Drinking urine - an ancient therapeutic practice revisited.
By Natalie Bouaravong
Nothing compares to the satisfaction of that warm, tingly sensation from the first morning whiz. From the bladder, to the toilet and then, flush! To some people, flushing urine down the toilet is a complete waste of what could be a refreshing breakfast - one?s own fountain of youth, an elixir of health and beauty.
Drinking urine is a concept that is hard for most people to swallow, but its claimed healing abilities may make this ancient practice worth a try. From canker sores to cancer, there is nothing that its advocates claim it will not cure. Urine is said to be effective against the flu, the common cold, fever, broken bones, toothaches, dry skin, psoriasis and all other skin problems. It is said to deter aging and be helpful against AIDS, cancer, allergies, animal bites, asthma, heart disease, hypertension, burns, fatigue, infertility, baldness, insomnia, gangrene, chicken pox, tuberculosis, and a countless number of other diseases and disorders.
Urine may provide energy, maintain youth, and make skin and hair beautiful. With such wondrous properties, it is amazing that science developed new medicines when a key to good health was already in the bottle, so to speak. Everyone is a walking pharmacopoeia.
The first world conference on auto-urine therapy was held in February of 1996 in Panjim, India. It drew about 600 delegates from nations around the world. The numerous applications of urine were discussed, including use in nose-, ear-, and eye-drops, as well as ingestion and external massage application.
For thousands of years, several cultures included urine therapy, also known as uropathy or urotherapy, for all manners of disease and injury. Uropathy has been recorded in Egyptian medical texts and in ancient Chinese medical documents. The Aztec civilization also used urine to heal wounds while Hindu practices noted the benefits of drinking one?s own urine. Urine therapy may have been referenced in the Bible: ?Drink waters from thy own cistern, flowing water from thy own well.? (Proverbs 5:15).
In the ayurvedic tradition of yoga, drinking one?s urine is called amaroli. Yogic techniques explain exactly how to go about drinking or applying amaroli. One of the most famous users of urine therapy was Prime Minister of India from 1977 to 1979, Morarji Desai. On the occasion of his 99th birthday in 1995, Desai attributed his longevity to drinking his morning urine on a daily basis.
Though many have been conditioned to think of urine as ?dirty,? quite the opposite is true. Except in the case of a urinary tract or kidney infection, urine fresh from the urethra is sterile, devoid of any pathogens. Urine is 95 percent water, with less than five percent urea, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, hormones, proteins, antibodies, and other beneficial pharmacological agents.
Contrary to popular belief, urine is actually a by-product of blood filtration and not waste filtration. Medically, it is referred to as ?plasma ultrafiltrate.? It is a purified derivative of the blood itself, made by the kidneys whose principal function is regulation of all the elements and their concentrations in the blood. Nutrient-filled blood passes through the liver where toxins are removed to be excreted as solid waste. Eventually, this purified blood undergoes a more extensive filtering process in the kidneys, where excess components not usable at that time by the body are collected in the form of the sterile, watery solution that is urine.
Far from being harmful, urine contains known healing agents. Clinical studies have proven that the thousands of critical body chemicals and nutrients that end up in urine reflect the individual body?s functions. When re-utilized, these chemicals and nutrients act as natural vaccines, antibacterial, antiviral and anticarcinogenic agents as well as hormone balancers and allergy relievers.
For example, melatonin, present in significant amounts in urine, is a natural hormone that has already been proven to help regulate sleep. Muramyl dipeptide, another natural hormone found in urine, mirrors the calming action of serotonin. If wishing to enhance fertility, one could drink urine high in a specific hormonal content.
