Medical Update - Rainbows in Your Urine? Have It Checked!
Urine can assume almost any color of the rainbow, but the only reason for concern is whether there’s blood in it. Blood can color the urine red, brown, or orange–but, so can many other things. If you see any of these three colors, have your urine checked for blood.
Yellow is, of course, the normal color, but phenacetin (found in many pain medications) and the B vitamin riboflavin can also produce a yellow color (bright yellow with large doses of the vitamin). Another harmless color is green-blue, which can be caused by Elavil (an antidepressant) or Dyrenium (a diuretic). (Some of our older readers may recall the boyhood stunt of putting a methylene blue tablet in the food of a classmate, scaring the daylights out of him when his urine came out a bright blue!)
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Other substances that can alter the normal color of urine:
Red: blackberries or beets; phenolphthalein (in Ex-Lax, Correctol, Feen a Mint, etc.); phenothiazine (used in some antipsychotic and antivomiting drugs); rifampin (an antituberculosis drug)
Orange: phenazopyridine (such as in Pyridium, a bladder “soother”); sulfasalazine (used to treat ulcerative colitis and other bowel problems)
Brown: fava beans or rhubarb; sorbitol; senna (a laxative); and such drugs as Aralen, Robaxin, Aldomet, Flagyl, and Macrobid.
Urine should always be clear, whatever its color. Cloudy urine can be a sign of bladder or kidney infection.
COPYRIGHT 1999 Benjamin Franklin Literary & Medical Society, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning
