Q.The presence of glucose in urine is termed as
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Composition of Urine – What Your Kidneys Actually Send Out
Think of your kidneys as a highly selective filtration and recycling plant. Every day, about 180 litres of fluid are filtered from your blood — that's roughly 360 bottles of water. But you only pee out about 1.5 litres. So the first intuition is this: urine is not just "dirty water." It's the small leftover after your body has reclaimed almost everything it needs.
Your kidneys don't just dump waste. They carefully adjust the final composition to keep your blood's chemistry stable — a process called homeostasis. The urine that leaves your body is a concentrated solution of substances that either:
- Your body has too much of (excess water, salts)
- Your body cannot use (waste products from metabolism)
- Your body needs to get rid of because they are toxic
The Normal Composition – What's Actually in There
Normal urine (per 100 mL), approximately:
- Water — about 95%
- Urea — about 2%
- Uric acid — about 0.05%
- Creatinine — about 0.075%
- Sodium (Na⁺) — about 0.35%
- Potassium (K⁺) — about 0.15%
- Chloride (Cl⁻) — about 0.6%
- Phosphate (PO₄³⁻) — about 0.12%
- Ammonia (NH₃) — about 0.04%
- Other (hormones, pigments, etc.) — trace amounts
The exact numbers vary with diet, hydration, and time of day. But the key players are:
Water – The solvent. Its amount changes based on how hydrated you are. Dark urine = concentrated; pale = dilute.
Urea – The main nitrogenous waste. Your liver converts toxic ammonia (from protein breakdown) into urea, which is much safer to transport and excrete. This is the single largest solid component by mass.
Uric acid – A breakdown product of purines (from DNA/RNA in food and cells). It's poorly soluble — if levels get too high, crystals can form in joints (gout) or kidneys (stones).
Creatinine – A waste from normal muscle metabolism. Its level in blood is a key test for kidney function because it's filtered out almost completely and not reabsorbed.
Electrolytes – Sodium, potassium, chloride, phosphate. These are carefully regulated. Too much sodium in urine can indicate kidney damage; too little can mean dehydration or hormonal problems.
Ammonia – A small amount gives urine its characteristic smell (especially after standing). The kidneys use ammonia to help buffer excess acid in the blood.
Pigments – Urobilin (from broken-down haemoglobin) gives urine its yellow colour.
What Should NOT Be There – The Diagnostic Clues
This is where composition becomes a powerful diagnostic tool. Normal urine contains no:
- Glucose – If present, blood sugar is too high (diabetes mellitus)
- Proteins – If present, kidney filters are damaged (nephrotic syndrome)
- Red blood cells – If present, infection, stones, or trauma
- Ketone bodies – If present, starvation or uncontrolled diabetes (diabetic ketoacidosis)
- Bilirubin – If present, liver or bile duct problems …
The presence of glucose in urine (as in uncontrolled diabetes) has a specific medical term. …
Glucose in the urine is called glycosuria, so the answer is (A).
Medical terms for abnormal urine constituents:
- Glycosuria — presence of glucose in urine (seen in diabetes mellitus, when blood glucose exceeds the renal threshold).
- Ketonuria — presence of ketone bodies in urine.
- Uremia — abnormally high urea in the blood. …
- CBSE 2026Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Which of the following substances is normally found in urine in significant amounts?(a) Collagen(b) Insulin(c) Ammonia(d) Urea
›Reveal solutionSolution
Urea is the principal nitrogenous waste normally excreted in appreciable quantity in urine.
Humans (and most mammals) are ureotelic, meaning ammonia produced from protein/amino-acid breakdown is converted in the liver (via the ornithine/urea cycle) into the far less toxic compound urea, which is then filtered by the kidneys and excreted in significant quantities in urine — normal human urine contains roughly 25-30 g of urea per day, making it the major solute (besides water) in urine.
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- CBSE 2026Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.The presence of glucose in urine is termed as(a) Glycosuria(b) Uremia(c) Ketonuria(d) Hematuria
›Reveal solutionSolution
Glucose in the urine is called glycosuria, so the answer is (A).
Medical terms for abnormal urine constituents:
- Glycosuria — presence of glucose in urine (seen in diabetes mellitus, when blood glucose exceeds the renal threshold).
- Ketonuria — presence of ketone bodies in urine.
- Uremia — abnormally high urea in the blood. …
- CBSE 2024Set HALF_YEARLY1 markQ.Write the answer in one sentence: Presence of glucose in urine indicates which disease?
›Reveal solutionSolution
Glucose appears in urine (glycosuria) when blood glucose levels are abnormally high, as in diabetes mellitus, overwhelming the kidney's normal, complete reabsorption of filtered glucose.
Under normal conditions, although glucose is freely filtered at the glomerulus along with other small plasma solutes, it is actively and completely reabsorbed back into the blood at the proximal convoluted tubule, so none appears in the final urine. In diabetes mellitus, insufficient insulin action leads to persistently elevated blood glucose levels; once blood glucose exceeds the tubule's maximum reabsorption capa …
- CBSE 2022Set ANNUAL1 markQ.The pH value of human urine is ________. (6 / 7 / 8)
›Reveal solutionSolution
The pH of normal human urine is about 6, i.e., mildly acidic.
The kidneys regulate the body's acid-base balance by excreting excess hydrogen ions and metabolic acids (such as those from protein metabolism) in the urine. As a result, freshly voided human urine is typically mildly acidic, with an average pH of around 6 (it can range depe …
- CBSE 2018Set zoology1 markQ.A healthy adult human excretes (on an average) ......... gm of urea/day. (Fill in the blank)
›Reveal solutionSolution
Humans are ureotelic — the liver converts toxic ammonia into the far less toxic urea via the ornithine (urea) cycle, and a healthy adult excretes on average about 25–30 gm of urea per day through the kidneys.
Protein and nucleic acid metabolism in the body generates nitrogenous waste, chiefly ammonia, which is highly toxic and requires a large amount of water for safe excretion. Humans (like most terrestrial mammals) are ureotelic — the liver converts ammonia into urea (a far less toxic compound) via the ornithine cycle, and this urea is transported by blood to the kidneys, where it is filtered out and excreted in urine, along with some being reabsorbed and a small amount removed via sweat.
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