What should you know about dark urine sometimes?

Urine can look darker after sweating, drinking less fluid, vomiting, diarrhoea, or spending time in heat. This pattern may improve as you replace fluids. Food dyes, some medicines, and vitamins can also alter urine colour. Tea-coloured or brown urine, pale stools, yellow skin or eyes, itching, fever, pain, or unusual tiredness can point to a liver or bile problem and should not be dismissed as simple dehydration.

Notice when the colour appears, how long it lasts, and whether the urine is cloudy, red, or unusually strong-smelling. A colour change alone cannot identify its cause.

If you feel well and have been drinking less than usual, sip water regularly and avoid becoming overheated. Do not force large amounts of fluid if you have been told to restrict fluids for a heart or kidney condition. Review any newly started medicine or supplement, but do not stop a prescribed treatment without advice.

If the colour returns despite normal drinking, keeps recurring, or comes with urinary discomfort, arrange a medical review. A clinician may ask about fluids, medicines, diet, recent illness, and perform urine or blood tests.

Seek urgent medical help for dark urine with severe abdominal or side pain, confusion, fainting, inability to keep fluids down, very little urine, yellow skin or eyes, or visible blood. Prompt assessment is also sensible after intense heat exposure when weakness, headache, dizziness, or nausea is present; these can occur with heat-related illness.

Ask: Could my medicines or supplements change urine colour? Do I need urine or liver tests? Which symptoms would mean I should seek same-day care? Bring a list of treatments and note the timing of colour changes.