Is urine inherently septic?

[naita]

@David Simmons

You mean I don’t have to wash my hands any more before leaving the men’s room?

If the only thing you touch in the men’s room is your own freely flowing urine, and you wipe your hands, then no. If on the other hand you touch your penis, then yes. Unless of course your drawers aren’t the warm, bacteria friendly environment that mine are.

[Excalibre]

@Smeghead

It’s really astonishing how often this question comes up on the boards.

Well, maybe people are flirting with unusual sexual practices. Always best to know in advance and all.

[I_can_t_believe_that_s_butter]

@Sage Rat

Dunno, a few million people and an ape drinking urine regularly without dying is a fairly good indication that it isn’t too toxic a substance–so though humorous, it is another cite for the OP.

Of course, Mangetout’s list strikes down the theory of health-benefits fairly quickly (though I have to wonder how he knows for item #1 that #1 really isn’t tasty…?)

Here. Comb.

[Shalmanese]

Humans do some really whacky shit if their religion/culture says they should do it. We didn’t evolve to lop of the foreskin of newborn male children either yet millions regularly go through with it and regard it as normal. Compared to that, urine drinking seems positively conformist.

[CynicalGabe]

@Shalmanese

Humans do some really whacky shit if their religion/culture says they should do it. We didn’t evolve to lop of the foreskin of newborn male children either yet millions regularly go through with it and regard it as normal. Compared to that, urine drinking seems positively conformist.

Its scary how rational this is.

[Kozmik]

I hope someone can confirm this, but I think that the clear urine that is discharged after drinking lots and lots of water would be more sterile than the urine that is discharged in the early morning.

I mean, once it stays in your system for a while, it turns yellow. So a healthy athletic person would have the clear urine which is sterile. While a person who urinates infrequently might have the yellow urine with more bacteria and more uric acid.

[Helix]

Hmmmm … drinking urine. Sterile or not. Maybe after a couple of weeks in the desert and no other options.

Most famous urine drinker? M. Ghandi?

[Saltire]

Here’s a Straight Dope column (with updates and appendices) on this subject. My favorite phrase from it is referring to people using urine as “battlefield Bactine.”

Why are men supposed to wash their hands after urination? Plus: urine therapy!

[Larry_Mudd]

@Kozmik

I hope someone can confirm this, but I think that the clear urine that is discharged after drinking lots and lots of water would be more sterile than the urine that is discharged in the early morning.

“Yellow” isn’t septic, though. Clear urine may be “cleaner” in the sense that it has less “stuff” in solution, but that doesn’t make it more sterile.

A compound called (appropriately) “urochrome” is what makes urine yellow. It’s not bacterial.

[wolf_in_second_hand_clothing]

Don’t we have urea more than uric acid? Anyway, as they are both ways of getting rid of ammonia, doesn’t that make it slightly antiseptic? I heard that if you pee on your feet in gym showers, it will keep you from getting athlete’s foot.

[CynicalGabe]

@Helix

Hmmmm … drinking urine. Sterile or not. Maybe after a couple of weeks in the desert and no other options.

Most famous urine drinker? M. Ghandi?

You’d still be better off not drinking it. It will just dehydrate you more.

[Joe_Mahma]

@Kozmik

I hope someone can confirm this, but I think that the clear urine that is discharged after drinking lots and lots of water would be more sterile than the urine that is discharged in the early morning.

I mean, once it stays in your system for a while, it turns yellow. So a healthy athletic person would have the clear urine which is sterile. While a person who urinates infrequently might have the yellow urine with more bacteria and more uric acid.

Urine is sterile in a healthy individual regardless of how concentrated it is. More yellow=more concentrated. It doesn’t “turn yellow once it stays in your system for awhile”.

[KarlGauss]

For all the naysayers and nonbelievers, please look here. Your life will never be the same.

Well praise pee, urine heaven now. And me too.

[SnakesCatLady]

I believe I read somewhere once that urine was used as a treatment for jellyfish stings if there was no other treatment available.

[daffyduck]

@Snakescatlady

I believe I read somewhere once that urine was used as a treatment for jellyfish stings if there was no other treatment available.

Friends: The one with the jellyfish

[Smeghead]

@Kozmik

I hope someone can confirm this, but I think that the clear urine that is discharged after drinking lots and lots of water would be more sterile than the urine that is discharged in the early morning.

I mean, once it stays in your system for a while, it turns yellow. So a healthy athletic person would have the clear urine which is sterile. While a person who urinates infrequently might have the yellow urine with more bacteria and more uric acid.

I’m afraid I can’t confirm that. That would be because it’s completely wrong. Sorry.

[HMS_Irruncible]

Friends, while we’re talking about urine, keep this in mind:

1. sterile is not the same thing as antiseptic. Urine does not kill bacteria, at least not in any sufficient quantities.
2. concentrated is not the same thing as septic. Yellow color of urine is caused by sterile chemicals, not by germs.
3. sterile things only stay sterile if sterile procedures are followed. The moment urine leaves your body, it is infiltrated with bacteria that thrive on nitrogen compounds, turning it into ammonia.
4. Using urine for wound treatment is a last resort for when a wound needs cleaning and you have no other suitable irrigant. It is better to introduce urine to the wound than leave dirt in it, but still not a highly desirable situation. The best case scenario, of course, would be to irrigate it with sterile saline.