It is not usual for you to have a musty smell in urine; you may notice your urine smells like ham and sometimes like bacon or rotten meat. Often we just blow it off unless we have a bigger health issue. You must address the problem and take proper steps to make sure it doesn’t cause any severe problems.
There are many reasons behind this unusual smell in your urine. But how do you know which one is worth giving attention to or not?
You will get all your answers with the causes, effects, and necessary advice in this article. So, let us just dig into this.
Reasons Behind Having Urine Odor
Have you ever checked if you have anything unusual with your urine? If not, you should definitely start doing so. Just have a quick check after urinating if there is any strong odor in your urine.
Usually, urine has some odor, and it is completely normal for any people out there. But, having a strong odor might be a sign of something odd. The common reasons are stated below.
Dehydration
It is widely seen among most people who are having urine-related issues.
Dehydration creates an excessive amount of ammonia in urine that creates dark yellow color and strong odor like ham or bacon.
It is a major cause of creating urine odor and also the root of different kidney problems.
Side Effect Of Any Medication
Certain medicines and vitamin supplements might be a reason behind musty smelled urine. Sulfonamide antibiotics are a group of medicines that release sulfur in urine and make it smell bad. Besides, different diabetic medications might have some side effects for which you are experiencing an unusual smell from your urine.
Having Certain Food And Drinks
Many foods and drinks can create an unwanted odor in your urine. Some veggies with high fiber like cabbage, cauliflower, asparagus, and broccoli contain sulfur that breaks down into hydrogen sulfide and creates a musty smell.
Besides, different seafood, alcohol, spices, herbs like garlic, cumin, and onion are also partly responsible for ham-like urine odor.
Diseases And Infections
Some health issues, including infections and diseases, can cause strong urine odor. Common issues might be:
- Uncontrolled diabetic
- Urine infections
- Kidney stones and other difficulties
- Liver diseases
- STIs
- Bladder fistula
- Genetic disorders
Other Issues
Besides the above common problems, there are also some other reasons for having smelly urine that can happen occasionally. Different people follow different diet habits for their own reasons. But, some diets can be responsible for this too.
In the time of early pregnancy of women, an increase in pregnancy hormones can create a strong odor in their urine. Besides, females are also seen having smelly urine due to menopause-related issues.
Additional Symptoms
Sometimes, urine smells like ham might not be the only problem. Many people are seen with additional symptoms with urine odor which often lead to different health complications. Let us get to the point of discussing such symptoms.
Mild Symptoms
These are some mild symptoms that may occur because of some dysfunction in the kidney, liver, ureters, and bladder.
- Thick and cloudy urine
- Having the feeling of burning while urinating
- Frequent urinating
- Dark orange or yellow colored urine
- Not being able to hold urine for a short time
- Mild to severe pain in back and abdomen areas
Severe Symptoms
Mostly, severe symptoms occur due to different organ failure and other serious conditions. Such symptoms are more serious than the above ones and should be treated immediately after noticing. Otherwise, these can be life-threatening.
- Mild to acute fever with chills
- Feeling nausea
- Back and abdomen pain that restrains you from moving a bit
- Sometimes passing out and losing consciousness
- Passing blood with urine
- Having severe inflammation
What You Can Do?
Having urine odor is neither always a life-threatening issue nor something that you should ignore. So, we have to extra careful about when we should act the matter lightly and when we should take immediate actions.
Dealing with Easy Remedies
Urine odor caused by “not so serious” reasons can be easily dealt with home remedies and some quick solutions. Here are some that might be helpful for you.
- If you have smelly urine without any disturbing symptoms, the reason might be certain food habits or experiencing dehydration. Drink plenty of water because it will keep you hydrated and reduce the musty smell.
- In case of experiencing urine odor because of certain medications, contact your doctor who has prescribed those. If this is the case, there will not be any further complications. So, you can inhale a bit of relief.
- Because of high protein being present in your body, often, this excessive protein discharge through urine makes it smell like ham or rotten meat. Such situations don’t last long. So, just wait for a couple of hours or a maximum of one day, and you will get rid of this issue.
- As we mentioned earlier, urine infection is a common cause to have smelly urine. When UTI (urinary tract infection) is in mild condition, you will not experience any pain while urinating or see any severe symptom.
In this case, wait for 24 hours to get rid of the bad smell.
Experiencing Severe Issues
Your smelly urine sometimes can be a little showcase of an upcoming huge inconvenience. So, notice carefully about the following symptoms, and take necessary steps asap.
- If you are experiencing pain alongside your musty smelled urine and sometimes feel like vomiting, it could be due to kidney stones. You may also notice severe back pain, fever, and nausea.
Often extremely tiny stones of the kidney get discharged with the urine. But the pain will come in waves and last for several days in case the stone is bigger. Without any delay, consult a doctor right away and get the prescribed tests done.
- Having smelly, cloudy, or bloody urine with severe pain and mild fever can be symptoms of urine infections. It can spread to your kidneys if not treated early.
If you are experiencing these for some days, do not take them lightly. Be sure to see a doctor immediately.
- Liver problems often show some changes in the urine. You might have thick urine with a strong odor, because different elements get discharged through urine if the liver doesn’t function properly.
In this case, there is no other way out than consulting a doctor. If the problems are not severe, you can get well with some prescribed medications. Otherwise, you might undergo serious treatment or even surgery.
What You Should Not Do?
There are some essential things you should do after experiencing ham smelled urine, and there are certain things you should not do, because they might make the situation worse than before.
Holding Urine
Do not hold your urine for too long what may be the cause is. This is an unhealthy practice that we all have done in our life even if we knew it was bad for our health.
Holding urine for a long time can cause infections, severe pain, kidney issues and often grows bacteria in the ureters that create a strong odor.
Consuming Certain Foods
We have previously discussed that certain foods like onion, garlic, asparagus, and other vegetables can cause smelly urine. If you have urine problems, you should not have these foods frequently until your problem gets cured.
Because of not having these foods, the amount of sulfur in urine will get reduced, and you will get rid of that odor.
Diuretic Drinks
Do not have tea, coffee, alcohol, and other sugar-fizzy drinks frequently. Because these drinks are mostly diuretic, contain caffeine and some other elements that increase your blood flow.
As a result, more water releases than usual, and you experience frequent urination.
Consumption Of Vitamin B Complex
Vitamin B6 is pyridoxine which is highly responsible for creating a strong urine odor. Besides, vitamin B1 or thiamine often makes the urine smell like rotten meat.
These vitamins are definitely necessary for the well-being of our body, but there should be a healthy limitation of having them.
So, do not take more than 10mg vitamin B6 in a day to keep your urine healthy and odor-free. If you are taking these for some other health issues, consult your doctor to address the urinating issue.
Final Words
Having urine odor is a common issue among many people around us. When you notice that your urine smells like ham, you will realize that something is definitely unusual going on. The majority in our society does not really care, thinking of it as a trivial matter. But often, it is not as insignificant as it seems.
Here we have tried to cover all the points regarding urine-related problems, and I think you have got all your queries cleared about experiencing such kind of urine odor.
Practicing some healthy urination habits and drinking a lot of water with healthy foods can reduce the severances of this issue. After all, prevention is always better than cure.
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