Ever wondered how the human body is beyond any magic in the world? Our usual day isn’t as usual as it is for our bodies because the body functions while you’re wide awake and while you’re deep in sleep. The mechanism runs on tiny cells and these cells form the very basis of every voluntary and involuntary action. Urination is one such involuntary action.

Let’s learn the conversion of water into urine¹ and how long it takes to change its form:

1. Daily Water Intake

It’s all over the textbooks and sites that 8 glasses of water consumption keeps the person hydrated. It improves digestion, keeps the energy level up and maintains a healthy immune system.

The human body is composed of 60% of water thereby, it’s necessary to provide it with its basic requirement by drinking water. The failure to do so causes issues like, decreased and dark urination, dizziness, dry mouth, headaches, dull skin, dehydration, rapid breathing and unchecked dehydration can also cause seizures.

2. But How Long Is the Water’s Journey of Transformation?

Water takes about 5 minutes after ingestion to 20 minutes to turn into urine. Yet, this does not lead to instant urination so, why does this happen?

The answer lies in understanding the working of the organs.

Daily, about 1-1.5 litres of water is excreted in the urine with the rest being reabsorbed.

In case of excess water consumption than the amount required by the body, it simply passes through the kidneys without being reabsorbed later.

2.1 Process

Consumption of excess fluid can alter the normal course of water transformation for a kidney to produce urine. But an idealistic condition which is practical for a healthy kidney is,

• An average person consumes 2.7-3.7 litres of water. The water naturally contains calcium, magnesium, sodium and fluoride, these are the essential substances which get absorbed by the small intestine and large intestine.
• The human digestive system constantly works after the body has taken the food component that it needs from the food and water. Waste products are left behind in the bowel and the blood.
• The average adult has about 4.5 to 5.5 litres of blood in their body, blood is carried into the kidneys by the renal artery.
• The healthy kidney constantly cleans about half a cup of blood every minute and gets rid of waste material. Toxins and excess water are in the bloodstream, and in the kidney, there are millions of tiny blood filters called nephrons².
• Each nephron is made up of a very small filter called Glomerulus which is attached to a tubule.
• As blood passes through the nephron, fluid waste products are filtered out into the ureters.

2.1.1. Way Ahead in Bladder

• The ureters are narrow tubes that carry urine from the kidney to the bladder.
• Muscles in the ureter walls continually tighten and relax forcing urine downward, away from the kidneys not allowing them to back up or stand still.
• The urine then enters the bladder.
• The bladder is about the size and shape of a pear when empty.
• The bladder’s walls relax and expand to store urine thus, allowing urination to be controlled.
• Normally bladder capacity is to hold 400 to 600 millilitres.
• The bladder has a direct line of communication with the brain, it is full of receptors.
• Receptors tell the brain how full the bladder is. When the bladder is full the nerves alert the person that it is time to urinate.
• Then the brain signals the bladder muscles to tighten which squeezes urine out of the bladder at the same time. The brain signals the sphincter muscles to relax to let urine exit the bladder through the urethra.
• Urine is about 95 %water and 5% waste products including urea, creatine, ammonia and uric acid.
• The urethral sphincters either male or female are two muscular structures that regulate the outflow of urine and help keep urine from leaking by closing tightly.

With the optimum amount of water consumption in a day, urination can happen 6-8 times, but, what if the the water has varied solutes?

3. How to Consume Water?

It has become very common to mix something in the water before the intake. Although water in itself is the best liquid to drink yet, there are different flavouring options available in the market. From fruit mixes to coffee and tea, numerous brands advertise their products. And people looking for multiple options to take down a drink prefer it without focusing on the damage it might cause eventually.

The market is filled with diverse carbonated drinks as well, chugging these drinks as substitutes for water is harmful and halters the digestion affecting the excretory system.

Tea and coffee act like natural diuretics, that is, they cause the person consuming these substances to pass more urine than usual.

Drinking more coffee sends signals to the pituitary glands that inhibit the production of the ADH hormone(Anti Diuretic Hormone³) or AVP(Arginine Vasopressin).

These hormones help in regulating the amount of water present in the body. It controls the water reabsorbed by the kidneys as they filter the waste from the body.

Coffee takes 45 minutes for absorption by the stomach where as water is absorbed within 5 minutes. This requires additional energy consumption as well.

This in turn will reduce the water level in the body making one feel dehydrated and have a dry mouth.

The dry mouth creates an increased urge to have more liquid and since there is more probability of the same contents to be consumed often, the person gets trapped in the vicious cycle.

As a result, if the liquid intake reduces then there can be problems in regulating body temperature as well.

