oh does does your pee smell you know maybe like a cafe or rotten eggs or is it this wonderful Oompa Loompa looking orange that I've got here or some other strange color how about cranberry juice does it actually prevent and treat UTIs or is that something your grandma just told you to get rid of the expiring juice from her refrigerator chances are good you've heard and probably smelled some things when it comes to urine in your past so in today's video we're going to get to the bottom of at least a few of these urine Mysteries let's do this cranberries have been used as medicine for centuries Native Americans are believed to be the first to use cranberries medicinally treating all kinds of ailments from fever to liver problems in the late 1800s German doctors noticed something interesting when people ate cranberries their urine had higher levels of something called hyperic acid hipuric acid is the result of another Acid found in cranberries quinic acid being metabolized this eventually led to the idea that cranberry juice could help treat UTIs by making the urine more acidic this is because in sufficient quantities sapuric acid can be antimicrobial in the 1920s and 30s scientists tried to test this hypothesis they found that eating several hundred grams of cranberries could drop urine pH and increase sopuric acid levels however they realize you'd have to eat way more cranberries than normal to make a difference a typical glass of cranberry juice barely changes the pH of urine and it doesn't come anywhere close to the required levels of acid needed to have an effect on the Press presence of bacteria fast forward a few decades and polyphenols called proanthocyanidins which are present in blueberries and cranberries were reported to inhibit the ability of bacteria specifically E coli to bind to the epithelial cells in the urinary tract bacteria will adhere to the epithelium using what are known as fimbri which are thin hair-like bacterial appendages this is what we call a urinary tract infection or UTI and it comes with difficulty and pain in urination groin pain smelly urine and plenty of other symptoms if the UTI makes its way up to the kidneys things can become extremely dangerous and lead to blood infections and organ damage so when it was discovered that the paranthocyanidins and cranberries could possibly interfere with e coli's ability to adhere to the epithelial wall of the urinary tract cranberries were once again heralded as a solid treatment for UTI the only problem the evidence for it is wildly inconsistent and the studies that have shown it has benefits have honestly been poorly constructed when you compare cranberry juice to an antibiotic there is no competition antibiotics work to quickly eliminate UTIs and cranberry juice does not okay so if cranberry juice doesn't treat bacterial infections is it possible that it helps prevent them remember it has been shown at least in some studies to possibly interfere with the bacteria's ability to climb up the urinary tract I mean it's definitely possible I guess based on those studies uh at the same time you know is it something you could depend on I don't know about that but it's not as though you can't drink this right Physicians aren't telling you to throw out your cranberry juice I mean granted it has a lot of sugar it's juice so I mean there's other potential Health consequences for you but at the same time you know it's not like this is going to be doing damage to your urinary tract now before we discuss the nuances of smelly urine I want to take a quick moment and thank the sponsor of today's video ag1 ag1 has been sponsoring our videos for years now and while the nutritional drink isn't going to be helpful at all when it comes to treating UTIs it's definitely going to be beneficial for the human body ag-1 is foundational nutrition it's made up of 75 high quality Whole Food sourced ingredients including vitamins minerals superfoods probiotics and adaptogens for me personally I use it to help with my overall gut health and maintaining a nice population of gut microbiota as someone who has had significant gut issues in my past maintaining a healthy gut is of the utmost importance to me all you do is take one scoop add it to eight ounces of water and Shake vigorously I mean like really shake it this is in no way part of the instructions but I mean come on you can almost think of it like an additional workout for your day but afterwards you just take a sip and then well you carry on with your day I'm the type of guy that's all about effortless daily habits so knowing that a significant portion of my Essential daily nutrition has been handled first thing in the morning is a huge weight off my shoulders if you're interested go to drink ag1.com human anatomy and they'll give our a free one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin D3 plus K2 and 5 free travel packs with your first purchase go ahead and find that link in the description below we all know that urine doesn't smell great but sometimes it actually smells weirder than usual things like coffee alcohol asparagus garlic onions beets and even vitamins such as B1 and B6 can make it smell differently medical conditions such as diabetes kidney disease and UTIs can also change its smell and also be useful in diagnosing a more severe problem it all comes down to the various aromatic compounds being filtered into the urinary tract and then excreted out of the body this is kind of strange to think about but your pee used to be your blood the job of the kidneys is to filter the blood and drop any waste products into the urinary tract and mix it with water to create urine in fact around 95 percent of your urine is water two percent or so is made of urea which is where we also get the name urine the remaining three percent is made up of creatinine uric acid chloride sodium potassium and plenty of other molecules when you drink or eat something that some substance will be broken down into its molecular remains and then those will be absorbed by the gut into the bloodstream meaning it will eventually encounter the kidneys asparagus for example contains asparagusic acid which is metabolized in the body into multiple sulfur compounds these compounds are then filtered out by the kidneys make their way through the urinary tract end