Protein in urine, an explanation – Naturopathic Medicine Network

I see many many posts about protein in the urine, with questions about what it means. The quick and short answer is, please ask your doctor. The longer answer is that it depends.

Wallach’s Interpretation of Diagnostic Tests has a section on protein in the urine which goes for six pages. Proteinuria, or protein in the urine is:

“Found in 1-9% of cases on routine screening”” p.85 which means that it happens commonly and doesn’t necessarily mean anything terrible. Then follows a laundry list of different illnesses that could have protein in the urine, but many of which have other symptoms as well. Again, the take home message here is to talk to the person doing the test to find out what they think it is. An isolated protein in the the urine can be transient (doesn’t happen again) or idiopathic (we don’t know why), but it can also be a sign of illness, and that is why your doctors are the best people to ask.