Porphyrins (Urine) Tips

Cow Urine Therapy has been in practice for many health problems in India for centuries. In India, cow is a symbol of spirituality and cow urine is not only used in devotional practices, but also comes packed with a bunch of health benefits.

'Kamadhenu' is worshipped for thousands of years as the Goddess who fulfils desire. In Ayurveda, cow is considered as the mother of all entities as the products obtained from cow are beneficial to all mankind in many ways. The milk, urine, curd, ghee and dung obtained from cow are beneficial in different ways as food supplement and medicine. Cow urine or Gomutra destroys the poisonous effects of residues and makes body disease free. The medicinal usage of Panchgavya, especially cow urine is practiced in Ayurveda which is classified as complementary and alternative medicine.

The two Indian epics, Shushruta samhita and Charaka samhita, have described that the consumption of cow urine produces body warmth. In modern medical science, it has been well established that the thyroid hormones are responsible for producing body warmth. The oral administration of cow urine has thyroid stimulating effect and therapeutic value of urinary iodine present in the cow urine is immense. Cow urine or Gomutra contains iodine, which is easily absorbable from the gastrointestinal tract. The mean urinary iodine levels in dairy cows may vary from 79.2 to 94.8 micrograms of iodine per litre of urine depending upon their physiological conditions. Iodine is an essential element to produce thyroid hormones such as triiodothyronine and thyroxine. These are catabolic hormones that generate heat and cause body warmth. It has been proven that the cow urine contains iodine in required level for normal functioning of thyroid gland.

Urinary iodine concentration in cow urine varies depending upon its biological status and it could stimulate the patient's thyroid gland activity on oral administration of iodine. Thyroxine stimulates more oxygen utilization and heat production by many different cells of the body.

During iodine deficiency, the pituitary gland secretes enhanced amounts of thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), which causes compensatory adjustment.This leads in the production of more extensive secretory epithelium which in turn will result in enlargement of the thyroid gland and loss of colloid material in the thyroid follicles. In this scenario, exogenous supplementation of iodine brings back the normal thyroid status.

The administration of cow urine, which contain good levels of iodine, can keep the thyroid gland activity on a better footing. We now have the support of scientific validation for the experience of warming up of the human body after consumption of cow urine or Gomutra.

Cow Urine is used for purposes of therapy in traditional Indian medicine and is called Gomutra. The use of cow urine for therapeutic purposes has a long history in Indian culture. In India, cow is considered to be a sign of spirituality. Urine from a cow that is pregnant is believed to contain special minerals and hormones. It should be noted that cow urine therapy is not a nourishing process. Instead, it is cleansing and detoxifying in nature.

Pharmaceutical Benefits of Gomutra are:

1. Used in Ayurvedic treatment of cancer and leprosy.
2. Anaemia can be treated using a mixture containing Triphala (Ayurvedic herbal rasayana formula made of three equal parts of Bibhitaki, Haritaki and Amalaki), Cow milk and Gomutra. The mixture is known as Mahayograj Guggul.
3. It is used in the treatment of fever. A mixture that contains Gomutra along with ghee, yoghurt and black pepper is used. Sore throats can be treated by gargling a mixture of cow urine distillate along with honey and turmeric powder.
4. A mixture of daruharidra and gomutra can be used to treat epilepsy.
5. In Nigeria, convulsions in children are treated using a concoction made of garlic, tobacco, rock salt, cow urine and lemon basil juice.
6. Gomutra is also helpful in treatment of peptic ulcer, asthma and certain liver ailments.
7. Some Indian scientists from CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) received a US Patent for a mixture of cow urine distillate, which acts as an antibiotic. The purpose of the cow urine is to behave like a bio-enhancer, which promotes the antimicrobial functions of antifungal and antibiotic agents.
8. A US patent was acquired in 2010 by a research department of Deolapar and National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) for a drug based on gomutra, which validated its claims of being an anti-cancer drug. The mixture is claimed to prevent DNA damage caused by oxidation.
9. A water extract of Daruharidra (Tree Turmeric) called Rasanjana is administered with cow urine as a medication to treat Kapha originated skin diseases.

