# Does drinking urine help you survive dying of thirst? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-drinking-urine-help-you-survive-dying-of-thirst/369915 "2006-08-23T18:08:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![lesbaldy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/ed655f/32.png) [@lesbaldy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lesbaldy)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-drinking-urine-help-you-survive-dying-of-thirst/369915/1 "2006-08-23T18:08:20Z")
Just having finished reading “Between a Rock and a Hard Place,” Aron Ralston’s gripping account of how he survived for 6 days in a Utah slot canyon with his arm trapped by a huge boulder, I’m perplexed by one aspect of his survival story. As most people have heard, Aron was pinned for days after his food and water ran out, and finally got the revelation to break his arm bones and saw off the limb with a pocket knife. He then rappelled with one arm down a 60-foot cliff, and hiked several miles to rescuers as he was about to bleed to death. Aron’s harrowing survival account includes the fun fact that, after running out of water by Day Three, he collected his urine in a bottle and drank it for several days. In the book he speculates whether this would help his situation or make it worse, but decided to take the chance that recovering any liquid, no matter how vile, would stave off dying of thirst. So now I’m curious about the answer to the question – in a survival situation, does it really help to drink one’s own urine? At what point would the toxins in the urine of a dying/starving person add to his demise rather than forestall it? Not that I’m planning to go solo in a Utah canyon any time soon, but you never know when you’ll be trapped somewhere and need to know. ---
**Author:** ![wasson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/4da419/32.png) [@wasson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wasson)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-drinking-urine-help-you-survive-dying-of-thirst/369915/2 "2006-08-23T19:22:56Z")
You may wanna check here: > **[Nice swig of warm urine](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=385147)** > > If I was stuck in the middle of nowhere, in comfortable/non-sweating temperatures with no sight of water around, but plenty of things to eat such as bugs and berries (which of course can’t support the bodys need for liquid alone), how long can I... ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-drinking-urine-help-you-survive-dying-of-thirst/369915/3 "2006-08-24T01:33:38Z")
Is it just me, or there a lot of people asking about drinking pee lately? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2006, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-drinking-urine-help-you-survive-dying-of-thirst/369915/4 "2006-08-24T01:49:19Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Is it just me, or there a lot of people asking about drinking pee lately? > > :eek: Well, we haven’t had a lot of rain here lately, and I do live downriver from Atlanta…