Ah, that “golden cure-all” - urine. There are those that would have us believe that urine can cure everything from cancer http://www.cancer.org/docroot/eto/content/eto_5_3x_urotherapy.asp?sitearea=eto to financial woes. There are several interesting cases however. Consider if you will the following:
Longjohn - you mentioned that urine is sterile enough to be used to clean the wounds of a soldier on the battlefield. I wouldn’t suggest testing this hypothesis. Urine is sterilized of many toxins, but it can contain bacteria and other nasty microorganismas that will eventually make the effected area all rotten and icky. Look back to the medical records of wars of the past…once decent MASH units were set up (I mean more than the Civil War standard of a bottle of bourbon and a bone saw) antibacterials were common enough to clean wound without the need to grant your fellow privates a gift from your privates… If you look earlier than this, you tend to see a lot more deaths from blood loss after radical amputation, and everyoned favorite green and black buddy: gangrene! Now, I won’t go so far as to say that soldiers never used urine to clean a wound, but even in WWII, soldiers were issued sulfur packets for just such a purpose.
It is possible to recycle your own urine, as the bacteria in your urine is already in your body and you already have antibodies for said bacteria. So, if you’re ever alone in the bush and wounded, and you’ve run out of conventional medicine…and you either lack the knowledge of herbal medicine or can’t get the herbs, then by all means, work up a good pee and let 'er rip. I guess, if you’re shot in the jungle and you’re all alone, becoming ill because of the bacteria in pee is not really on the top list of concerns.
It is possible (however gross you may find this) to drink your own urine for a short time in the event that you are stranded without water. Everyone knows that without water, a person will die of thirst in about 3 days. I remember reading somewhere (don’t quote me on this - if anyone has more specific info I’d love to know) that a human can survive exclusively on their own urine for three cycles befor the body’s natural filtration process sucks out all the water and the urine becomes a toxin. So if you started walking through the desert and drank a big ol’ jug of water before you left, then filled that jug back up with pee throughout the day, you could walk for 3 days without having to take a drink from the jug (gross - no pun intended - oversimplification, I’ve left out all those pesky things like heatstroke, exposure, and exhaustion) at which point you could drink from the jug until it was empty and then recycle it 2 more times before the urea and acids in the urine became poisonous to you. Theoretically, assuming you take proper precautions from the elements and other hazards, you could get pretty far with this method. Like I said before, a little gross, but hey drinking my own piss or taking the dirt nap…I’ll have a big glass of piss please.
On the lighter side, a somewhat suspect tale I heard in the beautiful island nations of Trinidad and Tobago:
I had spent the afternoon on a glass bottom boat with an interesting individual that everyone kept calling “BrokenGlass”. This was on account of his voice sounding like he had swallowed several large chunks of, you guessed it, broken glass. Now, BrokenGlass was a bit of a pirate from England who spent six weeks out of the year kickin’ it in the Carribbean on his boat. We had all gotten a bit loaded on the glass bottom boat ride and were swapping war stories of the sea. Moray bites, barracuda schools, and shark attacks went by and then BrokenGlass told us this one. It seems that these two rather attractive, blonde tourists had been frolicking in the surf on Pigeon Point in Tobago when one of them sat down in the water. Well, you can probably see where this is going… she sat right on an ocean egg - also known as the lovable and not so cuddly sea urchin. As you can imagine, she jumped right up and in more than a bit of discomfort, she hobbled to the shore. Here comes the good part. BrokenGlass happened to be there that day and he told the two ladies that there is a cure they can try. Take a cup, put a little sand in it (unlike the sand here in the northeast, there is no medical waste in theirs, so this is a bit safer to do down there), pee in the cup, and then rub the concoction on the -ahem- inflamed area. See, the sand will help scrub out any bits of the urchin spines that were left in the wound (they break off like bee stings), which if left behind could cause infection, and the urine will clean the wound. Well, the girls were a bit grossed out but they tried it after a bit of convincing. Anyway, the girl who had been stung was still in a bit of pain, and word started to circulate around the beach that she has sat on an urchin. Not being they types to pass up an opportunity, many of the local men told the young lady that the only way to get out urchin spines is to suck them out. Soon, there was a line of young Tobagonian men queued up to “suck the sea urchin spines” out of this woman’s rear. BrokenGlass let them get about halfway through the line before he started telling them about the first cure the women used. Needless to say, after they washed their tongues, several of the men never tried that particular scam again.
Oh, and one thing urine CAN do (I know from personal experience) is cure athelete’s foot. The fire fighters at my friend’s firehouse swear by this method. When you have the beginning stages of athelete’s foot (you want to stop it before the skin starts cracking and sores develop) pee on your feet every time you take a shower. The acid in the urine will kill the fungus that causes the rash. Nasty? Maybe. But if you wear heavy rubber boots to work every day and they are always getting water in them, you can either do this or spend your entire paycheck on Tinactin. Or maybe it’s just that some of New York’s Bravest are a little crazy.
