Saturday, March 24, 2012

Urine Therapy


Urine therapy (aka Urotherapy) is a technique used in alternative medicine that involves drinking your own urine (or sometimes the urine of others). It sounds absurd, but there are several claims that it is a very powerful form of natural that can cure:
    “multiple sclerosis, colitis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, hepatitis, hyperactivity, pancreatic insufficiency, psoriasis, eczema, diabetes, herpes, mononucleosis, adrenal failure, allergies and so many other ailments” and even more.
Other claims include killing bacteria in wounds, smoothing the face, even eating away at blood clots. There are also some cases of urine therapy helping people who suffer from hair loss.

From what information I gathered on a few websites, urotherapy has been used for several years in various cultures, dating as far back as 2000BCE. Urine is a nontoxic liquid by-product of the body composed of 95% water, 2.5% urea, and 2.5% minerals, salts, melatonin, and enzymes. It is also an antiseptic -- capable of killing micro-organisms. The main component of urine is urea, an antibacterial, anti-fungal and antiviral agent.
 <---Urea in its solid form
Urea is colorless, odorless (when dry), and decomposes proteins . It is the main ingredient in many products that we use everyday such as, for example, whitening toothpaste, facial creams, cold compresses, hair conditioners, cigarettes, hair removing products, etc., etc. There are times in desperate situations that people have to sometimes drink their own urine in order to survive.
Doctors recommend drinking the urine (mixed with water) people pass when they first wake up. The following statement is copied from Jeff Lowe on his Vanderbilt website:
      “When you drink your own urine, it does not go directly to the blood stream. First it  goes into the digestive system where its ingredients are sorted out. Then, the useful ingredients are recycled while the toxins are rejected. When the level of toxins becomes too high, the toxins stimulate the intestines into flushing themselves out to eliminate any stagnated excrements accumulated in the colon. Although we could probably filter out the toxins before drinking the urine, the toxins are needed because they stimulate a cleansing reaction in the body. Urine, which remember, is a byproduct of our blood, becomes more purified the more it is recycled. Thus, the cleaner the blood is, the cleaner the urine is, and vice-versa. And this is how urine therapy advocates conclude that urine therapy has a cleansing effect on the blood.”

I found very few implications to drinking urine. However, since urine is a waste product from the body, it still contains products that do not belong in the body. When it is consumed, it could cause skin and eye irritations. In diabetics, drinking urine could cause loss of control in blood sugar and insulin levels; diarrhea; fever; fatigue.

It can be concluded that while people today are not into drinking urine everyday, urine therapy has been around for a long time and it is quite beneficial for one's health. It has become one of the many forms of alternative medicine where products made from urea are sold to help improve the health of other. There is very little risk in doing this and those who do have seen positive results.

Links used

http://www.vanderbilt.edu/ans/psychology/health_psychology/Urine_Therapy.htm
http://voices.yahoo.com/risks-urine-therapy-diabetes-6419922.html
www.earthclinic.com/Remedies/urine_therapy.html
http://www.heartlandhealing.com/pages/archive/urine_therapy/index.html
http://www.skepdic.com/urine.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine
http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/urine.htm
 

2 comments:

  1. I remember in one of the episodes of Man vs. Wild, he drank his own urine to prevent dehydration. I feel apprehensive about the idea of it just because it is waste expelled from the body. However, I didn't know that by drinking urine that the digestive system goes through all those processes! Interesting post!

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  2. Despite the supposed benefits of drinking urine, I just cannot wrap my head around the concept of actually doing it. Very interesting, though. I do hear that actual urine is not in our bath and beuaty products, thankfully, just a mixture of other chemicals. Urea, e.g. imidazolidinyl urea, serves as a preservative that releases small amounts of formaldehyde (yuck) to kill off bacteria, so it does serve a good purpose. Also, doesn't urine help with jellyfish stings? That's what I heard, anyway.

    Source: http://blastmagazine.com/the-magazine/culturefashion/is-someone-peeing-in-your-beauty-products/

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