Why is my pee yellow?!

modernfemme
modernfemme Posts: 454 Member
edited September 22 in Food and Nutrition
Yesterday, I drank like 10 cups of water. My pee was running clear by dinner time. (And still, I kept drinking)

However, when I woke up this morning, my pee was radioactive yellow. What gives?

Some notes:
My dinner was pretty high in sodium and I also went over my daily allotment.
I've noticed my pee go all radioactive on days I don't go over my sodium. It's a bit of a pattern in the morning.

Replies

  • kelsully
    kelsully Posts: 1,008 Member
    I take my multivitamin etc at night before bed and thus my morning pee is neon...and it the most concntrated in the morning as you haven't gone in many hours.
  • binary_jester
    binary_jester Posts: 3,311 Member
    Vitamin B? When I take my Animal Paks, if i wrote my name in the snow, the space shuttle could view it due to the frightening neon yellow.
  • ErinMarie25
    ErinMarie25 Posts: 733 Member
    Eh, it happens. Just keep drinking water and I bet it'll be pale yellow or clear by sometime today.
  • chelekaz
    chelekaz Posts: 847 Member
    common for the first pee in the morning for a lot of people. i wouldn't worry about it.
  • heathersmilez
    heathersmilez Posts: 2,579 Member
    The vitamin C pills I take once and a while do that, I take them in the morning.
  • KcFitCoach
    KcFitCoach Posts: 135 Member
    Vitamins are definitely likely and first morning urine is MOST concentrated.
  • WalkingGirl1985
    WalkingGirl1985 Posts: 2,046 Member
    The same goes for me..I usually go 8 hours without going to the bathroom as I'm sleeping so when I wake up, to me, its like well..gotta keep on drinking that water when I see yellow!
  • tessjordan88
    tessjordan88 Posts: 201 Member
    The B complex vitamins do that to me.
  • JodiS75
    JodiS75 Posts: 284
    Vitamin B (esp. B12) make it a lovely flourescent shade of yellow! I have also seen it with certain antibiotics, but I can't remember which ones right now.....
  • TropicalKitty
    TropicalKitty Posts: 2,298 Member
    Ditto on the vitamins.

    Also, of course over night it'll become more concentrated.

    Lastly, it should be a lightish shade of yellow anyhow, not clear.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    While you sleep your body changes the way it produces urine, It is more concentrated, this is so you don't have to wake up 2 to 3 times during the night. the color can also be caused by vitamin surplus in your system that is expelled through urine.
  • http://sxxz.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-is-urine-yellow.html

    Some European alchemists in the middle ages apparently thought one possible reason was that there was gold in urine. This led to fruitless, and possibly quite disgusting, efforts to extract that gold.

    The yellow color in urine is due to chemicals called urobilins. These are the breakdown products of the bile pigment bilirubin. Bilirubin is itself a breakdown product of the heme part of hemoglobin from worn-out red blood cells. Most bilirubin is partly broken down in the liver, stored in the gall bladder, broken down some more in the intestines, and excreted in the feces (its metabolites are what make feces brown), but some remains in the bloodstream to be extracted by the kidneys where, converted to urobilins, it gives urine that familiar yellow tint. (Here is a great diagram of some of these reactions, from the Boehringer Mannheim Biochemical Pathways at ExPASy.)

    These same yellow chemicals also cause the yellow color of jaundice and of bruises, both of which result when more hemoglobin than usual is being broken down and/or the processing of its breakdown products by the liver is not able to keep up.
  • This content has been removed.
  • RoadDog
    RoadDog Posts: 2,946 Member
    Ketosis.
  • Ditto Vitamins always does it for me. I take mine after breakfast and I notice after that Its neon yellow
  • TrainingWithTonya
    TrainingWithTonya Posts: 1,741 Member
    The B and C vitamins are water soluble. If you take more then you need, neon urine is the result because the excess vitamins are excreted in urine. I'd recommend cutting the dosage of your vitamins. While it's not a big deal for water soluble vitamins, overdosing on fat soluble vitamins can become toxic. Since you don't excrete them in urine, you won't necessarily know if you are too high in your dosage without blood tests from your doctor. It's easier and less expensive to just get your vitamins from foods where it is highly unlikely you will overdose on them.

    As for other urine colors, just because I had to learn this in one of my nutrition classes. :wink: Normal urine should be clear to straw colored. If it is darker with more of a brown hue (not the highlighter colors like with excess vitamins), then you need to worry about dehydration.
  • lastchance2010
    lastchance2010 Posts: 494 Member
    LOL...I second, third and fourth the vitamins thing. It'll be ok. Keep drink that water...k? Good luck. :flowerforyou:
  • LotusF1ower
    LotusF1ower Posts: 1,259 Member
    common for the first pee in the morning for a lot of people. i wouldn't worry about it.

    It is common, something to do with protein building up overnight, getting p****ed out first thing as far as I am aware.

    I bet if everybody takes a good look at their first leak in the morning, it will be darker than the rest of the day.

    (what a subject to talk about - pee !!! :laugh: )
  • lastchance2010
    lastchance2010 Posts: 494 Member
    oopsss...sorry
  • modernfemme
    modernfemme Posts: 454 Member
    Very interesting guys, thanks for your comments.

    I don't take any vitamins. Probably a bad thing but I try to get all my nutrients from fresh food.

    Thanks again!!
  • cragmor
    cragmor Posts: 24 Member
    Dehydration is one cause. I think it is more of the sickly yellow. Bright yellow is the body passing out Vitamin B and carotene that did not get absorbed. Foamy urine is proteins being released. This could be bad, but for men, they find it is common due to standing, and the force of the stream. (I actually read that on webmd) The more turbulence in the bowl, the more foam.
This discussion has been closed.