I try to stay relatively main-stream with the issues I write but a few weeks ago I got wind of something that I simply had a hard time believing. I thought somebody was joking - they where not. It seems an increasing number of people are becoming “urinophiles”, believing that drinking your own urine (outside of a survival situation) can cure everything from foot fungus to cancer. If that was not surprising enough, this has been in practice around the world in different cultures for thousands of years.
Personally, I find the practice of drinking my own fresh urine as appetizing as eating my own feces, and just as redundant but I believe there is always at least an ounce of truth in a belief. Lets explore this issue a little with an open mind.
What is urine?
Urine is made up mostly of water (95%) with the rest mostly being nitrogenous waste products from our kidneys. Essentially, what the body doesn’t need, absorb nor want is excreted in our urine. Urine is not a toxic or harmful substance but that doesn’t mean it’s healthy either.
Why drink your own urine?
The advocates of Urine Therapy (UT, amaroli) proclaim that there are thousands of highly beneficial substances within urine that are wasted if not re-consumed. In this aspect, they are correct. Urine does indeed contain creatine, vitamins, minerals, hormones etc. - if you ate or drank it - some of it is in your urine. If you read enough of their materials, they do make a pretty convincing case. They are able to point to valid scientific studies, thousands of years of use and many other facts. Nobody has ever died from urine consumption and to advocates; it is the closest thing we will ever get to a miracle product. Urine also has anti-bacterial, antiseptic, anti-viral, antibiotic and anti-fungal properties.
Why not drink your own urine?
First off, unless I am in a survival situation where water is scarce, if my body gets rid of something - it does so for a purpose beyond my reasoning, and I stand behind it. If my body is able to keep me alive and healthy, it knows what it is doing in my book. Unlike many other beliefs, advocates are correct in most of what they proclaim but the problem they encounter is two fold.
The main one to deal with is dilution. Sure, I cycle creatine powder as part of a good supplementary diet among many other substances, but it is in a concentration that can actually make a difference in my body. The concentration of any one substance within urine is simply insignificantly small unless you want to drink barrels of highly concentrated piss on a daily basis.
The second issue with urine consumption is that urine does not ONLY contain beneficial products. Toxic substances such as lead, arsenic and many other bi-products are also found in urine. Yes, these are also insignificantly small in concentration to essentially render them harmless.
Sum Total
The pro-camp says urine is a cure-all but negates to take into account the wildly small concentrations of any one substance present in urine. Although there isn’t any negative camp that I could find, I would tend to argue that if something has such a small concentration (good or bad), then what possible benefit could it give to the body above and beyond what a healthy diet can provide? I find the entire approach of “urinophiles” equivalent to trying to get drunk from one drop of alcohol.
The Bottom Line
I don’t see an overwhelming argument for urine “supplementation” nor against it - so why bother unless you are in a survival situation where it may save your life.
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