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Urine therapy

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In alternative medicine, the term urine therapy (also urotherapy, urinotherapy or uropathy) refers to various applications of human urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes, including drinking of one's own urine and massaging one's skin with one's own urine. While there are no known scientifically proven health benefits of such therapeutic use for urine, some chemical components of urine do have some well known commercial and other uses, like urea and urokinase. For instance, urea in urine has been found to be antibacterial to bacteria causing urinary tract infections specifically, and ingestion of urea has been found to increase this antibacterial activity in urine itself, though no evidence was found for such an effect upon the actual ingestion or application of urine.

History

Some of the earliest human cultures used urine as a medicine.

Rome

In Roman times, there was a tradition among the Gauls to use urine to whiten teeth. A famous poem by the Roman poet Catullus, criticizing a Gaul named Egnatius, reads:

Egnatius, because he has snow-white teeth, / smiles all the time. If you're a defendant / in court, when the counsel draws tears, / he smiles: if you're in grief at the pyre / of pious sons, the lone lorn mother weeping, / he smiles. Whatever it is, wherever it is, / whatever he's doing, he smiles: he's got a disease, / neither polite, I would say, nor charming. / So a reminder to you, from me, good Egnatius./ If you were a Sabine or Tiburtine / or a fat Umbrian, or plump Etruscan, / or dark toothy Lanuvian, or from north of the Po, / and I'll mention my own Veronese too, / or whoever else clean their teeth religiously, / I’d still not want you to smile all the time: / there's nothing more foolish than foolishly smiling. / Now you’re Spanish: in the country of Spain / what each man pisses, he's used to brushing / his teeth and red gums with, every morning, / so the fact that your teeth are so polished / just shows you’re the more full of piss./

Religious

Christianity

Some advocates believe that the Bible recommends urine therapy. A verse in Proverbs (Proverbs 5:15) advises: "Drink waters from thy own cistern, flowing water from thy own well."

Hinduism

In Hinduism a religious Sanskrit text called the Damar Tantra contains 107 stanzas on the benefits of "pure water, or one's own urine". In this text, urine therapy is referred to as Shivambu Kalpa. This text suggests, among other uses and prescriptions, massaging one's skin with fresh, concentrated urine. In the Ayurvedic tradition, which is fundamentally taken from the Hindu scriptures called the Vedas, urine therapy is called amaroli which when practised requires some dietry requirements such as mixing it with water to "cure cancers" and other "diseases" along with "raw food and certain fruits like banana, papaya and citrus fruits" which are claimed to be "very good in the practice of amaroli". One of the main aims of this system is to "prevent illness, heal the sick and preserve life".

Islam

In Islam drinking urine is forbidden and is considered "khamr" and is punishable as in the same as if "exposed to the penalty of apostasy" due to its toxicity, with the willing drinker not being considered Muslim anymore. Sunni Islamic commentators find urine to be something that is "filth in an extreme degree". However scholars such as Abū Ḥanīfa have said that "it's disliked" ("makruh" or "almost" haram). In two of the Hadith's written by Sahih Bukhari it states several times that the Prophet Muhammad told his followers to drink camel urine and milk for the purposes of "recovery" to use "medicinally". However the authenticity of these verses are disputed by many scholars, with the International Institute of Islamic Thought, a representative body of scholars, commenting that the prophet recommended drinking camel milk only with the consumers drinking camel milk along with urine which was later placed in the hadiths as some of Muhammad's sayings (which were compiled years after his death) as "throughout the history of the Companions there is no reference to the uses of camel urine for theraputic purposes". Abu Yusuf has said that "urine from camels can be consumed for medicinal purposes". However drinking camel urine is generally overall considered forbidden to consume in Islam as it is an intoxicant.

Other cultures

In China, the urine of young boys has been regarded as a curative. In southern China, babies' faces are washed with the urine of other young boys as a skin protectant.

The French customarily soaked stockings in urine and wrapped them around their necks in order to cure strep throat. Aristocratic French women in the 17th century reportedly bathed in urine to beautify their skin.

In Sierra Madre, Mexico, farmers prepare poultices for broken bones by having a child urinate into a bowl of powdered charred corn. The mixture is made into a paste and applied to the skin.

As in ancient Rome, urine was used for teeth-whitening during the Renaissance, though they did not necessarily consume their own urine.

John Henry Clarke

The homeopath John Henry Clarke wrote, "…man who, for a skin affection, drank in the morning the urine he had passed the night before. The symptoms were severe, consisting of general-dropsy, scanty urine, and excessive weakness. These symptoms I have arranged under Urinum. Urinotherapy is practically as old as man himself. The Chinese (Therapist, x. 329) treat wounds by sprinkling urine on them, and the custom is widespread in the Far East. Taken internally, it is believed to stimulate the circulation".

