I’m not talking hobby or fetish here (apologies to J.D. Salinger). I’m wondering about using these two “sources” of water in survival situations.
In other words, if I find myself stranded in a climate with little or no available water, would I increase or decrease my chances of surviving until help arrives by conserving my bodily fluids by drinking whatever my body evacuates?
I’m pissed right now (in the British English sense) and not up to doing a Google search, but recall seeing a documentary of child soldiers in Rwanda. These two boys went AWOL (or more so fleed from the army-slavery horrified by the genocide) and described how they drank each others urines during their escape as they didn’t have any water. They made it, so I guess you can do that at least for a short period of time.
Besides urine is quite pure from bacteria and it has been used for antiseptic purposes some decades ago…
I seem to recall there was even a kind of “urine therapy” thing going on in India or somewhere…
Sweat contains a high concentration of salt and electrolytes. While it will help to replace saliva, it won’t quench any real thirst.
Urine contains water that the body couldn’t absorb on the first pass. Although you can probably extend your survival chances a bit, bear in mind that it contains urea, which is toxic in the bloodstream. Great to wash off a wound, though, because it is very clean… you just don’t want it going back into your system in quantity.
There you have it: carry a canteen.
Military survival training teaches you to make a condensation distiller. Salt water, unclean water and urine can be used in it to make fresh water.
Drinking only urine would not be good in the long term.
To futher what Mr. Moto stated, the Army Survival Field Guide (or whatever) declares urine drinking for survival unsafe, on the grounds that it could dehydrate you. Urine, one must remember, contains amonia and salt contents which aren’t recommendable for consumption.
On a semi-related matter, when one is stranded on a tropical island, you can drink a small amount of salt water per day, as long as you sustain a very low sodium intake in your diet (i.e., most fruits would be fine).
Cecil on urine “therapy” (bottom of page)
Gatorade was formulated by a track coach who analyzed sweat and used that analysis in his formula. In other words, Gatorade is essentially sweat.
Why each others? If I had to drink piss you’d better believe it would be my own.
While there’s a big ick factor in drinking someone else’s urine, I wouldn’t think it’d be much bigger than the ick factor of drinking your own.
And that way, they didn’t have to carry cups with them…
Come on you’d drink a stranger’s piss before you’d drink your own? As for the second part, hollow a piece of wood, use your hands, anything but that!
I wouldn’t drink any, thanks, but it brings up another question: are you male or female, 'xinth? I (a male, like the unfortunate people being discussed) haven’t ever tried catching it in my own hands, but I have into a cup and it can be difficult to… keep things coordinated. I can only presume that it would be even more difficult in hands free mode, as it were.
I was trying to make a crude joke, but it’s based in truth. If I was fleeing from something horrific, and I didn’t have the facilities to MacGyver a distillation rig, and I got to the point of drinking urine, then no I don’t think that the grossness of drinking someone else’s would offset the inconvenience of drinking your own. I’d have to be in a pretty bad situation, so I might as well take advantage of the handy built-in dispenser.
The fact that there is absolutely no possible situation in which I would get to that point is irrelevant to the discussion, but I feel I must state it anyway. I’d rather die a dessicated death.
I’m a guy, my username is a long and not terribly interesting story.
Alright point taken. When your’e being chased by Rwandese genocide squads piss is piss.
I was told once that if you want to drink your own urine, (or anyone else’s, but I’m with Wikkit here - I’ll drink mine if given the choice between mine and someone else’s) all you need to do is run it through 36" of sand. So if you’re going to be stranded in the desert, or chased by the Rwandans, take along a PVC pipe 36" long and some fine sand - the sterile kind would be best, I’d guess.
I’ll try to dig up a cite to verify this.
Nah, as Mr. Moto says, I’ll drink my own with the use of a couple of squares of plastic sheet rather than your device. I know you lose a lot this way, but not as much as you’ll waste turning all that sand to mud.
I couldn’t find the SAS Handbook online (which is where I remember reading about this), but this guy describes how to do it (even if it is a games site).
The reason we secrete urine is to get rid of:
Urea, which contains nitrogen that comes mostly from the metabolic breakdown of proteins. Urea is somewhat toxic and highly soluble. Urea must be “flushed” out of your system with sufficient water to keep it in solution. If too much is retained, it will poison your cells.
Salts, which come mostly from food. If the blood reaches too high a concentration the cells will dehydrate and death will result.
(If you drink too much water, you’ll also have to get rid of that through urination in order to keep your blood concentration balanced. But the main reason we drink as much water as we do is to get rid of urea and salt.)
In other words, urine contains stuff we’ve got to get rid of at the cost of death. We use water to flush this stuff out. Normally water is in ample supply to do this.
If you drink urine, you’ve just got to get rid of the stuff that’s in it all over again. But since you loose some water through your skin and lungs, even if you drink your own urine you will continually have less water available to flush out an increasing amount of waste. (And even if you don’t eat, you will still have nitrogen compounds to get rid of as the body breaks down its own tissues to keep going). Your urine and blood will both become more concentrated, until pretty soon you will reach the stage where your cells will start to die.
Drinking urine is pretty much a no-win proposition in the long run.
Alright, so urine is out (so to speak). But I haven’t read much about the hazards/benefits of saving one’s sweat and drinking it. the point about salts and electrolytes is noted.
Here’s a scenario: I find myself stranded and alone in a desert environment–thus, no genuine source of water anywhere around. Now assume I’ve got a tarp or something to shield me from direct sun. My goal is not to live for long periods of time under these conditions, but to stay alive until help arrives. Since my shelter needs are taken care (albeit crudely), my next main concern is deydration and I decide that I can conserve my sweat through soaking it up with some material and wringing it out into my mouth.
Short question–will this increase or decrease my chances of surviving until help arrives? In other words, will drinking my sweat hasten the effects of dehydration?
As I previously pointed out, Gatorade is basically sweat.
In Japan, there is a soft drink called Porcari Sweat, which I gather is supposed to be a replacement for the stuff you sweat out, like Gatorade. But the Japanese have this penchant for using English words in their product names, and they often don’t get the connotations of them. How about a nice drink of Calpis?
It may depend on the ambient temperature and humidity, and how efficient you are at gathering it up. One site says that sweat is anywhere from 15-74% the concentration of blood serum. At the lower end of this ratio you may be OK. However, under conditions of water stress, the concentration of your sweat will probably increase. Also, if the temperature is high and the humidity is low, a lot of the water is going to evaporate before you can consume it.
There are other factors involved. By mopping up the sweat before it evaporates, you are negating its cooling effect on your body. Also the exertion required will also serve to increase you body temperature, even if slightly. If you are also under heat stress (as seems likely in this scenario) you will be increasing your risk of hyperthermia.
While drinking sweat could help a bit under very favorable circumstances, in general I don’t think it will work very well.