Debunk-Tuesday – To Pee or Not To Pee?
As promised two weeks ago, I will now dive into a more…exquisite topic. Some of you may have heard, that some people believe drinking, rubbing or even injecting (yes, you read correctly) one’s own urine into the body is a good idea in order to protect versus several diseases and support a healthy body. Well…yeah. We might need to talk about that.
If you want to listen to me and get hypnotized by my beautiful voice-acting, just hit me hard!
Pee-Pressure
A few weeks ago, I read an article by @alexbeyman who wrote a bit about different kinds of pseudo-medicine. Alas, I already had my topics set for the following two editions of this series, but I was on fire nevertheless.
Finally, I can deal with at least one of the mentioned alternative treatments. Ladies and Gentlemen, let me show you the many wonders of the so-called urine therapy(1).
As my dearest readers already know, I grew up in a family of esoteric nutjobs. Besides of being abused with treatments made of chlorine dioxide, my parents thought it would be a legit idea, to tell a young child, it should treat his skin problems by just rubbing its own urine onto said skin. Brainwashed and dumb as I was back then, I believed them – without any success, of course.
My father even deemed it a good idea to gargle with urine to treat a sore throat. Yes. I kid you not.
You are supposed to piss into a cup, just to pour this piss into your mouth again and start gargling with it.
I’m actually surprised how these people managed to survive until adulthood or even procreate.
But, what do I know?
Obviously, I’m just a braindead sheeple who is not able to see the many wonders of urine therapy and why it’s being suppressed by big pharma, the Jews, Illuminati and above all, Angela Merkel, the eternal chancellor.
Peeeeeeetaaaaah!
According to the available research and history, the auto urine therapy (also called Shivambu) is more than 7000 years old, thus makes it the earliest known Ayurvedic therapy. Eww. Ayurvedic. I call bullshit on this one.
But wait, it appears, there is actually some research behind it. Two authors published a study in the open access Journal of Cancer Clinical Trials stating(2):
In clinical practise many who are known to follow auto urine therapy from young age, live
a healthy life without need of medications. A world famous example is Shri Morarji Desai (Former P.M. of India during turbulent political period). He started auto urine therapy in childhood and never needed any medicine till his death at age of 99.
Ok, sounds legit, right? Case closed, nothing to debunk here, correct?
Oh, you poor fool.
This is not your easy-go-to-lifestyle-hype-blog.
Whenever you see a “study” published in a journal which doesn’t even have a Wikipedia entry – you should remain sceptical.
But more about this later.
Even if the “tradition” of ingesting one’s own urine is quite old, the idea probably became mainstream in 1944, when J.W. Armstrong published his book The Water of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy(3). According to him, he cured tens of thousands of people by treating them with their own urine – and we all know, whenever someone claims to have achieved something magnificent it has to be true. Always. Because nobody would lie to sell more books or whatever. Never happened.
Today, you will find countless entries if you search for “urine therapy” on Amazon. Somehow, people managed to make a fortune of selling books about something which has been suppressed by big pharma, Illuminati and others – because fuck logic.
Remember my rant about bad science journalism last week? Well, I will try to be politer this time, although it’s going to be quite difficult.
During my research for this article, I came across this article (4) in the Independent. Among the many dubious statements there was one which stand out: urine is sterile.
No. It’s fucking not. One quick look at Wikipedia(5) or its references could have given the obvious answer.
So, that means, you evidently cannot sterilize wounds with it or use it to clean your skin or whatever your twisted mind may think of.
Surprise, surprise.
Therefore, it’s only logical to see studies pointing out the possible detrimental effects on one’s health associated with urine consumption.
A study which evaluated the effects of urine therapy on children concluded, that there is indeed a possibility of spreading antibiotic resistant bacterial pathogens by ingesting urine. This could lead to various detrimental outcomes and may worsening the health conditions of children(6).
So, parenting advice from a guy who despises children: don’t force feed your kids their own piss. Like, seriously, just don’t.
It’s not even a good idea to drink it, when you lack other sources of liquids. Since piss contains sodium, it will only speed up your dehydration. Don’t believe me? Just take a look into the US-Army Field Manual(7). It’s really not a good idea to drink your own pee – no matter how badly you think of the Illuminati.
