Urine therapy

[[File:Cow's urine used as a medical treatment in India Wellcome V0041323.jpg|thumb|right|165px|"Cow's urine used as a medical treatment in India: a sick man is held over a cow's hindquarters, so that the cow's urine streams onto his face." &mdash; Wellcome Images (Bernard Picart, c. 1730)]]
{{altmed}}
{{cquote|Hath he not sent me to the men which sit on the wall, that they may eat their own dung, and drink their own piss with you? ({{bible|2 Kings|18|27}})}}
{{cquote|My response is always, why not eat dog pee?|||Professor Philip Stark on urban foraging for edible weeds<ref>[http://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Cal-professors-on-the-hunt-for-edible-nutritious-5846111.php#/0 Cal professors on the hunt for edible, nutritious East Bay weeds]</ref>}}

'''Urine therapy''' is an [[alternative medicine]] that is precisely what the name implies but is often [[euphemism|euphemised]] to '''urotherapy''' or '''uropathy'''. It involves using [[human]] urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes. These include drinking your own urine and massaging your urine into your skin&mdash;although the latter is apparently a tried-and-tested method by fire jugglers to toughen their skin against heat. In the usual alt-med manner of substituting [[appeal to tradition|historical claims]] for such tawdriness as clinical [[evidence]], advocates point to [[Egypt|Egyptian]] writings back from about 1,000 [[BCE]].<ref name=ehow>[http://www.ehow.com/how_2031626_become-uropath.html How to Become a Uropath] (eHow.com)</ref>

Urine therapy (''amaroli'') has been used in [[Ayurvedic medicine]].<ref>[http://www.agamayoga.com/articles/amaroli.htm Drink To Your Health]</ref> ''Amaroli'' was supposedly practiced by [[Gandhi]], and was practiced by former [[India]]n Prime Minister Morarji Desai.<ref>[http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report-could-morarji-desai-have-been-right-1820051 Could Morarji Desai have been right?]</ref> In 2009, [[Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh]], a right-wing [[Hindu nationalist]] group in [[India]], developed a cow urine-based soft drink that was alleged to cure various diseases.<ref>[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/4592608/India-makes-cola-from-cow-urine.html India makes cola from cow urine]</ref>

Human urine has also (rarely) been used in [[Traditional Chinese Medicine]] (''Sedimen Urinae Hominis'', or ''Ren Zhong Bai'' 人中白).<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20120321084050/http://www.bluepoppy.com/cfwebstorefb/images/features/rr_45.pdf "The Treatment of 75 Cases of Pediatric Oral Thrush with the Sweet, Cold, Protecting Yin Method" by Wang Le-ping, Shang Hai Zhong Yi Yao Za Zhi (''The Shanghai Journal of Chinese Medicine & Medicinals''), #5, 1994, p. 22]</ref><ref>''A Handbook of TCM Pediatrics: A Practitioner's Guide to the Care & Treatment of Common Childhood Diseases'' by Bob Flaws, Blue Poppy Press, 2009, page 102.</ref><ref name=read>''Chinese Materia Medica: Animal Drugs'' by Bernard E. Read (1931). Peking Natural History Bulletin. Based upon the "''Pen Ts'ao Kang Mu''" [''Bencao Gangmu''] by Li Shih-Chen [Li Shizhen].</ref> Animal urine is also in the Chinese Materia Medica, including that of [[sheep]], oxen, [[horse]]s, and asses.<ref name=read/>

Urine therapy was described in [[England]] in the 1548 treatise ''The Urinall of Physick'' by Robert Recorde.<ref>[https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A58319.0001.001?view=toc ''The Urinall of Physick''] by Robert Recorde (1548).</ref> 

