What does your Pee say about your health-Cleveland Clinic study

[madwife2002, BSN, RN]

I came across this study from Cleveland Clinic documented in a UK newspaper

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2518197/What-does-pee-say-health-New-diagram-shows-alarmed--suffering-from.html

[xoemmylouox, ASN, RN]

I do try to keep mine at the pale yellow. I will admit that it has been darker on a busy day.

[BostonRN13]

Mine is polka dot

[SwansonRN]

On my track and cross country teams we'd always aim for our pee to be "classic post it note" yellow. I'm still my own urine's biggest critic

[Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN]

I love the clinic however..I differ from them.....there is purple urine.

Purple urine bag syndrome is a medical syndrome where purple discoloration of urine occurs in people with urinary catheters and co-existent urinary tract infection. Bacteria in the urine produce the enzyme indoxyl phosphatase. This converts indoxyl sulfate in the urine into the red and blue colored compounds indirubin and indigo. The most commonly implicated bacteria are Providencia stuartii, Providencia rettgeri, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli, Morganella morganii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Or porphyria.....a rare, inherited disorder of red blood cells.

Purple Urine Bag Syndrome: A Rare and Interesting Phenomenon medscape is free but requires registration

[nurseprnRN, BSN, RN]

Now, we can have pictures to cover all the major color groups if we add Foley bags with methylene blue (blue urine, and sometimes just greenish) and, of course, red (bloody), dayglo orange (phenazopyridine, Pyridium), and brown (hemolysis/myolysis/hepatic failure).

And they say bedside nursing has so little opportunity for creativity. Bosh.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

for the purple in porphyria, it has to be exposed to ultraviolet light, ie, sunlight.....

I love the clinic however..I differ from them.....there is purple urine.

Purple urine bag syndrome is a medical syndrome where purple discoloration of urine occurs in people with urinary catheters and co-existent urinary tract infection. Bacteria in the urine produce the enzyme indoxyl phosphatase. This converts indoxyl sulfate in the urine into the red and blue colored compounds indirubin and indigo. The most commonly implicated bacteria are Providencia stuartii, Providencia rettgeri, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Escherichia coli, Morganella morganii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Or porphyria.....a rare, inherited disorder of red blood cells.

Purple Urine Bag Syndrome: A Rare and Interesting Phenomenon medscape is free but requires registration

[TiffyRN, BSN, PhD]

Love the purple urine!! Also love how nurses frequently describe urine in food, or rather beverage terms; "tea-colored" "cherry-red", "white zin", "champagne".

I've seen blue-green urine from people on methylene blue. One time though I saw blue-green urine from an infant that had never had any meds. It was from a straight cath as the infant had severe bladder issues. I saved some for the nurse practitioner who was duly impressed. Best explanation we could find was a UTI with some bacteria that produced the color.