Alright, I’ve been educated on many a bizaare fetish whilst wandering the SDMB, but this is the first time I’ve seen one that claims dramatic health benefits.
Apparently the former Indian PM drank his own urine. The Amazon.com related books suggests this is not an uncommon phenomenon.
Alright, I can understand fetishists who are into it for whatever titilation there is in things associated with private regions n so on, but what possible grounds could there be for health benefits?? Isn’t the whole point of urine that it is stuff that your body wants to get rid of? Ok, sometimes it is just stuff that your body has too much of (like if you drink a lot of water, or gulp down multivitamins) but then how does drinking it help you? Aren’t you just going to have to get rid of it again?
My question is, what conceivable medicinal properties could urine in general, and one’s own in particular have? And what history is there behind this phenomenon?
I just read about this last night in a bok by Cookie Mueller.
She knew a guy who read about Ghandi supposedly drinking his own urine and got healthier.
Some folks do this, though I wouldn’t.
…couple of years ago I read about this in Utne reader ( cribbed from another source,natch) and they claimed that there is a specific compound in urine, and more of it in your 1st of the day, allegedly ,that promotes a sense of wellbeing and serenity, and they further claimed that there was more of this compound in the urine of pubecent boys than anywhere else…um, well bottoms up,as they say
In this day and age, any nut can get any book published if the publisher feels there are enough other nuts out there to buy it or the first nut can self-publish his own book for a few thousand.
Truths:
Urine is a waste product.
There are people out there willing to believe anything.
There are other people out there willing to believe anything if it is well written.
If a book says it is good, some people will eat their own feces and the feces of others. (It’s been actually done.)
There are no laws stating that what you publish as true has to be so.
Someone decided that since animals eat their birth placenta, humans should also and people did. They also invited friends, who thought it a great honor, to partake of this cannibalism.
There was a Dick Francis novel about a gentleman who wrote survivalist guides(sorry, don’t remember the title). Anyhoo, he told a group that you could drink your urine if there was no other water available,as it is sterile. I think I’d rather lick sweat.
Bladder infections aside–Urine actually is a sterile compound when it’s fresh. Field medics in the military are supposed to use urine as a way to ‘wash out’ a wound when there is no fresh water available.
However–urine does go ‘stale’ rather quickly–and when it’s chemical composition decays, it obviously doesn’t make it ‘sterile’ anymore.
Drinking your own urine when in absence of fresh water actually -is- a good survival method, or so I’ve read. It doesn’t contain as much sodium as fresh water, and the risk of auto-intoxication is rather low. I imagine if you drink your own urine all you’re doing is recycling the ‘waste’ to try and glean more nutrients for your body from it–and thus ‘surviving’ a little longer before dehydrating.
The debate over whether there are actual -health- benefits is questionable. Some people say there are–others vehemently deny so. Urine doesn’t actually taste as bad as you might think–and I’ve never -really- gotten sick from doing it. Although there is a ‘gag reflex’ that you have to learn to control at first.
The biggest health claim that I’ve heard touts drinking urine as a way of improving your immune system. I’m not sure that’s a -good- thing, though…
Maybe Unca Cece or one of the brainiacs out there on the message boards can answer this question for me–but: If you build up an immunity against the things found within your own bodily secretions (urine), can’t you get some kind of auto-immune disorder that is potentially hazardous for your health?
-Ashley
(Okay–so maybe it’s a little bitter and salty at first–but the aftertaste actually reminds me of buttered popcorn. Try it and see fer yourselves, cowards! )
I have heard that tap water in some places is so bad that ones own urine would be preferable. Poor waste-water treatment facilities, or fairly good ones massively over worked, could put a lot of nasty under-treated stuff into the water, and if you are drinking your own, at least you would know where it came from. India’s population density is high and climbing fast, and since I believe that is where this practice originated, one would have to take a close look at the available alternatives and see if their practice, while not preferable in most places, might not be the way to go in some specific locales.
Urine in the bladder is sterile, barring infection (hmmm - kinda repetitious, that). However, both men and women have bacteria living in about the last centimeter of the ureter and on the skin near the hole. Therefore, once the urine exits the body in a normal fashion, it is no longer sterile. Please trust me on this. We just went over urinary tract infections in my medical microbiology class last week. I can get quotes from my textbook if you really insist on believing I’m wrong.
After all, women are supposed to get bladder infections easier because those bacteria don’t have as far to go to make it up into the bladder.
That being said, just because certain bacteria can survive regular floods of urine doesn’t make those bacteria harmful if swallowed. Are they? Perhaps urine is still a fairly safe drink.
It doesn’t necessarily make them harmful, but it doesn’t necessarily make them safe, either. The bacteria that live on your skin are adapted to your skin, not to your digestive system. Depending on the species and the general health of the person, it is possible for Bad Things to happen. You have to realize that the skin is a bacteria’s idea of hell - dry, exposed to the elements, not much in the way of nutrition, low pH, etc, etc. The digestive system - well, parts of it anyway - is a comparative paradise.
So long story short, I’d guess that odds are nothing bad will happen to you if you drank your own urine - nothing worse than the experience of drinking your own urine, that is - but why risk it and put your body through the trouble of fighting off even more bacterial invaders for no reason? Personally, I think the whole idea is ludicrous, but that’s just me.
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