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Um..isn't urine made of stuff your body is trying to get rid of? Why would drinking it and putting it BACK in the body help anything?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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Pix, aren't you the same person who posted the "eating your boogers is good for your immune system" article? Are you fixated or something? *smile* (Good to see you around more regularly, too.)
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Urine contains urea, a waste product derived from ammonia, which is produced in the breakdown of proteins. It also can contain a variety of other inorganic waste products, including drugs and foreign substances your body is trying to eliminate. Under all normal circumstances, drinking urine is a bad idea.
However, urine does also contain water, as well as useful materials not completely filtered out. (Usually those components are negligible, but in some disorders excess amounts might be lost.) In desperate situations--for instance, when lost in the desert--people have evaded dehydration by drinking urine. Urine can also be used as a disinfectant--it's more toxic to bacteria than to you. Such usage is, however, a last resort, especially in modern society.
Posts: 1114 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Moose: I dunno, when people eat gross things I think it catches everyone's attention. That's why there's always a bug-eating episode of Survivor. Except these people are doing it for health reasons, not to win a million dollars.
Several years ago Headline News ran the same story every half hour for 2 days (I'm a news junky and was even more so way back when.) It was mourning the fading culture of Dirt Eating amongst african-americans in the south east. I've never forgotten that story.. How the woman lead the reporter to the right place to find the best tasting dirt and then got him to chow down on a big spoonful along with her.
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*gags* From what I read, the ancient Aztecs did it as well *shudders* nastier than the blood sacrifices...
Posts: 18 | Registered: Jul 2004
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From what I've read, the typical belief with urine drinkers is that the bladder is the body's pharmacy, and that as the body senses what is wrong with it, it produces the drugs necessary to treat ailment X, secreting it into the urine. The person then knocks back a warm glass, and is healed. Of course, I don't know if that is the belief of this particular group; not enough information is given. In any case, the theory seems completely ludicrous to me--don't think that I'm advocating it. Lips that touch urine will never touch mine, that's my motto.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I was fishing with my buddy and asked him to pass the can of worms. As he handed the can to me he said: "it's all your'n peepee."
Posts: 2655 | Registered: Feb 2004
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The study was very poorly done. Basically, it was a survey of "Do you drink urine? Do you think it has improved your health? How?" There was no control of the same population with the same environment and diet that didn't drink urine.
Always be especially skeptical when such claims as this are made:
"worked wonders for their overall health and helped slow the ageing process."
"head-to-toe benefits for them, including for example reduction of dandruff, grey hair, sinus problems and cancer"
The only difference between this a traditional quackery is that they can't make a profit from it. However, there does seem to be some religious motivation for pushing this particular cure-all.
Posts: 438 | Registered: Apr 2004
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Please tell me this wasn't published in any reputable paper. I'd like to be able to retain at least a limited amount of respect for my profession.
Posts: 3243 | Registered: Apr 2002
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"Seven Years in Tibet" (the book) mentioned how this was fairly common in Tibet as well. Except, AFAIR, that it was the urine of monks that some the common people would ingest. I don't recall that it was done for "health" reasons. It was more a religious thing- like they were so pure that even their urine was good for you, or something. (That was one of the reasons why I have a love/hate relationship with the movie. I loved the movie as a story. It was beautiful and symmetrical. But it was also very PC. The guy is basically a jerk until non-western culture teaches him the truth. The book was much more objective about the culture, citing the strong as well as weak points- like drinking the urine of monks.)
I mentioned this to my Aunt who has been to India and the Himalayas and is into all that New Age stuff. She told me the "urine therapy" has been around for a long time and is very common and can be healthy. "The medical industry is a business..."
Needless to say, I was not impressed.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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This seems like the picking your nose and eating it study...that somehow that improves your immune system. o_O
Posts: 14745 | Registered: Dec 1999
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