# Fizzy Whizz
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [September 13, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278 "2004-09-13T17:57:34Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@MalFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MalFrog)
#### Post date: [September 13, 2004, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278/1 "2004-09-13T17:57:34Z")
I happened across this article:
[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040913/ap\_on\_sc/synthetic\_urine&e=4](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040913/ap_on_sc/synthetic_urine&e=4)
and the following caught my imagination:
> [@](#):
>
> But human urine has its limitations: It decays rapidly if not kept refrigerated and must be frozen when shipped. It can smell, and it foams.
My questions are:
1. What is the surfactant or process that causes human urine to foam.
2. Doesn’t the non inclusion of such a substance in synthetic urine mean that the synthetic urine is an incomplete facsimile
3. Hi, Opal.
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### Author:  [@MalFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MalFrog)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2004, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278/2 "2004-09-14T09:13:54Z")
A friend has just added the theory that it is a rudementary soap caused by the action of alcaline urine on the desolved bodyfat.
I was under the impression that urine was acidic (Uric acid and all that!!).
Has anyone here recently pee’d on litmus?
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### Author:  [@picunurse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/picunurse)
#### Post date: [September 14, 2004, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278/3 "2004-09-14T11:34:46Z")
Sorry, guys, you aren’t going to be able to use pee shampoo. The foaming is from protein, not fat. If fresh urine foams its a possible sign of early kidney damage.
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### Author:  [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2004, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278/4 "2004-09-15T00:12:13Z")
> [@picunurse](#):
>
> Sorry, guys, you aren’t going to be able to use pee shampoo. The foaming is from protein, not fat. If fresh urine foams its a possible sign of early kidney damage.
**picnurse**. If my urine foams only occasionally, could that be due to eating meals that have a very high protein content?
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### Author:  [@dwyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwyr)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2004, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278/5 "2004-09-15T02:27:42Z")
samclem
Protein doesn’t normally spill over into urine even if you eat a lot of it.
A thin layer of transient foam is nothing to be concerned about, other things besides proteins can cause that. I’ve seen foamy specimens with excess glucose, yeast infections, or excess bilirubin in them. When the urine has a layer of long-lasting foam that resembles the head on beer, then you’ve got a problem.
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### Author:  [@Stan\_Doubt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Doubt)
#### Post date: [September 15, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fizzy-whizz/264278/6 "2004-09-15T03:23:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I was under the impression that urine was acidic (Uric acid and all that!!).
>
> Has anyone here recently pee’d on litmus?
Urine isn’t always acidic or alkaline, it depends on a person’s diet, and overall health and acid/base balance. Excretion is one of the most important ways the body maintains its steady state (homeostasis) in which the blood normally stays slightly alkaline.