A trip to the bathroom is actually more valuable than you think. "The look and smell of your urine, as well as the frequency, can give you a lot of clues about your physical health," says Dr. Michael Farber, director of executive health programs at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey. If your urine is pale If the color is as pale as water, then it's probably because you drank a lot of water. In addition, if you go to the bathroom many times a day, your bladder is also filled with fluid. Light-colored urine is not a disease, so don't worry.

Too dark If your urine is brown, iced tea in color, and has some smell, it means you may be dehydrated or have a lot of urine stored in your kidneys. "Urine can be a good indicator of dehydration in the body," Farber said, "so if a patient is dizzy or dizzy, a urine test is needed to check the cause and see if it is the result of dehydration." The ideal color is straw. If you drink a lot of water but have less urine, it also means that there is something wrong with your body, most likely due to blood. Of course you won't see bleeding in the toilet, but it could be a sign of kidney bleeding, which could be related to infection, kidney disease, or even cancer.

Fragrance smell If there is a slight fragrance in your urine, it means that your body is in a very bad state. "If there is a scent in the urine, it means there is blood sugar in the urine," Farber said. A common symptom of diabetes is the presence of blood sugar in the urine. The kidneys act as a filter in the body, filtering out all kinds of waste in the body. If your "filter" is broken, waste will leak out in other forms and be excreted through urine. If you are pregnant, your kidneys' filtering system may change and blood sugar may show up in your urine. Whether you're pregnant or not, if your doctor finds sugar in your urine, he or she will do further tests to see if you have diabetes.

Interesting odor If there is an unknown odor in the urine, it may be a minor problem in the body, but you don’t have to worry about it. Some foods—asparagus, as we all know—produce a sulfur-containing amino acid. So, once the food is digested in the digestive system, those stinky substances are released, filtered by the kidneys, and then enter the urinary system, where an unpleasant odor occurs. As soon as the food is completely digested and eliminated from your body, the odor will disappear.

Bright yellow urine may be shocking, but it may be caused by vitamins in your body. Deborah J., associate professor of urology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., says that "B vitamins and carotene make urine darker and golden in color," but there's no need to worry about bright yellow urine. Urine just means that you have filtered out precious vitamins. After being absorbed and used by the body, it doesn't matter if it is excreted in the urine.

Blood Spots Blood in your urine can cause many problems - some may be benign, some may be serious. "For that reason, you should consult your doctor immediately if you notice blood in your urine," Lightner warns. "For a healthy woman, blood in the urine may be a urinary tract infection, but it cannot be ruled out that blood is one of the seven fatal causes of bladder cancer, which is the same for men and women." In addition to infection or (most) Worse case) Cancer, hematuria may also be a minor trauma or tears, kidney stones, or a side effect of taking aspirin medication.

Frequency You often see people in the business industry rushing to the bathroom frequently and urgently. There are many possible reasons for this phenomenon. Unless the frequency of going to the bathroom really affects your life, you won't care (or you will take the medicine yourself by watching the advertisement). Start by looking at your diet and lifestyle. If you start carrying a water bottle everywhere you go and drink more often - it's understandable that you need to go to the bathroom more often than usual. Furthermore, maybe you have recently changed your eating habits and you are eating foods that contain more water (such as fruits and vegetables), which may act as diuretics, or you have started taking medications (such as those used to treat high blood pressure). This also acts as a diuretic. One of the common symptoms of a urinary tract infection is an urgent need to pee (but not being able to pee when you're in the bathroom). Regardless of whether you are a woman or a man, as you age, your kidneys and bladder may always urinate. For men, the prostate may play a role. Not uncommon for men, the prostate in older men becomes clogged, causing weak urine flow and leading to bladder problems.

Incontinence is one of those issues that most people don’t want to discuss, but many women—some even young women who have never given birth—experience it. "Stress is one of the causes of incontinence, where the pelvic floor muscles can't handle the stress caused by some high-impact activities like running or gymnastics, or even like coughing or sneezing," says Lightner. The pelvic floor is too fragile, and the result of this pressure is small amounts of urine leaking out. Once this happens - it can get worse - especially after a woman gives birth. The best solution is to practice regular Kegel exercises (repeated exercises to strengthen the muscles to prevent urine leakage).

Another type, called urge incontinence, is not characterized by muscle weakness but by a malfunction of the bladder. "When the bladder decides it wants to relieve itself, you get the signal to go to the bathroom," Lightner says.

Burning Feeling If you suddenly feel a burning sensation when you pee, this is one of the signs of a urinary tract infection. This phenomenon is very common for women who have had sex. In premenopausal women, because the female physiological structure is that the urethra, vagina and rectum are very close to each other, this distance disadvantage makes it easy for bacteria to enter the urethra. , in severe cases it can also lead to urethral cancer. Oral antibiotics can resolve the infection within a few days, and increased urine output can also help reduce the severity of the infection so the bacteria can be driven away. Men's urinary tract infections are rare, but they can occur -- and, Leitner warns, the signs of the prostate aren't much like those seen in women.