In general, the smell of urine can vary. Oftentimes it does not really have a strong smell. However, because of certain health conditions as well as modifications in your diet, smelly urine may manifest. If you are healthy, you will notice that your urine will not emit a foul odor and it will usually look clear to straw yellow. Fishy scent coming from your urine should alert you because it might be an impending sign of some health-care issue that needs to be treated before it gets worse.
Some of the possible smelly urine causes may include the following:
1. Dehydration – This is the number one cause of foul-smelling urine because of the fact that it leads to highly concentrated urine. Even if you are not taking in enough fluids, you will still have to urinate because this is how your body removes wastes. With that, if you do not have enough fluids to get rid of, a drastic change will happen to the smell and color of your urine. Aside from having a bad odor, the color will also change from straw yellow to orange.
2. Diabetes – Smelly urine causes may also include diabetes. If you have diabetes, there is already an imbalance happening in your body that can make your urine smell weird. Most diabetics will always complain of sweet smelling urine that is just too foul to take. This is because of the excess sugar that their body cannot use that is removed from the body through urination.
3. Food – Food items like asparagus can lead to foul odor in your urine. Although asparagus is very healthy, the pathway it takes during digestion is towards the kidney, this process gives the weird smell to one’s urine. Drinking coffee can also lead to smelly urine as well as other caffeinated drinks like tea.
4. Medicines – Vitamin and mineral supplements and even health drinks can bring changes to your urine. This is because of the component of these drugs. Take for instance iron tablets. They can change the consistency of your urine and add a bit of smell as well. Doctors will usually tell this to you if the drugs that they are going to prescribe will do a bit of change in your body. If you were briefed about this, then you do not need to worry about this a lot.
Smelly urine causes may differ from one person to another. This is why it is very difficult to self-medicate. If you want to make sure that you get the treatment that you need, give your physician a visit and schedule a check-up. Your doctor will usually require a sample of your urine to be tested at the laboratories so that you will be diagnosed well. Once the results are already with your physician, he/she will be able to give the correct treatment options based on the outcome of the tests.
Having smelly urine is something that you should attend to as early as you can, but do not panic because it can be caused by petty things that can easily be addressed with proper care.