If so, why is it that I always pee clear when I’m drinking alcohol? Am I harboring the toxins? Tldr why is good pee yellow tinted, but bad pee is either dark yellow or clear?
In: Biology
The lighter your urine is, the more dilute it is. Light urine contains more water than dark. This is why dark urine generally means you’re dehydrated.
When you drink alcohol, your body wants to eliminate it, so it secretes more water.
The yellow color comes from a chemical called urochrome. But the intensity is just about water content.
The yellow coloring is urochrome which is a chemical produced when your liver processes dead blood cells. It gets darker through a combination of hydration, which dilutes this urochrome, and a mixture of foods and medications that can discolor urine. Your pee is clear when drunk because alcohol slows down the production of ADH in your body which regulates urination. You then produce more urine and pee more. Because your liver can only produce urochrome at a certain speed you end up with clear urine due to low levels of urochrome and high levels of urine.
The intensity of colour is a good indicator of the concentration of the urine. If you drink plenty, you will produce dilute, light coloured urine.
Alcohol acts as a diuretic, and causes your body to excessively remove water, making you go to the toilet more. This results in dilute urine, however it also dehydrates the body. Your urine the following morning will likely be darker than normal as a consequence.
It’s more a sign your dehydrated and your body wants to retain fluid and therefore it creates more concentrated urine.
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