Generally speaking, the urine should be light yellow or straw in color. There are times, however, when the color can change anywhere from clear to brown. From time to time, it’s quite common for the urine to end up dark yellow.
One of the most usual culprits behind dark yellow urine is dehydration. It’s easy to end up dehydrated especially when the weather is hot or you are engaging in physical activities that make you sweat a lot. This brings us to our first home remedy for dark yellow urine:
- Drink plenty of water. On a daily basis, it’s important for you to drink 8 glasses of water — that’s equivalent to about 2 liters or half a gallon. Otherwise, you may end up dehydrated. This can cause a variety of signs and symptoms, and one of which is urine that is dark yellow in color.
Actually, you can use the color of your urine to determine whether or not you are drinking the right amount of water — if it’s dark in color, you are not drinking enough; if it’s transparent, then you are probably glugging down too much.
Other than your urine being dark yellow in color, do you also notice a bunch of other symptoms? Do you have frequent urge to urinate? Do you experience a burning sensation as you pee? Is there pain in your lower abdomen? If you answered “yes” to these questions, then you may be suffering from a urinary tract infection or UTI.
Visiting your doctor is a surefire way to determine whether or not you have a UTI. Aside from the course of treatment that he or she will recommend, there are also a bunch of home remedies available for it:
- Drink cranberry juice. One of the most popular home remedy for a UTI is the intake of cranberry juice. What makes this healthy beverage work so effectively for a UTI is the fact that it keeps bacteria from sticking to the walls of the various parts of the urinary system, making them easier to flush out.
- Consume blueberries. Including more blueberries to your diet may sound so simple but it’s so effective against a UTI. That’s because blueberries are packed with antioxidants and immune strengthening properties. So go ahead and top your oatmeal or yogurt with blueberries.
- Have pineapples. Consume pineapples when having a bout of UTI is also a good idea. The enzyme found exclusively in pineapples called “bromelain” is said to be an excellent UTI (as well as heart disease!) fighter. You may choose to eat fresh pineapple slices or drink unsweetened pineapple juice.
- Take water with apple cider vinegar. In a glass of water, dissolve 2 tablespoons of raw, unfiltered and organic apple cider vinegar. Drink this special mix twice a day. Apple cider vinegar creates an environment that is very much disliked by bacteria, thus putting an end to that UTI.
Are you quite sure that you are drinking enough water daily and you are not suffering from a UTI but your urine still looks dark yellow? Maybe it’s because of the medication or supplement you are taking.
Medical experts say that medications used for chemotherapy can actually leave the urine looking dark yellow. This can be expected because the kidneys are flushing out those medications. People who are taking multivitamins containing B complex will surely have dark yellow urine — certain types of B vitamins can such to happen.
In some instances, urine that is dark yellow in color is an indicative of liver disease. Make sure that you visit your doctor for its diagnosis as well as for the right treatment for it, preventing it from worsening or causing complications.
