| Posted: 11 July 2011 at 4:24am | IP Logged | 4
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Ha! Michael, just this morning My 8 year old daughter looks at me at breakfast and asks "Why is pee yellow?"......kids say/ask the darndest things! Oh and just in case you are wondering, this is the answer (Yes, I googled it)...... The yellow color in urine is due to chemicals called urobilins. These are the breakdown products of the bile pigment bilirubin. Bilirubin is itself a breakdown product of the heme part of hemoglobin from worn-out red blood cells. Most bilirubin is partly broken down in the liver, stored in the gall bladder, broken down some more in the intestines, and excreted in the feces (its metabolites are what make feces brown), but some remains in the bloodstream to be extracted by the kidneys where, converted to urobilins, it gives urine that familiar yellow tint. (Here is a great diagram of some of these reactions, from the Boehringer Mannheim Biochemical Pathways at ExPASy.)
These same yellow chemicals also cause the yellow color of jaundice and of bruises, both of which result when more hemoglobin than usual is being broken down and/or the processing of its breakdown products by the liver is not able to keep up. Also, I'm sure your daughter will grow in to the fact that Galactus is the best character ever!
Edited by William Roberge on 11 July 2011 at 4:35am
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