When I’ve eaten cod, my pee smells like fish. Is this normal? I (female, 71 years old) take a number of medicines for heart problems and blood pressure.
Joris Bartstra, journalist with a medical degree.
Our body odor is influenced to some extent by what we eat, but the nutrients are ‘cut up’ into very small molecules in the gastrointestinal tract and liver. That you can smell directly in the urine what you ate the previous evening, is therefore quite unique. It is best known for asparagus and vitamin B supplements. A ‘fishy odor’ is the common name for the nasty ammonia-like odor caused by trimethylamine (TMA), a chemical that is especially abundant in deep-sea fish, including cod, in their bodies. TMA is very volatile and smells very strong. In our body it is converted by the liver into the odorless TMA oxide. There are people who lack the enzyme that is needed for this, so that they get a bad body odor very quickly. I can imagine that if someone produces slightly less of that enzyme than usual, they will not be able to convert everything into TMA oxide with a large intake of TMA, so that part of it ends up unprocessed and ‘smellable’ in the urine. I think it is a bit difficult to answer your question that increased concentrations of these substances in the blood are often associated with a somewhat increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Exactly how this works is the subject of research; they don’t know exactly yet. Perhaps it is a reason for you to be extra alert to risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
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