Waste or Wonder?

In the spring of 2003, Aron Ralston, a 26-year-old mountaineer, created headlines with his story of surviving several days trapped between a boulder and a canyon wall in the Utah desert. Ralston's ordeal grabbed media attention in part because of the way it ended: He freed himself by amputating his trapped arm with a small, dirty pocket knife. Ralston wrote his account of his experience in a book, Between A Rock and a Hard Place, in which he provides a broader context and compelling details of his story. One of the crucial details of Ralston's survival is that he drank his own urine in order to stave off deyhdration and death in the desert.

Flash forward to the future via Frank Herbert's 1965 novel Dune, the best-selling science fiction work of all time, and urine again plays a role in human survival. This time, on the distant desert planet Arrakis, where water is scarce, people survive by wearing "stillsuits" – outfits which capture moisture secreted by the body, be it sweat or urine, and filter it and recycle it for human consumption.

Even the US Army, according to a BBC report, is in on the urine action, exploring dried food pouches that can filter urine to produce water for mixing with food. They probably won't advertise this research in their enlistment campaigns!

Beyond stories of survival, there is a growing interest in health circles in the potential of urine, not as a source of hydration, but as a naturally occurring remedy to be used for general health purposes.

Ancient Roots

It is known that people across the planet drink urine as a form of regular therapy and hold it to be something of a panacea, with healing powers for everything from asthma to heart disease. In India, Morarji Desai, a freedom fighter and Gandhian who became Prime Minister in 1977 at the age of 81, was very public about his practice of shivambhu or urine therapy. Desai died at the age of 99. Given his vitality (some say his skin positively glowed, even in old age) there was much commentary and humor on the subject of urine therapy in the media and public discourse.

Indeed, the practice of urine therapy has historic roots in India as well as in other parts of the east. Hindu holy men have been known to consume urine since antiquity. Religious texts record the practice and the Ayurvedic world refers to it as Amaroli, a term with tantric sexual implications. Both China and Japan acknowledge the practice of using urine internally and externally, and in Siberia, urine consumption during long cultural ceremonies is a recorded practice among the Koryak tribe. The resourceful Koryaks consume urine not only for hydration, but also as a way of prolonging an existing high, induced when "state-altering" mushrooms are consumed as part of rituals. This unusual practice works because apparently certain psychoactive alkaloids remain unchanged in the transformation from ingestion to urine.

A Common Misperception

To the average person however, urine is commonly perceived as being a toxic waste product. Aside from early adventures in childhood, we are conditioned to have as little contact as possible with this fluid emitted from our bodies. In fact, some stories of failed survival tell of people who died of dehydration, because they refused to drink urine, even though it was the only fluid available.

Blood and Water

Medically known as "plasma ultra filtrate," urine is a complex by-product of human blood. It is sterile and (in the short term at least) non-toxic, despite the presence of urea, which occurs in minimal amounts. Advocates of urine consumption emphasize the term by-product over waste product, saying that urine results from the removal of what the body doesn't need at any given time. In urotherapy, urine is seen as a kind of metabolic signature of the body. The theory suggests that when consumed, urine works as a self-vaccination to boost the body's immune system. Since it is also known that urine contains hormone metabolites and antigens unique to each individual, it is thought that urine can function as a customized remedy for each individual in a way that mass-produced drugs or remedies cannot replicate.

The Body's Own Medicine

In the western allopathic world, urine consumption has received particular attention in the field of cancer treatment. In the US, Vincent Speckhart, MD, an oncologist and homeopath, testified to the House of Representatives about the therapeutic potential of urea. Similar testimonials have been provided by an Israeli doctor, Dr. Joseph Eldor, and the American Cancer Society website lists urotherapy as an "alternative cancer treatment." The site also mentions the work of Greek doctor, E. Danopolous, MD, who explored the use of urea to destroy different types of cancer cells. Dr. Danopolous' work was published in The Lancet a few decades back, but his results have apparently not been verifiable in ensuing attempts by others.

Big Pharma and Urine

Unsurprisingly, the pharmaceutical world has long been taking advantage of elements in human urine, with huge benefits to corporate profit margins as well as to human health. For example, Pergonal, a commonly available fertility drug, with an estimated worth of over $800 million in profits, contains hormones extracted from human urine. Urokinase, an enzyme found in urine is used as a drug to dissolve blood clots and unclog arteries for heart treatments. And Murine, an eye drop medication, uses synthetic urea (acknowledged as a phenomenal moisturizer) as an active ingredient in the product.

Following the Trail

With interest in urine therapy surfacing in unexpected places, in 1996 the first world conference on the subject was held in India. Subsequent conferences have been held in Germany and Korea. Despite the world conferences and the booming business in pharmaceuticals, little scientific research exists on the subject of urine therapy in mainstream allopathic medicine. So, while anecdotal accounts might lead one to reconsider assumptions about urine, there is little scientific evidence that would lead to adding urine to the list of beverages we consume on a regular basis.

Never Say Never

However, if we bear in mind the phenomenon of yoga, another Eastern practice once considered esoteric, but now practiced as a mainstream and even commercialized form of fitness in the West, one cannot help but wonder whether in time and with further study, urine therapy might also find widespread acceptance.

Certainly, with statistics that tell us that 300 multinational corporations own 25% of the world's assets and predictions that by 2010 up to three billion people will live in "water-stressed" conditions, the potential for urine as a natural wonder remedy available to all humans, free of charge, is a powerful inducement to keep an open mind.

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