What if my pee is dark yellow?

We all know that feeling when you finally get to relieve yourself after holding it in for a long while, and you look down only to see your pee isn’t its usual lemonade color but instead looks like something out of a horror movie. Don’t worry; this situation happens to everyone at some point in their life. There are several reasons why our urine might change color or appearance. In this article, we’ll go over the different possible causes of yellowish-brown urine.

A little bit about pee

Before we dive into what makes your pee so wonderfully unique, let’s talk about what exactly urine is made up of. Urine consists of water and waste products filtered by the kidneys from the bloodstream. The shade, odor, frequency, and volume can all provide clues about one’s overall health.

What gives it that yellow hue?

The naturally occurring pigment called urochrome (fun fact: also known as urobilin) gives human urine its pale-yellow color.

How much should I be having a day?

A healthy adult produces approximately 1 to 2 liters per day on average—any less than this indicates inadequate hydration.

Possible reasons for darkened pee:

Pee can range from various shades of light straw-colored yellows through darker ambers due to biological factors such as diet or medical conditions affecting skin pigmentation or liver function.

| Urine Color | Meaning |
|————-|———|
| Clear | Overhydration |
| Pale Yellow | Normal |
| Dark Yellow/Amber | Dehydrated |

Here are some things that could cause your otherwise clear liquid gold to turn almost brown:

Dehydration

If you’ve been drinking enough fluids throughout the day but still notice an unusually darker tone in your urine #they say it’s like amber color#, chances are you’re dehydrated (fun fact: over 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated). Think back to your day and consider if the accumulated hours without water or other fluids could have caused this—increased physical activity, high sweating, or consuming diuretics such as caffeine could all cause dehydration.

Diet

Certain diets can turn pee from its usual pale-yellow appearance. Eating a lot of beets, berries or rhubarb has been known to alter urine colors ^1^. Additionally, vitamins (B-complex) in higher doses can change the yellow hue to more neon-like orange #just when I thought I couldn’t get any brighter!

Medications

It’s not uncommon for some medications that our body is processing through urine ^2^ (hoho talk about pee recycling!); certain antibiotics’ consumption such as Rifampin causes darkening in almost everyone ^3^. Chemotherapy drugs and laxatives can also mess with your desired color scheme.

### Liver Problems

If an individual’s liver function is impaired due to hepatitis, cirrhosis or alcoholism – makes bile pigment buildup; Bilirubin gives a darker yellow shade tinted brown-ish hue. Furthermore, Jaundice refers specifically to skin but may manifest itself as yellowness when affecting eyes/skin combo causing additional coloring in circulating blood- resulting into creating darker shades of urine.#ick

Takeaway:

~The take home message? If you notice discoloration in your liquid stream outside what we’ve mentioned here((exceptions being medication/drug usage where interactions DO require action/monitoring)), then additional consultation with your primary care physician will need

While suddenly noticing jagged dark hues emanating outta that glorious piss-stream might seem concerning – most often its nothing serious beyond ‚your hydration slipped‘—simply making it to 8 glasses a day can fix that.

Remember: colors come in all shades; there isn’t any one perfect shade with which our pee should match up^5^.

Written by Your Friendly Neighborhood AI Writer | ©2021 OpenAI | No part of this article may be replicated or reproduced whatsoever without proper citation and accreditation.

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