4. What Does The Colour of Urine Indicate?

We already know that excessive urination causes dehydration and less water intake causes yellow urination, let’s learn more about the colour of urine and the reasons behind it,

i) Clear urine

• Excessive water consumption
• Causes hyponatremia
• Kidneys fail to get rid of excess water in turn causing the sodium content of the blood to become dilute
• Can be life-threatening
• Yellowish or amber in colour
• Represents optimum water consumption
• Symbolises Healthy body

ii) Red or pink in colour

• Occurs due to dyed intake
• Pinpoints enlarged prostate
• Kidney stones
• Sometimes tumour in the urinary bladder also results in red and pink colour of the urine
• Medical consultancy advised

iii) Orange in colour

• Occurs because of dehydration
• If it is combined with light-coloured stool then it means there is some issue with the bile duct
• Medical consultancy advised

iv) Blue or green in colour

• It rarely occurs
• In case this happens, it means some dye of the same colour was consumed
• In extreme cases shows signs of bacterial infection.
• Medical consultancy advised if the urine continues being green or blue after 24-48 hours of dyed intake

v) Brown or dark brown

• Generally occurs because of dehydration or diet-related issues
• This can be a result of certain medications
• In extreme cases, it can be a result of liver disease, medical consultancy advised in such cases

vi) Cloudy in appearance

• Can be the result of dehydration but also shows signs of urinary tract infection(UTI)
• Can also be caused by kidney conditions
• Medical consultancy advised

5. Ways To Improve Urinary Health – Healthy Bladder

Although the major component of urine is water, urine isn’t all about water. Urine is the end product of a continuous process of consumption, absorption, and filtration. It gets stored in the urinary bladder. The bladder itself is a necessary part and any damage or infection can directly affect the health of the person and the passing of urine.

The solution includes changes in behaviour and lifestyle, exercises or medical consultancy which may result in treatments and surgeries depending on the cause and the problem.

5.1. Bladder Health

The bladder is a much-neglected organ, all the focus lies on what food you eat and what drink you take but the pouch for storage of the waste material is as necessary as the mouth that gulps it.

The bladder or urinary bladder is located in the lower abdomen, it’s meant for storing the urine and control of the liquid waste.

5.2. Ways To Maintain A Healthy Urinary Bladder

5.2.1. Urinary Habits

i) Use the bathroom when needed

It is most likely to see people hold their urges because of many reasons but holding back urine causes the bladder muscles to loosen and cause infection.

During cold weather, it is suggested to pee frequently because our body temperature regulation depends on it too. Since drinking water during the summer season passes out as sweat whereas in winter this is not possible hence there is frequent urination as a result of an overactive bladder.

ii) Relaxed position while urination

Muscle relaxation while peeing is necessary as it empties the bladder easily.

iii) Empty the bladder

Completely emptying the bladder is necessary, it should not be rushed. Rushing may cause incomplete removal of waste from the bladder which will give rise to infection.

A fully empty bladder is a good sign of no acidic residue left behind to cause infections.

5.2.2. Lifestyle Habits

iv) Exercise

Exercises like the Kegel exercise⁴ shall be practised daily by people who have loose control over their bladder or who suffer from leakage issues when sneezing, coughing, lifting, laughing, etc.

v) Cotton clothes

Wearing cotton and loose underwear helps in keeping the urethra clean and dry which prevents the growth of bacteria.

Other clothing materials are capable of trapping moisture for a longer duration, it is advised to not use fabrics like such but cotton.

vi) Optimum water consumption

The human body is majorly constituted of water, hence the balance shall be maintained by the external intake of liquids.

Water has minerals required by the body although, the amount in which the minerals exist is very less, therefore it’s said to drink at least 8 glasses of water daily.

But, depending on the labour done by one, this ideal number can be altered. Yet it is advised to neither consume more nor less water since both can have ill effects on the body.

vii) Less caffeine

It is majorly seen that caffeine drinks have substituted other beverages. A large section of society comprises students and newly appointed workers and statistics show that they all consume some sort of caffeine every day. And caffeine takes longer to get filtered and excessive consumption causes frequent urination.

Unsweetened fruit juices shall be preferred over caffeine.

viii) Quit smoking

Smoking shall be stopped because we all are aware of its harmful effects. And smoking can also lead to bladder cancer or other related problems.

6. Drawing Out

The human body and body organs are a precious part of life and maintaining their health would result in a healthy peaceful life only by taking little self-care.

Drinking water, eating healthy, doing exercises, practising meditation, and journaling are some of the basic ideas to stay healthy.

Being careless can cause issues in the urinary bladder as well as the kidney, causing kidney stones.

Specifically, peeing habits also determine how healthy the kidney functions.

Drinking fluids of varied taste and texture takes more time to get filtered into the urine.

The lack to maintain proper hydration levels in the body causes varied issues ranging from headaches to body temperature control.

Urinary tract infections are becoming more common, especially in females. This infection of reached kidney then, hinders kidney function resulting in the formation of kidney infections, thus, affecting urine formation.

Improper urination practices also damage the sphincter muscles causing urinary incontinence.

And a person suffering from such physical illness will have poor mental health, thus, it is a very serious issue to take care of the water intake.

Also read: Drink Water And Your Body Will Thank You!

1. Quon, J. E., and R. B. Grieves. “Adsorption in urine conversion.” Journal of Applied Chemistry 15.12 (1965): 551-556. ↩︎
2. Luyckx, Valerie A., and Barry M. Brenner. “The clinical importance of nephron mass.” Journal of the American Society of Nephrology 21.6 (2010): 898-910. ↩︎
3. Robertson, Gary L. “Antidiuretic hormone: normal and disordered function.” Endocrinology and Metabolism Clinics 30.3 (2001): 671-694. ↩︎
4. Huang, Yi-Chen, and Ke-Vin Chang. “Kegel exercises.” (2020). ↩︎

Last Updated on May 15, 2024 by Namrata