Modern claims and findings

Urine's main constituents are water and urea; the latter of which has some well-known commercial and other uses. Urine also contains small quantities of thousands of compounds, hormones and metabolites, including corticosteroids. Pregnant mare's urine has high amounts of estrogens, which are isolated and sold as Premarin. There is no scientific evidence of a therapeutic use for untreated urine.

It has been claimed that urine is similar to other body fluids, like amniotic fluid or even blood, but these claims have no scientific basis.

Urinating on jellyfish stings is a common folk remedy, but has no beneficial effect and may be counterproductive, as it can activate nematocysts remaining at the site of the sting.

People who use Amanita muscaria as an intoxicating drug will sometimes drink their own urine in order to prolong its effects, especially when there are shortages of the fungus.

Use as anti-cancer agent

Urine and urea have been claimed by some practitioners to have an anti-cancer effect. It has been hypothesized that because some cancer cell antigens are transferred through urine, through "oral autourotherapy" these antigens could be introduced to the immune system that might then create antibodies. However, the American Cancer Society's position is that scientific evidence does not support individual claims that urine or urea given in any form is helpful for cancer patients, and that the safety of urine therapy has not been confirmed by scientific studies.

Public figures

In 1978, the former Prime Minister of India, Morarji Desai, a longtime practitioner of urine therapy, spoke to Dan Rather on 60 Minutes about urine therapy. Desai stated that urine therapy was the perfect medical solution for the millions of Indians who cannot afford medical treatment.

Cameroon's Health Minister Urbain Olanguena Awono warned people against drinking their own urine, believed in some circles to be a tonic and cure for a number of ailments. "Given the risks of toxicity associated with ingesting urine", he wrote, "the health ministry advises against the consumption of urine and invites those who promote the practice to cease doing so or risk prosecution."

Among other modern celebrities, the British actress Sarah Miles has drunk her own urine for over thirty years, in claiming the belief that it immunizes against allergies, amongst other health benefits. Major League Baseball player Moisés Alou urinates on his hands to alleviate calluses, which he claims allows him to bat without using batting gloves. Madonna explained to talk show host David Letterman that she urinates on her own feet to help cure her athlete's foot problem.

Mixed martial arts fighter Lyoto Machida revealed in an interview that he drinks his own urine. His father, Yoshizo Machida, admitted he got Lyoto to start doing that after he couldn't get rid of his cough three years ago. MMA fighter Luke Cummo has been a long-time advocate of the practice.

Boxer Juan Manuel Márquez drank his own urine during a filmed training session for the HBO series 24/7 promoting the Marquez/Mayweather fight, he revealed that he believed the practice was of great nutritional benefit aiding his intensive workouts.

Urine therapy was used as a plot line in the fifth-season episode "Crow's feet" of the popular television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Author J.D. Salinger is also said to have been an adherent.

Auto-urine drinking and meditation

Drinking one's morning urine ('amaroli') was an ancient yoga practise designed to promote meditation. The ancient Hindu and yoga texts that mention auto-urine drinking, require it be done before sunrise and that only the mid-stream sample be used. The pineal hormone melatonin and its conjugated esters are present in morning urine in significant quantities, the pineal gland secreting melatonin maximally at about 2 am, this secretion being shut off by the eyes' exposure to bright sunlight. Melatonin, when ingested or given intravenously, amongst other effects, provokes tranquility and heightened visualisation. There are high concentrations of melatonin in the first morning urine, but not in a physiologically active form. Mills and Faunce at Newcastle University Australia in 1991 developed the hypothesis that ingestion of morning urine into low pH gastric acid would cause deconjugation of its esters back to the active form of melatonin. This, they suggested, might restore plasma night-time melatonin levels. Thus, they argued, oral pre-dawn consumption of auto-exogenous melatonin, by either re-setting of the sleep-wake cycle or enhancement of the physiological prerequisites for meditation (decreased body awareness (i.e. analgesia) and claimed slowed brain wave activity, as well as heightened visualization ability), may be the mechanism behind the alleged benefits ascribed to 'amaroli' or auto-urine drinking by ancient texts of the yogic religion. Obvious experimental difficulties (particularly in constructing a double-blind clinical trial) mean that this is a difficult hypothesis to reliably test to any requisite evidence-based standard.

