Julesboz in reply to DIY12

Yes, I've increased my GFR with diet. I eat whole natural foods, plenty of fruit and veg. For me I have food intolerances (dairy, gluten, soya and alcohol) and find that avoiding the foods that I'm intolerant too, particularly diary, increases my GFR. Everyone is different but the general rules are avoid processed foods, salt and fizzy drinks. Try and cut down on red meat, dairy and alcohol. Also cut out smoking if you do, and exercise and relax

lowraind in reply to DIY12

Found this on healthline.com

Why Is My Urine Foamy?

Symptoms

Causes

Risk factors

Diagnosis

Treatments

Outlook

Overview

Urine is normally pale yellow to dark amber in color and is also flat. A variety of factors, from diet to drugs to disease, can cause changes in the color and foaminess of your urine.

If your urine looks foamy, it could be because your bladder is full and the urine is hitting the toilet fast enough to stir up the water. But conditions that could also cause foamy urine are causes to see your doctor about.

Find out what makes your urine foam up and what you should do about it if it happens.

What other symptoms can occur with foamy urine?

Urine can foam up briefly every once in a while. This is usually due to the speed of urine flow.

Foamy urine is more likely to be a sign of disease if it happens often or it gets worse over time.

If your urine is foamy, look for other symptoms as well. These symptoms could be clues that a medical condition is causing the problem:

swelling in your hands, feet, face, and abdomen, which could be a sign of fluid buildup from damaged kidneys

fatigue

a loss of appetite

nausea

vomiting

trouble sleeping

changes in the amount of urine you produce

cloudy urine

darker colored urine

if you’re a male, dry orgasms or releasing little to no semen during orgasm

if you’re a male, infertility or having difficulty getting a female partner pregnant

What are the causes of foamy urine?

The most obvious cause of foamy urine is the speed of urination. Just as water foams up when it comes out of the tap quickly, urine foams if it hits the toilet quickly. This kind of foam should also clear up quickly.

Sometimes, urine can also foam up when it’s concentrated. Your urine is more concentrated if you haven’t had much water to drink and you’re dehydrated.

Foamy urine can also indicate that you have too much of a protein, such as albumin, in your urine. The protein in your urine reacts with the air to create foam.

Normally, your kidneys filter extra water and waste products out of your blood into your urine. Protein and other important substances that your body needs are too big to fit through the kidneys’ filters, so they stay in your bloodstream.

But when your kidneys are damaged, they don’t filter as well as they should. Damaged kidneys can allow too much protein to leak into your urine. This is called proteinuria. It’s a sign of chronic kidney disease or the late stage of kidney damage, called end-stage renal disease.

A less common cause of foamy urine is retrograde ejaculation, which is a condition that happens in men when semen backs up into the bladder instead of being released from the penis.

Taking the medicine phenazopyridine (Pyridium, AZO Standard, Uristat, AZO) is another less common cause of foamy urine. People take this medication to treat the pain from urinary tract infections.

And sometimes, the problem is actually just your toilet. Some toilet cleaning chemicals can make your urine look foamy. If this is the cause, the foam should stop as soon as you flush the cleaner out of the toilet.

What are the risk factors?

You might be more likely to have foamy urine if you have a full bladder, which can make your urine stream more forceful and faster.

The urine can also get foamy if it’s more concentrated, which can occur due to dehydration or pregnancy.

Protein in the urine can also cause foaminess and is usually due to kidney disease. You’re more likely to get kidney disease if you have:

diabetes

a family history of kidney disease

high blood pressure

The causes of retrograde ejaculation include:

diabetes

drugs used to treat high blood pressure, enlarged prostate, or mood

nerve damage from a spinal cord injury, diabetes, or multiple sclerosis

surgery on the prostate or urethra

Contact your doctor if you suspect you have kidney disease or retrograde ejaculation, or if your urine continues to look foamy.

How is the cause of foamy urine diagnosed?

Your doctor will likely take a urine sample to test protein levels in your urine. One urine test, taken over a 24-hour period, compares albumin levels to levels of creatinine, which is a substance produced when muscles break down.

This is called the urine albumin-to-creatinine ratio (UACR). It shows how well your kidneys are filtering your blood. If your UACR is higher than 30 milligrams per gram (mg/g), you might have kidney disease. Your doctor will do other tests to check how well your kidneys are working.

If retrograde ejaculation is a suspected cause for your foamy urine, your doctor will check for sperm in your urine.

How are the causes of foamy urine treated?

Treatment for foamy urine depends on its cause. If your urine is concentrated, drinking more water and other fluids will relieve dehydration and stop the foaming.

Treatment for diabetes and high blood pressure

When foamy urine is caused by kidney damage, you’ll need to treat the cause. Often, diabetes and high blood pressure cause kidney disease. You can slow down the progression of kidney damage by managing these conditions well.

Your doctor will recommend that you eat a balanced diet and get plenty of exercise to help treat diabetes. You’ll have to test your blood sugar often to make sure it’s staying within a healthy range.

High blood sugar can damage your kidneys. You might also need to take medicine that lowers your blood sugar.

For high blood pressure, you’ll also want to watch your diet and stay active. Limiting the salt and protein in your diet can both bring down blood pressure and prevent your kidneys from having to work so hard.

Your doctor can prescribe calcium channel blockers, diuretics, or other drugs that lower blood pressure. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers are two drugs that lower blood pressure and protect the kidneys from additional damage.

Treatment for retrograde ejaculation

Retrograde ejaculation doesn’t need to be treated unless you want to father a child or the dry orgasms bother you. Your doctor can treat this condition with drugs that are approved for use for other conditions but that also close the bladder neck so that semen can’t get inside your bladder.

Off-label use of the following drugs can help treat this condition:

brompheniramine

chlorpheniramine (Chlor-Trimeton Allergy 12 Hour, Chlorphen SR)

ephedrine

imipramine (Tofranil)

phenylephrine (4-Way Nasal, Neo-Synephrine, Neo-Synephrine Mild, Neo-Synephrine Extra Strength)

pseudoephedrine (Sudafed Congestion, Nexafed, Zephrex-D)

“Off-label drug use” means that a drug that’s been approved by the FDA for one purpose is used for a different purpose that hasn’t been approved. However, a doctor can still use the drug for that purpose.

This is because the FDA regulates the testing and approval of drugs, but not how doctors use drugs to treat their patients. So, your doctor can prescribe a drug however they think it is best for your care.

What’s the outlook?

Foamy urine may not be a problem if it happens every once in a while. If it continues, it could be a sign that you have kidney damage. Usually, this symptom appears late in kidney disease, so immediate treatment is important.

Less often, it could be a sign of retrograde ejaculation if you’re a male, or it could be an effect of a drug you’re taking. Treating the condition or stopping the drug that’s causing it should stop the foaming.

Most of the time, foamy urine is nothing to worry about. Often, you can relieve foamy urine simply by drinking more water.

But see your doctor if:

the foamy urine doesn’t go away within a few days

you also have symptoms like swelling, nausea, vomiting, appetite loss, and fatigue

your urine is also cloudy or bloody

if you’re a male, your orgasms produce little to no fluid or you’ve been trying to get your female partner pregnant for a year or longer without success

So, I guess, if it continues, you should let your dr. know.

DIY12 in reply to lowraind

Thanks for a very comprehensive answer!

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lowraind in reply to DIY12

You are welcome. Something I knew nothing about.

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