Look for urine to guess the disease

Urine color may reveal a lot about your health condition. One researcher recommended that after expressing concern that modern medicine may have bypassed the diagnostic tool that was time-tested.

Medieval doctors light urine before the light. (Photo: ABConline) Dr. Carole Foot, from Prince Charles Hospital in Queensland (Australia), says the classic urine test method can help doctors keep track of giving patients medication, showing disease and in In some cases, expensive and painful tests can be avoided.

Ancient Greeks first diagnosed rare blood disorder porphyria by observing urine color and even named the disease with a Greek word meaning purple. By the Middle Ages, when urine analysis became popular, specimens were often examined in a glass, held in the light.

Foot said urine analysis may still be useful today. She said the idea came after visiting a hospital room and found that some patients had discolored urine.

According to Foot, urine can provide information about whether a patient is taking certain medications or is being treated for overdose. For example, propofol, an analgesic commonly used in emergency care units, will turn urine into pink if used in the right dose, and turn green if the patient drinks too much.

"This sign indicates the need to reduce the amount of propofol prescribed to patients," she said.

And rifampicin antibiotics - used as adjunct to other antibiotics and sometimes to treat tuberculosis - will turn urine color and other secretions into tears (orange) when it is absorbed in the right dose. .

"If you take a urine sample and it's orange, you know that the patient has taken the medicine," Foot said.

Meanwhile, urine of dark or dark brown tea may indicate infection in people who have had heart or heart surgery, because it indicates that the patient has broken red blood cells.

Urine that turns black when exposed to air can be a sign of alkaptonuria - a rare enzyme disorder that causes abnormalities in the skin and cartilage. In addition, gout can produce pink urine.

Obviously many other diagnostic options are available today. However, "it is interesting how the diagnosis of many diseases is based on the experience of people in the Middle Ages," Foot said.

In addition, this diagnosis can help eliminate serious complications. For example, red urine may prompt doctors to quickly come to a conclusion that something is wrong. That's because red indicates that bleeding and blood in the urine are mostly synonymous with abnormalities.

However, a simple question can also shed light on the problem that urine is red because the patient is in menstruation. Eating lots of sugar beets, raspberries and rhubarb can turn urine into red, while blue urine - green may be evidence of a patient taking too much antiseptic.

In healthy people, urine from almost colorless to light yellow, thanks to urochrome pigment. But when urochrome concentrates too much, urine may become dark or brown, indicating that it is time for the patient to drink more water.

However, urine diagnostics are not always accurate, Foot says, because urine pH levels and genetic factors can affect how substances change their color.

Thuan An