An overactive bladder is a condition that is characterized by a problem in the bladder storage function. This condition can cause problems in your social and work life. You may isolate yourself from others and feel embarrassed about the situation.

Symptoms
If you have an overactive bladder, you may exhibit symptoms of frequent urination, involuntary leakage of urine and frequent urge to urinate. These symptoms might disrupt your daily life; so it is important to seek advice from a medical practitioner.

Causes
To better understand what causes an overactive bladder, you need to know how the urination process works. Urine is produced by the kidneys, which flows to the bladder. During urination, the urine is excreted from an opening in the bladder and flows out via the urethra. As the kidneys secrete urine, the bladder starts to fill up. During this stage, nerve signals are sent to the brain; signals that trigger your body to urinate. The bladder muscles tighten that pushes the urine out of the body.

An overactive bladder results from the involuntarily contraction of the bladder, which might happen even if the content of urine in the bladder is low. These contractions create the urge to urinate. The various causes of an overactive bladder are:

1. Excessive fluid intake, if your fluid intake is high, then you may have the tendency to urinate frequently.
2. Presence of tumors or stones in the bladder can make the bladder overactive as well.
3. Excessive alcohol or caffeine consumption has the same effect as an excessive intake of fluids has.
4. Urinary tract infections may interfere with the entire process of urination, thus causing your bladder to swell up and become overactive.
5. Other diseases and conditions such as constipation and an enlarged prostate can hamper bladder functioning.

Treatment
There are multiple approaches to treat an overactive bladder; your doctor may use one or a combination of multiple methods.

1. Medications: Medications such as Trospium and Tolterodine help in relaxing the bladder. These medications help treat symptoms of frequent urination.
2. Bladder injections: Botox is a protein that is injected into the bladder that causes partial paralysis of the bladder muscles. This helps in treating the constant urge to urinate. However, its effects are temporary as they last for 6-9 months.
3. Lifestyle modifications: Certain lifestyle modifications such as incorporating exercises to strengthen the pelvic muscles, maintaining optimal weight levels and bladder training to control its functioning can help with managing an overactive bladder.
4. Surgery: If the other treatments do not produce the desired results, then surgery is usually recommended. The aim of the surgery is to enhance the storage capacity of the bladder and reduce bladder pressure.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

For those who get up at night from sleep to urinate or early morning: each individual must take note of the 3 x 1/2 minutes. Why is it important? 3 x 1/2 minutes will greatly reduce the number of sudden deaths. Often this occurs, a person who still look healthy, has died in the night. Often we hear stories of people, yesterday I was chatting with him, why did he suddenly die? the reason is that when you wake up at night to go to the bathroom is often done in a rush. Immediately we stand, the brain lacks blood flow. Why '3 x 1/2 minute' very important? in the middle of the night when you are awakened by the urge to urinate, for example, an ecg pattern can change. Because getting up suddenly, the brain will be anaemic and causes heart failure due to lack of blood. Advised to practice '3 1/2 minutes' which are: 

1. When waking from sleep, lie in bed for the 1st 1/2 minute;
 2. Sit in bed for the next 1/2 minute;
3. Lower your legs, sitting on the edge of the bed for the last half-minute. After 3 x 1/2 minutes, you will not have anaemic brain and heart will not fail, reducing the possibility of a fall and sudden death.
 Share with family, friends and loved ones. It can occur regardless of age; young or old.
 Sharing is caring. If you already know, regard this as refresher.

Obesity is a condition where excess body fat accumulates in your body to the extent that it might affect your health to a great degree. In today's sedentary lifestyle obesity is quite a common problem. It can also be because of genes, overeating or mental illness.This increases the risk of many terrible diseases like heart ailments, type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer and osteoarthritis. There have been numerous aids for weight loss; surgeries and cow urine happens to be a few of the solutions to this problem. Like the animal itself, its urine is also considered sacred. It is believed to cure many other problems like heart ailments, hypertension and skin diseases. Cow urine has medicinal and healing properties are now being widely spread and known across the world.

