Urine odor causes and remedies

Urine Odor Phenomenon

Some people, at some point in their lives may experience their urine smelling extremely uncomfortable. This can take place due to various reasons, each more or less connected with some things related to the lifestyle of the person. One of the most common, and most serious things which cause smelly urine is a urinary tract infection.

Namely, one's urinary tract gets affected by bacteria and becomes infected resulting in a foul smell. Puss may be present in the urine as well. The urethra may be inflamed also, leading to clear or cloudy urine during the urination process. There are several other causes of this, some more serious than the others.

Causes of Smelly Urine

Apart from the ones mentioned above, a person can suffer from strange-smelling urine if he/she is suffering from dehydration. This happens due to the lack of water in your system, and your urine becomes too concentrated. Also, your urine may smell because of what you have eaten. So, if you are experiencing this problem, maybe you should reorganize your diet and find out what causes the awkward smell so that you can remove it.

Moreover, some medications you are taking may have smelly urine as a side effect. Thus, be aware of these as well.

If you happen to suffer from blurred vision, nausea, increased thirst, and fatigue, while, at the same time experiencing a sweet smell in your urine, you might have diabetes mellitus. This type of diabetes manifests through too much glucose in your urine giving out a specific smell.

Finally, liver failure and metabolic problems are leading to a strange odor in your urine. If the liver is failing, the sufferer is bound to experience signs on his/her eyes, skin, and breath.

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are among the most common infections in children. The primary tool to detect UTI is dipstick urinalysis; however, this has limited sensitivity and specificity. Therefore, urine culture has to be performed to confirm a UTI. Urinary volatile organic compounds (VOC) may serve as potential biomarker for diagnosing UTI. Previous studies on urinary VOCs focused on detection of UTI in a general population; therefore, this proof-of-principle study was set up in a clinical high-risk pediatric population.

This study was performed at a tertiary nephro-urological clinic. Patients included were 0–18 years, clinically suspected of a UTI, and had abnormal urinalysis.
Urine samples were divided into four groups, i.e., urine without bacterial growth, contamination, colonization, and UTI. VOC analysis was performed using an electronic nose (eNose) (Cyranose 320®) and VOC profiles of subgroups were compared.
Urinary VOC analysis discriminated between UTI and non-UTI samples (AUC 0.70; p = 0.048; sensitivity 0.67, specificity 0.70). The diagnostic accuracy of VOCs improved when comparing urine without bacterial growth versus with UTI (AUC 0.80; p = 0.009, sensitivity 0.79, specificity 0.75).

✓ Fact confirmed: Smell—Adding a New Dimension to Urinalysis Eva H. Visser, Daan J. C. Berkhout, Jiwanjot Singh, Annemieke Vermeulen, Niloufar Ashtiani, Nanne K. de Boer, Joanna A. E. van Wijk, Tim G. de Meij, and Arend Bökenkamp; 2020 May

How Can This Be Treated?

Because you know the causes of having strange-smelling urine, you may want to look into a diet change. Drinking sufficient amounts of water might do the trick as well. Alternatively, cranberry juice and cranberries are excellent for urine purification and removal of the unpleasant smell. Honey, cumin seeds, ginger, onions, and baking soda may each prove to be of assistance. Still, personal hygiene is crucial, so do not forget to rule that out first.