==Some "theory"==
Urine therapy postulates that reintroducing the patient's own urine into their body strengthens their immune system, in a similar way that [[vaccines]] work. It also "clears up excess mucus". They claim that if one mixes potato and sulfur powder with heated old urine, it helps prevent hair loss. One can also allegedly treat throat inflammations by gargling one's own pee.<ref group=note>Meat Loaf [http://www.jimsteinman.com/loafsings.htm actually did this] when he lost his voice in 1980&mdash;his songs are now golden oldies!</ref> Fresh urine also alleviates trembling hands.<ref group=note>Which can be an effective way to get urine all over them.</ref> Nine days of drinking one's own urine even cures scurvy!<ref name=universaltao>This paragraph is all from [http://www.universal-tao.com/article/urine_therapy.html Complete Guide Urine Therapy] (universal-tao.com).</ref>

Oh, and it cures [[cancer]]. But only in [[Mexico]].<ref>[http://www.cancer.org/Treatment/TreatmentsandSideEffects/ComplementaryandAlternativeMedicine/PharmacologicalandBiologicalTreatment/urotherapy Urotherapy] (American Cancer Society)</ref> And why not [[Ebola]] [[Panacea|while we're at it]]?<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20150107114848/http://bolenreport.com/EbolaIndianProtocol.htm Stopping Ebola — The Ayurvedic Approach… Water With Life — How To Cure and/or Curtail Ebola Virus Infection…] by T. R. Shantha (October 18<sup>th</sup>, 2014) ''Bolen Report'' (archived from January 7, 2015).</ref><ref>[http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2014/11/03/throwing-everything-but-the-kitchen-sink-quackery-wise-at-ebola/comment-page-1/ Throwing everything but the kitchen sink, quackery-wise, at Ebola] by Orac (November 3, 2014) ''Respectful Insolence''.</ref> If you're looking for bad medicine, urine luck. OK, enough of this [[Bullshit|bull urine…]]

Urine is a ''waste'' product. Fresh urine is largely&mdash;but not completely&mdash;sterile.<ref>[https://www.microbemagazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6466:urine-once-thought-sterile-has-its-own-microbiome&catid=1266&Itemid=1532 Urine, Once Thought Sterile, Has Its Own Microbiome]</ref> A urinary tract infection or being left out for too long can make it less sterile. So, go ahead! Take the piss. And smell the wee. Of course, along with water, urine also contains chemicals which the body has decided it had better remove from circulation, and putting it back through the system again is not really a particularly sensible action, since it makes your kidneys work overtime. The US army says that it is rather salty, and should not be consumed as it will only dehydrate you and make you sick.

== Drown the gay away (in urine) ==
The [[neo-Nazi]] group ''Occupy Pedophilia'' (which doesn't actually go after [[pedophile]]s, but rather goes after [[gay]] and [[bisexual]] men) uses "urine therapy" (i.e. pouring urine over the head of an individual and filming it) in order to drown the gay away, presumably?<ref group=note>This is most likely another form of their sickening and degrading public humiliation, but [http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/article/anti-gay-vigilante-groups-face-backlash/484774.html certain sources] describe it as an alleged "urine therapy".</ref>

== Urea ==
Urea, CO(NH<sub>2</sub>)<sub>2</sub>, ''is'' one of the main compounds contained in urine, and ''is'' used as a moisturizing cream, but is synthesized for pharmaceutical use, not extracted from the urinals at cosmetic plants.<ref>https://web.archive.org/web/20161220010342/https://thecosmetist.com/urea-cosmetics-pee/</ref>

==See also==
*[[Burzynski clinic]]
*[[COVID-19 pandemic#Urine]]
*[[Feces therapy]]
*[[Pissgate]]
*[[Unani]]
*[[Vomit therapy]]
*{{bible|2 Kings|18|27}}
*[[Argumentum ad fastidium]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|2|group=note}}

==References==
{{reflist|2|80%}}

[[Category:Alternative medicine]]
[[Category:Cancer woo]]
[[Category:Chinese medicine]]
[[Category:Drink]]
[[Category:Indian medicine]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience]]

Categories: Alternative medicine, Cancer woo, Chinese medicine, Drink, Indian medicine, Pseudoscience