Health risks with obesity:

1. Coronary Heart Disease
2. High blood pressure
3. Type 2 diabetes
4. Stroke
5. Sleep Apnoea
6. Cancer

How it works in weight loss: There has been lot of arguments about the health benefits of cow urine. Cow urine consists of three main parts urea (which is the end product of metabolism), uric acid (due to high amounts of acidity it has strong antibacterial properties) and also numerous nutritional minerals which are not properly digested by the animal. Vitamins A, B, D and E and minerals like creatinine and gold present in many weight loss drugs are found in cow urine. Cow urine also contains various enzymes which help in digestion. When it is mixed with certain hormones and additional vitamins, it works wonders in weight loss. The presence of copper irons do not allow fat to deposit and helps in lowering your cholesterol.

Precautions you should take before consuming cow urine: Although it's many benefits you should always maintain these precautions before you consume this liquid:

1. If the cow is infected, it means that the urine is also infected and therefore you should avoid it
2. Do not consume if raw cow urine is kept for more than one hour
3. You should always consume it as prescribed by the doctor

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If you are experiencing pain in urination along with a burning sensation, a health condition known as dysuria is indicated. This condition is usually common in women and men alike. However, older men are more prone to face this problem. Pain during urination may occur because of various reasons. The most common causes are as follows:
Infections

1. Urinary tract infections (UTIs) are a common cause of painful urination. Infections may occur in any part of your urinary tract, such as in the kidneys, bladder, and the ureters. These infections occur due to bacteria, which gets into the urinary tract via the urethra. There are several factors, which increase your chances of being affected by UTI. They include diabetes, an enlarged prostate, old age, pregnancy, and kidney stones. UTI is signified by other symptoms such as fever, bloody urines, flank pain, stronger smelling urine, and an increased urge for urination.
2. At times, painful urination may also be associated with vaginal infections in women, like yeast infection. Vaginal discharge and foul odor are indicated in the case of vaginal infections.
3. Painful urination is also caused because of certain sexually transmitted infections (STIs) such as gonorrhea, genital herpes and Chlamydia.

Inflammation and irritation
There are several problems, which can cause inflammation of your urinary tract and genital region. This further results in painful urination. Inflammation and irritations also occur because of other factors such as urinary tract stones, vaginal changes associated with menopause, certain physical activities and the side effects of several medicines, treatment procedures and health supplements.

Consulting a doctor for painful urination
Your doctor will suggest you to undertake certain laboratory tests for the proper diagnosis of the cause of your painful urination. After this, a suitable treatment method is sought and undertaken. Before this, an overall physical examination is also carried out. Your doctor is likely to ask you some important questions regarding your painful irritation, how the condition worsens, and is felt during the onset of urination. It is also likely for your doctor to know about any other symptoms, which you might be experiencing such as fever, flank pain and vaginal discharge. You must tell your doctor about any changes observed in your urine flow, such as difficulty in initiating flow, an increased urge to urinate, and dribbling.

Apart from these, your doctor may also ask whether you experienced any character in urine after painful urination. These may include colour, amount, cloudiness, presence of pus in the urine and so on. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor.

If you are experiencing pink or cola-colored urine or your urine is foamy, you could be suffering from glomerular disease. Also known as glomerulonephritis, this condition involves inflammation of the tiny kidney filters or glomeruli. It may be acute, sudden or chronic. When glomerulonephritis occurs by itself, it is called primary glomerulonephritis, and in case it occurs from other diseases, it is called secondary glomerulonephritis. Prolonged and intense inflammation associated with glomerular disease may damage the kidneys.

Symptoms
The symptoms of glomerular disease are based on the form of glomerulonephritis. The common symptoms are as follows:

1. Pink urine due to the presence of red blood cells in the urine
2. Foamy urine because of excessive protein
3. High blood pressure
4. Retention of fluid with swelling in the hands, face, feet and abdomen
5. Fatigue due to kidney failure or anemia

Causes
There are several conditions, which may lead to glomerular disease. They are as follows:
Infections

1. Glomerulonephritis may develop a few weeks after you recover from a throat infection or impetigo. The body produces excessive antibodies, which may settle in the glomeruli and cause inflammation.
2. Certain bacteria may spread through the bloodstream, enter the heart and cause infection of the valves of the heart. This is known as bacterial endocarditis.
3. Certain viral infections like the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV, hepatitis B and C may lead to glomerulonephritis.