up in the toilet and then float in the air into your nasal cavity and bind to your olfactory epithelium and you smell rotten eggs so understanding this the question really becomes why do some things smell but others don't for instance if I eat a bagel why doesn't my urine smell like a bagel I mean what is it about asparagus beets alcohol and several others that makes urine smellier than usual well for one and I mean this you have a terrible sense of smell human beings are a visual species meaning our primary sense is Vision which is why we we have such robust visual cortices in our brains when it comes to Smells we just don't smell them very well our brain isn't built for it what I'm trying to say here is is that your pee actually does smell differently every single time you urinate depending on what is being filtered out of your bloodstream is it going to smell like a bagel probably not instead it'll smell like the various molecules that made up The Bagel to begin with you just have a terrible sense of smell and can't smell them and when it comes to things you can smell that's partially because some things are just smellier than other things sulfur is smelly which is why eating asparagus and unleashing the sulfur compounds can make your bathroom smell like a geyser at Yellowstone National Park however genetics also plays a factor some people simply can't smell the sulfur compounds from asparagus P it could be the smelliest asparagus p in the history of asparagus pee and they still wouldn't smell it if your genetics don't have the blueprints for the proteins needed to receive the sulfur compounds in the olfactory epithelium you're not going to smell anything and while a ton of robust science hasn't been done in this area it's probable that this is the case pretty much every smell in existence some of you have the genetics that allow for a more profound sense of smell in some cases and others of you are just wandering around blissfully unaware of the terrible odors permeating your nostrils and lastly let's discuss the different colors that urine can be and what it means for you but in full disclosure these samples I've been using is not this isn't urine this is juice right I don't have access to enough people you know to get enough urine samples to make a YouTube video plus that would be really weird you know like how do you even go about it are you just like hey do you have weird pee can I have some so even though this is juice I'm hopeful this is going to be helpful to you nonetheless so first up we have clear urine now clear urine is typically an indicator of over hydration and that's because the normal color for urine or expected color of urine is actually going to be a pale yellow and I want you to remember from earlier that 95 of urine is actually going to be water and that means it's the other five percent that gives it its color specifically what we're talking about here is a pigment called urochrome urochrome is a waste product from the breakdown of hemoglobin but it's what gives urine that characteristic yellow color but you don't want too much you don't want too little instead you want the Goldilocks zone of p and that's exactly what the pale yellow is going to be because when you see this it suggests that you are properly hydrated but urine can also be orange now this can be from a medication but it also can be from consuming large amounts of a pigment known as beta-carotene and you'll find that in things such as carrots for instance instance so if you ate a lot of carrots not only could it change the color of your urine but it also could slightly change the pigment of your skin now brown urine is typically more worrisome and this could possibly mean the presence of kidney or liver disease although there are medications that can also turn urine brown but you can also get brown urine from toxic doses of medication so if you're seeing brown urine and it's not going away this is likely something you're going to want to speak with your doctor about now this particular cup is actually Cola mixed with water so if you see some carbonation that's what that is your your urine should not be carbonated if it is that's definitely worrisome Now red or pink urine can mean that blood has found its way into your urinary tract but that doesn't necessarily mean that's what happened it can also be a product of your diet so for instance maybe you're eating beets or rhubarb which if you're eating rhubarb why are you eating rhubarb rhubarb is just not pleasant regardless it can turn your urine red but so can tumors infections kidney stones so if you're seeing red it's probably a good idea to at least speak with your doctor to see if it's something you should be worried about now cloudy urine can potentially mean the presence of an infection and the reason I'm going back to this orange one is because this juice is just a little cloudier than the other samples but cloudy urine doesn't necessarily mean there is an infection it is possible to have a little bit of cloudiness you then hydrate you then urinate it goes away but what you're typically going to see with cloudy urine if it's worrisome at least is going to be pain but regardless again these are always things you should at least speak with your doctor about to see if there is something you should be more worried about however urine could potentially be pretty much any color you can possibly think of you've probably seen like that neon yellow urine that comes with say vitamin supplements or energy drinks chemotherapy has been known to cause green urine in patients but this is why it's likely a good idea if you are experiencing any strange color exiting your urethra to speak with your doctor you never know if it's going to be a bad thing it's better to be safe than sorry but just understand that it is also possible that nothing Insidious is happening and instead whatever you ate is just simply finding a more liquidy route to your toilet thanks for watching everyone be sure to click the link in the description below to begin your ag1 journey today if you enjoyed today's video please consider giving it a like that way YouTube is more likely to recommend it to more viewers and you be doing us a favor but thanks again for hanging out with me and I'll see you in the next video [Music] thank you [Music]