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Using the toilet shouldn’t bring cause for concern, but smelly pee should catch your attention. The causes can range from mild to severe, but whatever it is, needs to be looked into. Of course, no one expects the many things that come out of the human body to smell like roses, but healthy pee should smell neutral.
Your urine is communicating processes that are happening inside of your body. Odorous urine could also be the sign of a medical issue. Don’t simply spray the air freshener and forget about it. Here are causes of sudden smelly pee.
A Protein Increase
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If you’ve been making more of a concerted effort to up your protein intake, you could be enjoying benefits like increased energy and decreased appetite. However, any time your protein intake goes up, your as well. Kidney.com explains that your kidneys do the important job of breaking down your protein into various byproducts, and filtering those out through your urine. But if you aren’t consuming enough water, your urine can become very concentrated with increased protein, and that can result in smelly pee. If you have spoken to your medical professional and decided the amount of protein you’re consuming is healthy, consider upping your water intake to see if the smelly pee goes away.
Vitamin B6 Supplements
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Vitamin B6 is an essential vitamin that’s responsible for many functions including keeping the nervous and immune system healthy. If you struggle to get enough of it from the foods you eat, your doctor might recommend you take a Vitamin B6 supplement. Don’t overdo it. Adults ages 50 and younger should only take 1.3 milligrams a day unless otherwise instructed by a healthcare professional. Adults 50 and over can take between 1.5 to 1.7 milligrams a day. Overdoing it on this vitamin can lead to thiamine being excreted through urine, which can lead to a strong odor, according to MIT Medical.
A High Salt Diet
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A high salt diet can cause smelly pee because it’s linked to another well-known issue: dehydration. A high salt diet pulls water out of your cells and directs it into your blood. However, if your cause of dehydration comes from not just simply under-consuming water but overconsuming salt, it’s important to alter your diet. The National Library of Medicine states consuming too much salt can lead to issues like stomach ulcers and infections. So if you are hitting the sodium too hard, simply upping the water intake might ease the smelly pee issue but it won’t reduce your risk of other complications.
You Have Diabetes
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If your pee has a fruity or sweet smell to it, type 2 diabetes or pre-diabetes could be to blame. If you are at risk for diabetes and are undiagnosed, sweet-smelling pee plus a frequent need to use the toilet should be cause to see your doctor and get tested for diabetes. If you already know that you have diabetes, and are struggling with sweet-smelling pee, it could be a sign you are mismanaging diabetes. The smell comes from sugar in your urine stream. This occurs when your body is attempting to get rid of excess sugar – something diabetics need to be especially careful to avoid.
You Have A Urinary Tract Infection
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Urinary Tract Infections are far more common in women than men simply due to the female anatomy. It’s easy for bacteria to travel up the urinary tract of a woman, via the vagina. UTIs are usually easily treatable with the use of antibiotics but should be treated as soon as symptoms appear. Untreated UTIs can turn into more serious conditions, like kidney infections. One of the first signs of a UTI is smelly pee. That smell is from the bacteria from the infection making its way into the urine stream, according to Mayo Clinic. This will likely be accompanied with a frequent urge to urinate and a burning sensation.
You Ate These Foods
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Your kidneys break down and flush out various byproducts from the foods that you eat. The end result is urine that contains some chemical compounds found in your sustenance. With most foods, you won’t notice an odor, but some foods are notorious for causing smelly pee. Most know that asparagus can cause smelly pee, but you can note that fish, garlic and onion are also known to cause odorous urine. Coffee is another offender. Some of the healthy compounds that give it its signature smell in your cup get broken down into waste products that give your urine its own special smell.
You’re Pregnant
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Pregnancy does not alter the smell of your pee, but it does lead to hormone changes that alter your smelling. In other words, your pee could smell different to you if you are pregnant. If you have been trying to conceive or suspect you could be pregnant and smell something funny in your pee that nobody else detects, you could be expecting. An increased sense of smell, otherwise known as hyperosmia, is common in pregnant women, according to the National Library of Medicine.
