Why You Want Your Urine To Be Slightly Yellow

We’re here to answer a question we often get asked: why is my pee more yellow when I start taking my Paragon Vitamins?

In a nutshell, the yellow in your pee is a little bit of vitamin B2 (riboflavin) gradually being released (likely along with traces of other water-soluble vitamins you can't see). There are several reasons why you will see some B2 when taking your Paragon Vitamins, and, why the longer you see it during the day, the better!

Why a small excess of vitamins is good for you

The short story: a truly healthy life is only possible with the proper balance of enzyme systems in our bodies (which make up much of the body’s protein), and that even temporary deficiencies of vitamins and minerals can lead to the collapse and unbalancing of critical enzyme systems, opening you up to a range of illnesses that result from the disruption of specific enzyme balances.

Further, if you’ve been slightly deficient in vitamins (which most people are as the world has become an increasingly stressful and toxic environment causing the depletion of vitamins and nutrients), your cell levels of certain enzyme systems likely require rebuilding and healing. And that’s only possible with an abundance of vitamins and nutrients necessary to support this rebuilding.

With this in mind, and knowing that the body easily rids itself of small surpluses of water-soluble vitamins, it's wise to avoid unnecessary health problems due to vitamin depletion by retaining a small surplus in our systems, rather than risk deficiency that can lead to illness or impede our bodies healing.

The nitty-gritty on B vitamins

Most know that the body will release the water-soluble B vitamins not being immediately used by the body, however, fewer people know the body's entire metabolism is driven by thousands of different enzymes, which are supported and activated by vitamins and minerals, all working together.... or those enzymes don't work. And, that the more enzymes you have, and the better balanced they are, the healthier and younger you are.

If you have been deficient in B2 for a prolonged period of time, you will have fewer enzymes and lower B2 + other vitamin-related enzyme and vitamin activity in your cells. Therefore, because the enzyme systems are lower, they will not fully absorb B2 and other vitamins until those enzyme and co-enzyme systems are fully rebuilt within cells (which can take months!) and, requires extra levels of the necessary vitamins and minerals in circulation until this happens.

This is because both critical vitamin systems and enzyme systems require B2, other B complex, other vitamins, and minerals for their ongoing synthesis and activation. They play a key role in the conversion and activation of vitamins, in red blood cell synthesis, fat and glucose metabolism, and the production and regulation of specific biochemicals.  For example, the various activated forms of vitamins B6 and B3 both require B2... as does all-important detoxifying glutathione, which requires B2 and B3 for its recycling within cells.

So, as your enzyme and activated-vitamin capacity and activity gradually re-builds, your body will gradually absorb more of your circulating water-soluble vitamins, and less will be released in urine.

Why you see yellow in your urine

While most individual vitamins are white, and invisible in urine, the natural yellow pigment in any type of B2 riboflavin compound is a very powerful reflector of yellow light.  So even just a tiny amount in fluid (like the red pigment in beets) will make a lot of yellow fluid.

Even though the two types of B2 in our formula only make up 7% of the blended material in the B-Complex capsule, the intense yellow light they reflect still drowns out the other white materials in the capsule, turning the entire capsule yellow. So, while you don't see any of the white vitamins and minerals when you pee these out, you will see the yellow B2.

Further, taking vitamins just before meals (without food) will also cause a very minor amount to be lost until food is eaten, as vitamin absorption and utilization works best with food. So this can also make your first pee immediately after a meal a little bit more yellow. That said, we recommend drinking fluids and taking vitamins just before meals to reduce the potential to overly dilute your stomach acid when it's full of food, as this can make digestion slower and more difficult.

Seeing a little yellow is actually a good thing

Our vitamins are naturally time-released to trickle into your bloodstream gradually. And, the longer your pee remains slightly yellow during the day, the better, because this means vitamins are hanging around in your blood and lymph enabling the function of a) other vitamins already in your cells, and b) enzymes in your cells.

The level of B vitamins in the dosages we provide are safe, and easily removed by the body if not needed. However, and more importantly on the other hand, a vitamin or mineral deficiency (or multiple deficiencies) can rapidly cause illness, as this can begin collapsing vitamin and mineral supported enzyme function within minutes.

As just one example: TKT (transketolase) and PDH (pyruvate dehydrogenase) are two enzyme systems critical to vibrant health, helping to regulate sugars and healing, among other functions.  However, both of these enzyme systems are susceptible to a shortage of either vitamin B1 (as thiamine) or magnesium, both of which are required together to make "activated" vitamin B1 (TPP) used in our cells, which enables the maintenance of these enzymes in our cells.

The “activated” vitamins in our cells are more complex than the more basic precursor vitamins used to form the “activated” vitamins operating within our cells.  If anything causes these basic precursor vitamins, or any minerals that work with them, to become depleted, then the body can’t make the necessary activated vitamins, and enzyme systems within cells begin to crash. "Activated" vitamin B1 (thiamin pyrophosphate - TPP) is produced from vitamin B1 thiamine and magnesium (both of which are easily depleted by alcohol and poor diet).

Without activated B1, the TKT enzyme system has an incredibly short half-life (approximately 25 minutes). This means that if for any reason either B1 or magnesium are completely depleted, half the body's TKT enzymes can be destroyed in just 25 minutes. And if this persists for another 25 minutes, half of that remaining TPP is then destroyed over the next 25 minutes, and so on.  So within 50 minutes, 75% of the body’s TPP can be destroyed when either thiamine or magnesium are completely depleted. This is why merely decreased tissue concentrations of B1 and/or magnesium can lead to a prompt decrease in TKT activity. And why heavy alcohol or sugar consumption can so rapidly cause serious health problems.

Such decreases in TKT cause metabolic havoc because that enzyme function is not only critical, but it can take months to fully rebuild, as once it's destroyed, this molecularly-complex enzyme system has to be rebuilt from scratch... and likely in very many of the body's trillions of cells.

Some researchers - including Derrick Lonsdale at the Cleveland Clinic - suggest that vitamin B1 deficiency may affect as many as 25+% of Americans.  Further, as B1 is critical to thyroid function, this may help explain the rapid rise of Hashimoto's and other thyroid problems seen in North America.

Therefore, if you are leading a highly active or stressful life, consuming alcohol, and not always eating the best of foods, it's far wiser to ensure you have a slight surplus of the easily-removed water-soluble vitamin B and C in your body, rather than risk an enzyme-crashing deficiency.