See also

References

  1. ^ Christopher Middleton (2003-02-24). "A wee drop of amber nectar". The Daily Telegraph. London.
  2. ^ Gardner, Martin (2001). Did Adam and Eve Have Navels?: Debunking Pseudoscience. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 92–101. ISBN 0-393-32238-6.
  3. ^ "Taking The Piss: Is urine drinking a good idea?". Correx archives.
  4. ^ Robert Todd Carroll (2003). The skeptic's dictionary: a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions (illustrated ed.). John Wiley and Sons. pp. 391–394. ISBN 0471272426, 9780471272427. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help) (also online version)
  5. ^ Urine Therapy, Jeff Lowe
  6. Donald Kaye (1968). "Antibacterial activity of human urine". The Journal of clinical investigation. 47 (10): 2374–90. doi:10.1172/JCI105921. PMC 297400. PMID 4877682.
  7. Your Teeth!, to Egnatius, poem by Catullus
  8. Aspects of Catullus' Social Fiction. Christopher Nappa, Frankfurt-am-Main: Peter Lang, 2001. Pp. 180. ISBN 3-631-37808-4. SFr.56.00.
  9. The Independent:"Urine: The body's own health drink?"
  10. ^ Joseph S. Alter. Yoga in Modern India. Princeton University Press. p. 144. ISBN 0691118744.
  11. "Amaroli". YogaMagazine.net. Retrieved 5 January 2012. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  12. "Urine Therapy - Benefits of Urine". ayurvedic-medicines.org. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  13. ^ Das, Subhamoy. "What is Ayurveda?". About.com. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  14. "Ayurveda". Religion Facts. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  15. "Diwali: Hindu Health Check - What is Ayurveda?". BBC. Retrieved 5 January 2012.
  16. ^ John Alden Williams (1994). The Word of Islam. University of Texas Press. pp. 98, 103. ISBN 0292790767, 9780292790766. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  17. "Volumn 006, Book 060, Hadith Number 134". Retrieved 5 January 2012. {{cite web}}: |first= missing |last= (help)
  18. "Book 82. Punishment Of Disbelievers At War With Allah And His Apostle". Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  19. Israr Ahmad Khan. Authentication of Hadith: Redefining the Criteria. p. 80.
  20. ^ "ABOUT US". Retrieved 7 January 2012.
  21. Urine therapy, Martin Gardner, Skeptical Inquirer, May–June 1999.
  22. A Dictionary of Practical Materia Medica, John Henry Clarke, London: Homoeopathic Pub. Co., 1900–1902.
  23. Clinical value of 24-hour urine hormone evaluations, Alan Broughton, Townsend Letter for Doctors and Patients, January 2004.
  24. Tompsett, SL (1953). "An Investigation into the Determination of Corticosteroids in Urine: I. The Determination of Corticosterone-like Substances". Journal of clinical pathology. 6 (1): 74–7. doi:10.1136/jcp.6.1.74. PMC 1023535. PMID 13034924.
  25. Charles Julius Hempel (1859). A new and comprehensive system of materia medica and therapeutics: arranged upon a physiologico-pathological basis for the use of practitioners and students of medicine. W. Radde. p. 1100.
  26. unknown (1990). "unknown title". Karstenia. 30–39. Mycological Society of Finland Suomen Sieniseura.
  27. Urotherapy for patients with cancer Article regarding "oral autourotherapy" published in the unconventional journal Medical Hypotheses
  28. Urotherapy, fact sheet at the American Cancer Society.
  29. Chowdhury, Prasenjit (July 27, 2009). "Curative Elixir: Waters Of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 2009-06-30.
  30. Cameroon threatens to jail urine drinkers, Jane Flanagan, Daily Telegraph, on line, article dated March 15, 2003.
  31. 'I can't wait to get off this planet', interview with Sarah Miles in The Independent, September 2007
  32. ESPN.com: Page 2 : Pee is only a wee bit gross
  33. The Straight Dope
  34. http://tatame.com.br/2009/03/21/O-segredo-do-sucesso-de-Lyoto-Machida
  35. http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/05/05/lyoto-machidas-father-talks-urine-drinking-then-does-it-himsel/
  36. Juan Manuel Márquez (September 17, 2009). "Juan Manuel Marquez's training diary". ESPNTemplate:Inconsistent citations{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
  37. The Independent: Urine: The body's own health drink?
  38. ^ Mills MH and Faunce TA (1991). "Melatonin supplementation from early morning auto-urine drinking". Medical Hypotheses. 36 (3): 195–9. doi:10.1016/0306-9877(91)90129-M. PMID 1787809. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)

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