Is it true that if one pees on his or her hands, it will toughen the skin? After recently shredding my hands due to an incurable addiction to rock climbing, it’s an intriguing if gross prospect. Is this true? Why?
http://slate.msn.com/id/2100652/
…Does urine really toughen the skin?
Quite the opposite. Proponents of urine therapy—and there are enough of these to have populated three World Conferences on the subject—believe consuming one’s own urine boosts the immune system, and they also recommend using it as a skin treatment. But most say urine softens the skin, rather than hardening it.
Plenty of traditional doctors and professional skeptics will tell you that urine therapy is a crock, but when it comes to skin care, urine-therapy devotees may be correct. Urea, a major component of urine, is a compound also used in many commercial moisturizing creams as a skin softener. It’s an active ingredient, for example, in Carmol 10 and 20 and in Dermal Therapy Lotion.
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As a delivery device for urea, lotion is much more effective than pee; in order for the urea in urine to have an effect, you’d need to soak your hands long enough for the urea to be absorbed by your skin, at least five minutes.
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Explainer thanks Dr. Christopher Harmon, Dr. Alexa Boer Kimball, the American Sports Medicine Institute, and the American Academy of Dermatology.
I swear I only opened this up because I read the title as “Urinating on Sin.”
The reality was a mortal disappointment.
I thought it had something to do with jellyfish stings and urine as a cure. I’ve always wondered about that.