Wake up, Peeple
Just a quick reminder:
Big pharma does not want to kill you. Science-based medicine is not just some huge conspiracy aiming to fuck with people’s lives and to make them ill. In general, the world is not as bad as it may seem sometimes.
Your body is quite an efficient organism when it comes to deal with toxins and other waste material. Don’t make fun of it by drinking the very things it just tried to get rid of. That’s not cool.
Give your body some credit for the amazing work it does everyday to keep you alive. Support it by maintaining a healthy diet, regular exercise and avoid too much stress.
This way, you will already live healthier than the majority of the people alive today – so there is absolutely no need to try some obscure alternative therapies in an attempt of boosting your health even more.
Trust me, I grew up with all this shit – and now look at me. I ended up as a cynical, arrogant asshole bitching about other people’s life choices. Believe me, you don’t want to make the same mistakes I did.
So, just skip the bullshit and you will be alright.
Feel always free to discuss my ideas and share your own thoughts about the things I’m writing about. Nobody is omniscient and if we all walk away a bit smarter than before, we’ll have achieved a lot.
Thanks for reading and stay sceptical.
Make sure, to check out #steemstem for more science related content.
References
(1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine_therapy
(2) C.V.Patel and V.C.Patel (2017) Immunotherapy: An Answer for Cancer?. J Cancer Clin Trials 2: 131.
(3) J.W. Armstrong. The Water of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy. 1944
(4) https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/urine-the-bodys-own-health-drink-5335496.html
(5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urine#Bacteria_and_pathogens
(6) Adenike Adedayo O. Ogunshe, Abosede Oyeyemi Fawole, Victoria Abosede Ajayi. Microbial evaluation and public health implications of urine as alternative therapy in clinical pediatric cases: health implication of urine therapy. Pan African Medical Journal. Journal Home > Vol 5, No 1 (2010)
(7) http://www.equipped.com/21-76/ch6.pdf
Debunk-Tuesday
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lol
More lol.
Okay, this isn't exactly the first time i'd have come across this topic. Coming from a place in Africa where alternative medicine is praised to the high heavens, you get it a lot. I've tried applying urine on a sore i had on my skin once. It would go away by morning, they said. well guess what? It didn't do shit!
Truth is, a lot about this might probably have to do with people wanting to take shortcuts and spend less. Sounds like a winner. So you're telling me i don't have to spend money on getting drugs from the local store when i could just pee into a cup? Okay! Got it!.
I call BS on urine therapy!
Good read buddy.
Yeah, I read, that especially in Africa the market with these kinds of pseudo-medicine is quite huge. Sadly. But even in western countries, the number of people using this stuff seems to be increasing. It's quite frustrating to watch.
Yuks!! I don't want to read this... but I will!!! And I'll come back! :P
I remembered a friend now, he used to work for a technical company for a while and they had a series on Urine Therapy, jeeez!
I tried to make it not as delicate as I could have :P
But, yeah, I guess the rabbit hole of weird pseudo-science still holds many interesting stories 🙃
Ok, I just finished it. Honestly, how retarded could a someone be to drink their own body waste and think of it as a cure or something that will help them live longer? Why not eat their poo following the same "logic"?
On a sidenote, I think you just ruined the idea of golden showers to any kinky reader :P
Honestly, I have no idea. Seriously. I tried to understand it over and over again - but meh.
And hey, golden showers can still be fun - but maybe not healthy :P
I have always thought they are just: YUKS! And your post can explain why 😬😖😵
The only time in my life I had to pee on myself is when I was little and a jellyfish touched me on the beach, I remember I had to do it, but I don't quite remember if it helped with the pain or not.
Either way, a few years ago I watched on an episode of Man vs Wild that drinking pee was recommended if you have nothing else to drink, but I never took the time to really see if this was true or not.
That's a quite common misconception. As far as research goes, it is not recommended, it can even worsen the condition.
It's not. That's why the US-Army also does not recommend doing it in order to survive. It will only increase your dehydration.
Well, I happen to like the way you ended up, so thumbs up for the pee medicine! ;)
Yeaaaah...I doubt that had anything to do with it :D
Yes I have heard about that urine therapy. I think I won´t do that. But some people practice it.
Maybe it´s a kind of culture each country
Regards
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