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["Dianne Stephany" <iluvdanc@rochester.rr.com>]

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I am not an expert on human urine, but I am a physiologist, so I will give it a try.

 

The pH of human urine as well as the rest of the its components depend on the diet.  Urine can have a pH range from about 4.5 to 8. The average pH is about 6.   Vegetarians have a more alkaline urine, meat eaters and those who eat lots of wheat have urine more at the acid end.  At the low pH, there are buffers in the urine to tie up H ions and once the buffering capacity is used up the secretion of H ions does not occur to protect the body tissues from the damage of excess H ions.  As you know acid is caustic and if the urine pH dropped below a certain point the acid would erode the tissues.

 

 Some minerals like calcium are freely filtered in to the urine, but are recovered by the body depending on the hormonal status. That is why your diet may have lots of calcium but the body is low in it. Both absorption into the body and loss of calcium in the urine from the body are controled by parathyroid hormone and vitamin D which parathyroid hormone needs to be active. And parathyroid hormone is important in liberating calcium from the bones when blood calcium goes lower than desired.

 

Other mineral components of urine are sodium, potassium, phosphate, sulfates, magnesium, and bicarbonate. Some of which buffer the acid  - bicarbonate, sufates, and  phosphates.  Excess amounts of any salt can cause stones to appear. Stones are most common in alkaline urine of high calcium, magnesium or uric acid (from breakdown of dietary meat and body proteins) , but also can occur if there has been an infection or retention of urine.  So drink lots of water and go often!

 

Again, you are what you eat can be modified to "your urine reflects what you eat"

 

Hope this helps,

Dianne Stephany

zone 5, Rochester NY  where we finally got some rain!