An important component of urine is urea, a commonly recognized antibacterial, antifungal, and antiviral agent. The presence of urea in the urine results from the body?s chemical balancing of the sodium chloride and water ratio. When used on a wound, urea causes an osmotic imbalance inside bacteria and fungi that utlimately kills them. Due to its effectiveness, urea is used in many topical ointments and creams sold pharmaceutically, both prescription and over-the-counter. Urea is found in a broad range of medicines used to treat inflammation and is a main ingredient in Herpigon, a medicine used to treat herpes infections. Additionally, urine can smooth and moisturize the skin. Face creams or wrinkle removers most likely contain urea or a derivative of it. According to John Armstrong?s 1971 book, The Water of Life, expensive and elegant European facial soaps often contain human, cow or pig urine.
Urine therapy is also being used to treat cancer patients. ?The Italian surgeon Stanislau R. Burzynski, separated anti-neoplastin from human urine and showed remarkale results in the treatment of cancer,? said B.V. Khare, M.D., a physician from Mumbai, India who advocates urine therapy to his patients. Cancer cells release various antigens, some of which appear in the urine. Oral auto-urotherapy is suggested as a new treatment modality for cancer patients because it provides the intestinal lymphatic system with the many tumor antigens against which antibodies may be produced. These antibodies may infiltrate the blood stream and attack the tumor and its cells.
Another present-day application based upon the theory of uropathy is being practiced in Serono Laboratories in Italy. The labs use the urine of post-menopausal nuns to prepare the pharmaceutical extract Pergonal, in order to stimulate fertility.
Advocates claim that urine is an invaluable source of nourishment and healing that has been too controversial or not financially rewarding enough for it to be encouraged as a potent medicine. However, Dr. Khare insisted that ?doctors who were under my treatment showed no signs of aging and insisted that urine therapy should be invited to the general public.?
Dr. Khare further argued the medicinal use of urine therapy: ?After starting auto-urine therapy, a family of four have not gone to a general physician for any ailment for more than a year. My experiences runs to so many years and if I start quoting, it will fill a 200-page notebook.?
While some of the constituents of urine are being used and tested for their potential or actual therapeutic value, critics opposed to urine therapy assert that it does not necessarily mean that drinking one?s urine is therapeutic. For example, ?If you are ingesting more vitamin C [a water soluble vitamin] than your body needs or can process, you will excrete it in your urine. It does not follow that drinking urine is a good way to get vitamin C into your body. An orange or a tablet might be preferable,? said Robert Farnsworth M.D., leading urologist at Australia?s Prince of Wales and Prince Henry Hospitals.
The reason urine contains vitamins and minerals is because the body did not need them or could not use them. ?Certainly in small volumes, provided it is not infected with germs, there is probably no hazard in drinking [urine]. But if you started drinking significant volumes of your own urine, then essentially your recycling your own waste products - you?re not excreting them permanently.? said Farnsworth.
According to skeptics, urine is not likely to be healthful or useful either for those rare occasions when one is buried beneath a building or lost at sea for days. Dr. Farnsworth concludes that ?hopefully, [people will] excrete it naturally and then [allow] the usual methods of getting rid of the waste product. We have a sanitary system and I think they?re designed to get rid of urine.? As a daily tonic, opponents argue there are tastier and more practical ways to introduce healthful products into one?s bloodstream.
Not everybody can jump right in and start drinking his own urine without negative side effects. The Chinese Association of Urine Therapy warns that ?common symptoms include diarrhea, itch, pain, fatigue, soreness of the shoulder, and fever. Each episode typically lasts three to seven days, but rarer incidents have reported lasting side effects for over six months.?
Urine may or may not be the golden fountain of youth. It may or may not be the elixir of good health. Often, there are broad, sweeping claims made by proponents of almost every therapeutic modality, but there is no therapy that can meet claims of 100 percent success. Despite the first impression that the Western mind often has of seeing the modern practice of urine therapy as antiquated at the least, or revolting at the most, its value need not be immediately dismissed. However, it is up to the people to decide if it is right for them.
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Natalie Bouaravong is a second-year MCB student at UC Berkeley who believes that there?s not a gesture, even the most insignificant that can not change the world. Every detail, every gesture, as slight as it maybe, reveals an infinity of truths.
Berkeley Medical Journal Issues 2002 ?
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