Prediabetes is used to describe blood sugar levels that are higher than normal, but not high enough to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes. For some people, noticing that urine smells sweet or fruity can be a first sign that something is different, which can lead to being diagnosed with diabetes.
What Does Diabetic Urine Smell Like? One warning sign of diabetes or high blood sugar is urine that smells sweet or fruity. The sweetness comes from sugar in your urine and is a sign your body is trying to get rid of extra sugar in your blood.
Sweet-smelling urine may be a sign of uncontrolled diabetes or a rare disease of metabolism. Liver disease and certain metabolic disorders may cause musty-smelling urine.
If you have diabetes insipidus, you'll continue to pee large amounts of watery (dilute), light-colored urine when normally you'd only pee a small amount of concentrated, dark yellow urine.
A lab may test your urine for the presence of glucose and ketones. If either is present in the urine, it could mean there's not enough insulin in the body. High glucose levels could also mean that your blood glucose levels are high at the time of the test.
Urinalysis is used to check your general health. In the past, urine glucose testing was used to screen for or monitor diabetes. But urine glucose testing is not as accurate as blood glucose testing, so blood tests are now more commonly used to diagnose and monitor diabetes.
Eating a lot of protein
As a result, the ketone level in the blood will rise. When these ketones leave the body in the urine, the urine may smell sweet or similar to popcorn.
Diabetes: People with diabetes often have too much sugar (glucose) in their blood. To get rid of the extra glucose, the body moves it from the blood into the urine. So, when someone has undiagnosed or untreated diabetes, they tend to pee more often. And their urine appears clear.
Fruity-smelling breath is a sign of high levels of ketones in someone who already has diabetes. It's also one of the first symptoms that doctors look for when they check for DKA.
Diabetes. A popcorn smell or sweet-smelling urine is often an early indicator of untreated or undiagnosed diabetes. Diabetes affects your blood sugar levels and causes high ketone levels. The excess sugar and ketones make their way into your urine, resulting in that tell-tale popcorn smell.
Pee that smells like ammonia
If you detect a hint of ammonia in your urine, it could be a sign of a urinary tract infection (UTI). The odor suggests that bacteria may be swimming around in your urinary system, most likely in your urethra, kidneys or bladder.
A fruity odor to the breath is a sign of ketoacidosis, which may occur in diabetes. It is a potentially life-threatening condition. Breath that smells like feces can occur with prolonged vomiting, especially when there is a bowel obstruction.
Some people with diabetes compare the smell of insulin to the scent of Band-Aids, printer ink, Lysol, or new plastic shower curtain liners (4). Apparently, phenols are responsible for the aroma associated with insulin (5).
Some people may notice they have to get up every couple of hours during the night to urinate and that they produce more urine when they do go. The presence of excess glucose can also cause the urine to have a sweet smell. This is most common in advanced cases of type 2 diabetes, he says.
People with diabetes may urinate as much as 20 times a day, with a full bladder every time. When you have extra glucose in your blood, due to diabetes, your kidneys work overtime to get rid of it. As this happens, the extra glucose soaks up water everywhere in your body, causing you to urinate more often.
Some people with diabetes who regularly have high blood glucose levels may have to urinate too often, also called urinary frequency. Even men and women with diabetes who manage their blood glucose levels within their target range sometimes feel the sudden urge to urinate, called urgency incontinence.
Diabetes: Strong sweet-smelling urine is a sign of advanced diabetes, which can be diagnosed with urinalysis. With advanced diabetes, sugar and ketones, which are normally absent, can accumulate in the urine and create a strong odor.
Acetoacetate levels can be measured through your urine with a ketone urine strip, which turns various shades of pink or purple depending on the ketone level of your urine. Darker colors typically mean that your urine contains higher levels ( 10 , 11 ).
Urine ketones are usually measured as a "spot test." This is available in a test kit that you can buy at a drug store. The kit contains dipsticks coated with chemicals that react with ketone bodies. A dipstick is dipped in the urine sample. A color change indicates the presence of ketones.
When your cells are deprived of energy from glucose, they begin to burn fat instead. This fat burning process creates a byproduct called ketones, which is a type of acid produced by the liver. Ketones tend to produce an odor that's similar to acetone. This type of bad breath isn't unique to people with diabetes.
Compared to non-diabetics, diabetics under insulin treatment showed a higher prevalence of phantom odors [OR(95% CI): 2.42 (1.16; 5.06)] and a non-significant higher prevalence of severe hyposmia/anosmia [OR(95% CI): 1.57 (0.89; 2.78)].
People who have diabetes often have poor sleep habits, including difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. Some people with diabetes get too much sleep, while others have problems getting enough sleep.