What’s Your Pee Telling You: Urine Colour Symptoms & Causes

It may sound strange, but your urine colour may have a story to tell about your health. Urine is the by-product of the kidneys, which filter out excess water, salts, and waste from your blood. This waste is then stored in your bladder until you pee it out. It is largely water but also contains various wastes and toxins of the body.

If your pee looks clear — transparent and pale yellow — it’s your body’s way of saying, “Keep it up, my hydration hero!” Things may be amiss with yellow urine, orange urine, blue or green urine, etc. Let’s understand the various shades of urine, what they mean, and when to see a doctor.

Your urine is essentially a liquid. So, it can undergo only three kinds of changes — colour, smell, and consistency. 

The colour of your urine varies with your hydration status (how much water do you drink daily?); intake of certain medications, vitamin supplements, and foods; liver issues; or even urinary tract infections (UTIs) sometimes. The smell of urine can give clues about your health, too. If it has a strong, unpleasant odour, it might suggest excessive amounts of certain metabolic products like proteins, minerals, or an underlying infection. 

A change in urine consistency to cloudy or foamy often suggests chronic kidney issues or more. Whatever the case, you must pay attention and report any changes in your urine colour immediately. This will prevent medical emergencies and complications in the future.

The usual pale, transparent yellow colour of urine is scientifically due to a pigment called urochrome. It is a sign of adequate hydration. If you're dehydrated, your urine becomes dark yellow or even light brown. On the flip side, your pee may change colour even when well-hydrated, owing to foods, medicines, supplements, or diseases. It’s important to note that the following points may indicate potential health concerns but are not a substitute for a medical diagnosis from your doctor.

With dehydration, the colour of your pee darkens. Concentrated urochrome pigments may emit shades of a darker yellow to amber colour. Drinking extra water dilutes the yellow pigment, making your urine lighter. Urochrome is produced through the breakdown of haemoglobin, a protein found in red blood cells that carry oxygen. The more diluted this pigment is, the lighter your urine will seem.

Severe dehydration may sometimes cause orange urine. Having lots of carrots may also turn urine orange due to the beta-carotene (orange) pigment in them. Vitamin C supplements and medicines like laxatives, chemotherapy drugs, sulfasalazine, rifampin, warfarin, and phenazopyridine can also make urine turn orange. 

On the other hand, issues with the liver or the bile duct also result in orange urine. 

Beets, fava beans, blackberries, and rhubarb can all cause red or dark brown urine. Brown pee can also occur when you are severely dehydrated or have taken certain drugs. Furthermore, dark brown or cola-coloured urine may indicate liver damage or kidney failure and the need for immediate medical care. 

Bright, neon yellow urine is typical after ingesting vitamin B supplements. 

We’ve already learned that red-pigmented foods like beets, blackberries, or rhubarb can turn your pee pink or red. If you see these colours in the bathroom, it’s often nothing to worry about, especially if you know it’s not blood.

Some medications can also change your urine colour to pinkish red. For example, drugs used for UTI pain or to alleviate tuberculosis can make your pee reddish-orange. Certain laxatives can also do this.

However, if you think the red or pink urine colour might be blood, then it could be a sign of something more serious — like an enlarged prostate, kidney damage, or bladder tumours. In that case, it’s important to see a doctor. You may be able to see small blood clots floating in the urine, apart from the reddish pee. 

Certain medications can cause this colour change in urine. Eating foods with certain dyes that your body can't absorb can also result in blue or green urine.

In rare cases, a condition called blue diaper syndrome or familial benign hypercalcemia (high amounts of calcium in the blood) can turn urine blue. UTIs caused by pseudomonas bacteria can also turn urine green.

A murkier, milky, cloudy whitish pee is common in UTIs. It can also be a direct result of a kidney issue, digestive tract inflammation like Crohn's disease or diverticulitis, or high circulating levels of minerals like calcium and phosphate in the body. 

The yellow urine symptoms are usually not alarming. Maybe you’ve had a hectic day, or it’s scorching summertime; drinking enough water or fluids will soon get the urine colour back to normal. Most changes in your urine aren't a big deal and usually go back to normal in a day or two. But if the changes last longer or your pee is red, brown, or bubbly, see a doctor. Sometimes, these changes hint at problems like infections. A quick urine analysis can help your doctor spot health issues, so don’t ignore persistent changes.

In his LinkedIn post, Dr Aaron O Williams, PharmD, MD, MBA, BCM, writes that blood in urine (red urine), pain while peeing, and changes in pee patterns are closely related to bladder cancer.

Some risk factors may impact health and, in turn, affect urine colour, such as a family history of kidney disease or kidney stones. Excessive exercise may also cause blood to flow into the urine. Apart from this, with age, men tend to have murkier or reddish urine due to mild prostate enlargement. 

We all experience changes in urine colour occasionally. Given our packed work lives, travel plans, and weather changes, it's understandable to sometimes neglect drinking adequate water. However, if you see your urine changing colours too often, then it’s best to talk to a physician. Pinkish-red urine, orange urine, blue-green urine, and murkier or cola-coloured urine are not normal and must be treated. 

Pinkish-red urine is an indicator of an urgent health issue. It means that there is bleeding into the urine, indicating more serious problems related to the kidney, prostate, etc. Orange urine may also be an early sign of liver damage and needs immediate attention.

Pinkish, red, tea-cola-coloured, or cloudy whitish urine indicates an underlying kidney problem, such as infections, kidney stones, or more. 

The tea or cola-coloured brown urine is typical of failure of urine formation by the kidneys. 

The commonest reason for dark urine is dehydration, certain pigmented foods like berries, rhubarb, beetroot, or vitamin supplements. 

Dark urine can be a cause for worry if it persists for more than 1-2 days and doesn't resolve with good hydration and changing foods/supplements. 

The best way to stop dark urine is to consult a doctor. With an exam and palpation, they can identify the exact cause and prescribe suitable treatment.