First of all I would like to thank you for joining me on my attempt to create an easy-to-read medical blog. I will do my best to write my sincere opinion on medical issues and provide some professional but approachable explanation to common medical topics.
Today, I would like to talk about pee.
We have heard a lot about the importance of keeping ourselves hydrated, especially during summer months. This recommendation becomes even more important for people living in countries with peaks of extremely high temperatures like for us here in Greece.
We humans have an inner base temperature of 36.5 °C and our body uses multiple mechanisms to keep this temperature steady no matter the environmental temperature. Sweating is one of those mechanisms, but sweating requires a lot of water.
“But doctor, I drink my 2 liters of water per day”. My most sincere congratulations. Do you drink 2 liters of plain water during winter and summer? Do your elderly parents, wife and kids do the same? Do you all have the same body mass index? Are you a heavy coffee drinker? Do you eat salty? Do you have the same physical activity every day? Don’t you think there should be a difference in between genders, metabolism, age, seasons, consumption of diuretics and many other factors? Well, the answer is YES.
“But Doctor, then how can I estimate how much water should I drink to rehydrate myself?”
The truth is you will never know, is a pointless and unpractical estimation. And please, do not misunderstand me, 2 liters of water is not incorrect, but it shouldn’t become a mantra. In addition to all the variables mentioned above, you must consider that water is not your only source of fluids, and the equation can become more and more complex. On top of that, every doctor you talk to, depending on their specialty will approach such a question in an individualised manner.
So here we are with the importance of our pee. “Learn to read your body, learn to read your pee.” Is one of the simple rules in life, and hasn’t failed me yet.
Dark pee means you need to rehydrate yourself immediately, yellow pee means you need to improve a little bit, light yellow to almost transparent pee means you are doing a good job. And it can mean a lot more: It can mean you are not making your kidneys and the rest of your body to work to the limit unnecessarily.
So that’s my tip for the week, follow the chart HERE to keep yourself hydrated: 1 to 3 is healthy pee, 4 to 8 rehydrate!