Immune diseases
A chronic inflammatory disease called lupus can cause glomerulonephritis. Goodpasture’s syndrome, IgA nephropathy and some forms of vasculitis also lead to this condition.

Diagnosis
The tests and procedures used for the diagnosis of glomerular disease are as follows:

1. Urine tests are carried out to detect red blood cells in the urine which may indicate glomerulonephritis. Urinalysis also shows the presence of white blood cells, which may lead to inflammation or infection and increased protein.
2. Blood tests are performed for getting information on the extent of kidney damage by the measurement of waste product levels.
3. Imaging tests such as an X-ray or CT scan may be required for visualizing the kidneys.
4. Kidney biopsy is an effective diagnosis, which involves the extraction of small pieces of the kidney via a special needle. The extracted pieces are studied under a microscope for diagnosis.

Treatment
The treatment for glomerulonephritis or glomerular disease aims at protecting the kidneys from more damage.
Keeping the blood pressure under control is important for protection of the kidneys. You should take prescribed medications for the management of blood pressure. Other medications are prescribed for the treatment of underlying causes, which lead to glomerular disease with kidney inflammation.

In case you have a concern or query you can always consult an expert & get answers to your questions!

Urine is known as the liquid waste that is discharged by the body on a regular basis, many times during the day and even during the night. Most of us do not give too much importance to this aspect of our being. Yet, this is an important indication of many things regarding your health. One of the vitals that are usually checked when we are having any symptoms of ailments and serious conditions, includes the urine.

The colour, odour and even consistency of the urine can point at the state of your health. There are many chemicals and toxins that are there in your urine which may be checked in order to decipher the level of the waste going out and the chemicals in the same. This is an indication on the type and severity of the disease that a patient may be suffering from. Here are the things that the colour and odour of the urine can tell you.

1. Pale hued: If your urine is pale hued, then it means that your health is in normal condition. This colour may also tend towards golden. This colour of the urine is down to the pigment called urochrome, which exists in the liquid waste.
2. No colour: If your urine is colourless, then it means that you have been drinking plenty of water or even ingesting a substance known as a diuretic that is known for flushing out the bodily fluids at a faster rate. This lack of colour usually means that your fluids and waste are both getting flushed out routinely and that everything is fine with your body and your health in general.
3. Brown: If your urine colour is dark and appears brown, then you may want to see the doctor immediately. This may also come with episodes of burning and pain during urination, which can point to a range of problems. Very dark coloured urine with a moderate odour may point towards an infection in the urinary tract or even the onset of a kidney dysfunction. Brown-hued urine may point at conditions that have to do with the kidneys as well as the liver, which will need to be checked immediately to make the correct diagnosis on a timely basis and begin treatment for the ailment in question. You may need more fluids in order to get the colour back to normal, as it may also be a sign of dehydration.
4. Orange: Orange urine may point at a high dosage of vitamin B12, and may show that you are dehydrated, while pink or red urine must be reported to the doctor on an emergency basis, as it may point at a urinary tract infection (UTI) or prostate problems. Consult an Expert & get answers to your questions!

Blood in urine, medically known as Hematuria is not usually a cause of concern, but it can translate into an adverse condition if left unevaluated. The kidneys and other structures in the urinary tracts such as urethra (tube connecting the bladder to the outer part of the body); bladder (that stores the urine) and ureters (tube joining the bladder to the kidney) are the sources of blood flow to the urine. Hematuria can be accompanied by symptoms such as discharge of tea-colored, brownish-red or pink colored urine due to the presence of red blood cells, traces of which can only be detected under the microscope.

