HWN Suggests

What’s In Your Pee?

There’s lots of potential reasons why we’d want to know exactly what’s going on in our urine; it can help us understand how our diet affects our waste management system, and how our bodies process food and liquid. And once we’ve figured that stuff out, we can use simple, non-invasive urine tests to check for all kinds of illnesses that might typically require a less pleasant blood test or other kind of test. Wishart notes that urine tests could be used to test for different kinds of cancer, for celiac disease, pneumonia, and lots more.

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Featured

 Your pee could be the golden ticket to a greener world

While many of us simply flush and forget about it, our pee has the potential to be a valuable resource. Urine contains the nutrients nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium—a trio known in agriculture as NPK—in soluble forms that plants can take up, similar to synthetic fertilizers widely used in crop production.

Articles of Interest

A wee fact about asparagus

Like many people, I love eating asparagus! But there can be a funny side effect… When some of us eat asparagus, shortly afterwards our wee smells strange – a bit like rotten or boiled cabbage. But not all of us can make this stinky wee… and here’s something else surprising – not everybody can smell it!

Health Check: what can your doctor tell from your urine?

Urine can be tested for particular proteins, sugars, hormones or other chemicals, certain bacteria and its acidity or alkalinity. Doctors can also tell a lot from how your urine looks and smells. For example dark urine could be a sign of dehydration; a cloudy appearance may suggest infection; if the urine is a reddish colour there may be blood in it; and a sweet smelling urine can be a sign of diabetes.

Health Check: what your pee and poo colour says about your health

Out of the blue I passed bright red pee. I freaked, thinking it was a sign of terminal disease. Then I remembered the roasted beetroot tarts served at the party the night before – so delicious I’d eaten three! Beetroot, artificial colours, vitamin supplements and medications can change the colour of your urine or bowel motions. Knowing which colour changes are due to food or medicines can save you worry, or provide an early alert to get to the doctor.

How Paris Is Covering Up That Pee Smell

The city of lights has been blighted by public urination. But no longer.

Human Pee Might Just Be the Key to Saving Seagrass

Treating wastewater creates struvite—a nutrient-rich crystal that bolsters struggling seagrass beds.

Is urine actually sterile?

It’s a fact frequently shared at parties and across social media: urine is sterile, so you should drink it if you find yourself in a waterless pinch. But like so many cocktail party factoids, this one is absolutely not true. Urine ain’t sterile, friends, and neither is any part of you.

Is Your Pee The Right Color? [Infographic]

A helpful guide to urine appearance.

Just How Much Pee Is In That Pool?

You know that sharp odor of chlorine from the swimming pool you can recall from earliest childhood? It turns out it's not just chlorine, but a potent brew of chemicals that form when chlorine meets sweat, body oils, and urine.

Let's Talk About Urine

Urine is actually - it's a big deal. Urine is a very important waste product that we don't celebrate enough. There are lots of misconceptions around urine. Can urine cure athlete's foot? Or really treat a jellyfish sting? Today on the show — we'll talk about what it actually is, debunk some common myths, and share some urine facts.

Meet the Peecyclers. Their Idea to Help Farmers Is No. 1

A shortage of chemical fertilizer, worsened by the war in Ukraine, has growers desperate. It just so happens that human urine has the very nutrients that crops need.

Pee makes for great fertilizer. But is it safe?

Treated urine contains the same great ingredients that make fertilizers so effective.

Pee power

“URINE and faeces to you”, explains a dodgy sewer-manager in one of Reginald Hill’s crime novels, “is bread and butter to me.” And he is not the only one. The BioEnergy Team, led by Ioannis Ieropoulos of the Bristol Robotics Laboratory (BRL) in Britain, are hoping to profit from working with the stuff too. They have developed a new technique to turn urine into electrical power—or “urine-tricity” as they call it.

Renaissance-era doctors used to taste their patients’ pee

Archaeologists in Rome have unearthed a treasure trove of Renaissance-era medical supplies inside the Forum of Caesar. Among the “golden” finds are 500 year-old medicine bottles and urine flasks. In a study published April 11 in the journal Antiquity, the authors believe that the containers were used to collect pee for medical analysis and diagnosis. According to the researchers, the pathogens that could have been present in these bottles helps uncover how urban waste was managed.

Take a leak: 7 cool things about pee

According to the Smithsonian Magazine, Ancient Romans washed their clothes with urine. The Romans invented flushing toilets and sewers, and when those public bathrooms were full, the pee would be taken to laundromats and put in a tub and — well, you can guess the rest. The ammonia in pee is a natural cleaner (and still used in lots of soaps today), and the Romans called it “chamber lye.”

Turns Out Urine Isn’t Actually Sterile

New research debunks the myth that urine doesn’t contain bacteria…and calls traditional lab techniques into question.

Urine (Not Chlorine) Causes Red Eyes in Pools

For many, a trip to the local swimming pool also results in red, itchy eyes. So what’s the reason behind eye irritation? Brace yourself — the answer is grosser than you might think. According to The Washington Post’s Ariana Eunjung Cha, the answer isn’t chlorine. It’s urine.

Urine For A Surprise: Your Pee Might Reveal Your Risk For Obesity

The leucine-to-ketoleucine ratio is an indicator that dates back to 1969, when a group of researchers correlated certain levels of amino acids with blood insulin levels.

Urologist answers nine questions about urine

He recently answered a few questions about urine, dispelling myths and addressing common concerns about pee.

Why Archaeologists Are Studying 10,000-Year-Old Urine

The history of animal domestication might be recorded in ancient pee.

Why Asparagus Makes Your Urine Smell

Our bodies convert asparagusic acid into sulfur-containing chemicals that stink—but some of us are spared from the pungent odor.

Yes wee can: study gives green light to use urine as crop fertiliser

Researchers say stored urine from humans is not likely to spread antibiotic resistance.

You Asked: What Can My Pee Tell Me About My Health?

When it comes to the smell of your pee, “odor is not predictive of much,” Moore says. But extra bubbly or foamy pee could mean you have too much protein in your diet. If the foaming persists, see a doctor about potential kidney issues.