. If more water is reabsorbed in your body, your bladder will fill slower and with urine with more concentrated urobilin and flavonoids (among other components of urine).

The colour of urine can also be impacted by certain stress factors (physical and emotional) as well or so I've heard. I think Hepatits can also affect your urine colour.

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wow!! you looked that up if not props to you

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Posted by roger

wow!! you looked that up if not props to you

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I know the concepts, but researched the details (basically I couldn't remember where in the nephron water reabsorption took place and I didn't know name of urobilin)


I want to make a comment on this

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Posted by hotrodttt

If your pee is clear, then Hydration is near.

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As a scientist it is a bit of pet peeve of mine that people do not understand the difference between clear vs. turbid and coloured vs. colourless.

The colour of pee has nothing to do with it being clear or not. Look at the attached pictures. The first three are all clear, but some are coloured. If a liquid is not clear, it is turbid as shown in the fourth picture.

Turbid urine is caused by a number of things such as bacteria (which shouldn't be in your urine, unless you have an infection. i.e. normal urine is sterile), white/red blood cells, fat or phosphates (which tend to form crystals or precipitates with metal ions.

WAY T.M.I. I just finished eating when I looked at that... now I can not look at my full throttle the same way... I'm gonna drink it.. just not look at it..