Underlying causes behind this disorder might be:

1. Urinary tract infection is where the bacteria enter the body through the urethra and begin to proliferate in the bladder.
2. Kidney infections (pyelonephritis) is when bacteria infiltrate into the kidneys from the bloodstream or travel up from the uterus to the kidneys.
3. A kidney or a bladder stone is marked by the minerals in the concentrated urine precipitating out and molding into crystals that deposit on the bladder or kidney walls.
4. Enlarged prostate is a condition in which the prostate gland, that is situated just below the bladder surrounding the upper part of the urethra, starts growing as males head towards their middle age.
5. Kidney disease such as glomerulonephritis causes swelling of the kidneys, thus disrupting the filtering system.
6. Bladder, kidney and prostate cancer are also possible causes.
7. Hereditary disorders such as sickle cell anemia (a hereditary disease of the red blood cells in the hemoglobin) can also pose as a cause behind this disorder.
8. Kidney injury as a result of heavy blows, accidents or injuries sustained while playing a spot can also contribute to this condition.
9. Medications such as penicillin or the anti-cancer drug ‘cyclophosphamide’
10. Strenuous physical exercises like intense workout or running may also result in Hematuria.

Treatments:
There is no fixed cure for Hematuria; instead the doctor would work on treating the repressed conditions behind the symptoms, such as prescribing antibiotics to heal the urinary tract infection or a medicine to shrink and normalize the enlarged prostate or administer a shock wave therapy to destroy the kidney or bladder stones. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a doctor and ask a free question.

The kidneys are the main excretory organs and remove all toxins and wastes from the body in a liquid medium, the urine. The urine is normally straw coloured as there are filters which do not allow blood to enter the kidneys. However, due to various reasons, when there is a disease in the urinary tract, red blood cells can escape into the urine. The urine then assumes a pinkish tinge; the exact colour would depend on the amount of blood leaked. While the thought of pinkish urine is scary, it becomes a bigger concern when seen in children. Read on to know a little more about the types, causes, and ways to manage this condition. 

Types: 

1. Microscopic: When there is blood visible only through a microscope. This is quite common in children, and unless there is no accompanying kidney disease, it does not pose a problem when found occasionally. 
2. Gross: It is when the color of the urine changes to a pinkish tinge. This is of concern and requires immediate attention. 

Causes:

There are various reasons and some of them are listed below 

1. Inherited causes: Conditions like sickle cell disease, polycystic kidney disease, Kidney stones and inherited nephritis. 
2. Structural causes: Cysts in the kidneys can cause hematuria 
3. Trauma: An injury (to the abdominal area) during sports should be ruled out, which could have damaged the problem 
4. Infections: Infections along the entire urinary tract right from glomerulonephritis to kidneys to bladder can cause blood in the urine
5. Imbalances in minerals: High levels of serum calcium, which puts them at a higher risk of developing kidney stones later. Dietary calcium should be reduced. These children also could have a history of stones in the family. 
6. Idiopathic: When the cause of the hematuria is not known, it is termed idiopathic. 

Associated issues/Diagnosis: 

Hematuria is an indication or a symptom of an underlying medical condition (be it infection or trauma) and the underlying cause always needs complete evaluation. Accompanying symptoms can help narrow down the diagnosis. If any inherited cause is suspected, presence of hematuria should always be assessed in parents and grandparents. 

1. Check for history of trauma 
2. Known prior kidney disease 

Symptoms of infection 

1. Family medical history 
2. Urine tests to analyse its composition 
3. Urine culture, MRI, CT scanning, or biopsy may be required in more serious cases. 

When to worry? 

1. Associated proteinuria 
2. Microscopic hematuria which is persistent 
3. Kids with high blood pressure 
4. Kids with other existing kidney diseases 

Management: 

In most cases, no specific treatment for hematuria is required as the condition subsides after the underlying problem is addressed. For instance, once the infection clears, the hematuria also clears. Follow-up urine tests may be required to confirm that it is cleared. Blood in urine must always be evaluated by pediatric nephrologist as its causes range from very mild disease to rapidly evolving kidney failure, which may occur over days to weeks. If you wish to discuss about any specific problem, you can consult a pediatrician.