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Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Weird Health Fads Review #3: Drinking Urine


I had heard of this therapy years ago, as it is not that unusual in Japan - mind you, a lot of strange things are not considered unusual by my peeps in Japan. It also has roots in Ayurvedic medicine, the Aztec civilization, China and Egypt.

Lyoto Machida, a UFC all-star hailing from Brazil was recently interviewed about his participation in this self-imposed treatment. He matter-of-factly discusses this with a very curious reporter in this hilarious interview.

Drinking your own urine, also known as urophagia, supposedly has beneficial health effects and detoxifying effects on the body. Urophagia is claimed to lead to improvements in skin, immune system function, arthritis, digestion and even touted to cure cancer.

Unfortunately, there have not been many studies to back these claims (could be a problem finding research participants?). Urine contains urea as a normal catabolic breakdown product of amino acids in our body. Urea has antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal effects, which could help support some of urophagia's claims.

Urine also contains hormones, proteins and water-soluble compounds. Some propose that melatonin, a hormone secreted by your brain at night-time, will be in your first morning urine. This may be true, but wouldn't picking up a bottle of melatonin from your local health food store be a little more appealing?

My concern with this therapy is that your kidneys also function to remove water-soluble toxins from your body, and these days we are exposed to plenty of chemicals. If these are re-consumed, they will be absorbed again. Seems kind of counter-productive.

Urophagia is relatively safe unless your body is excreting very high amounts of chemicals due to drug use, occupational exposure, or poisoning. But in any of those situations, I think you would have bigger concerns than wanting to experiment with drinking your urine.

I would recommend urine-drinking if you are stuck in the wilderness and far from a water source. It will buy you more time before dehydration sets in.

Personally, the thought of consuming a warm bubbly cup of my midstream first morning urine would lead me to vomit, negating any potential health benefits. I eat a lot of weird tasting healthy foods, but there ain't no way that pee is making it onto my menu!
RATING (out of 10):
Weird Factor: 8
Safety Rating: 8
Health Benefit: 3

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