FRI-15 THE HISTORY OF URINE AS HEALING AGENT

  • Motola J
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Abstract

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Although usually thought of as a toxic metabolic waste product, the medicinal purposes of urine have been touted for thousands of years. This is a historical review of the use of urine for medicinal purposes. METHODS: A comprehensive literature search of Pubmed, Ovid, Google Scholar and the internet was undertaken RESULTS: Beginning with the Book of Proverbs (5:15), “..drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well”, evidence exists for the consumption and use of urine of health reasons. Drinking urine for rejuvenation, Shivambu, has been described in scared Hindu texts that are over 5000 years old and is still practiced today. It is advocated as a therapy for asthma, arthritis, allergies, acne, cancer, indigestion, migraines and wrinkles. Cultural and medical practices in Egypt, China, Thailand and the Aztec empire also advocated its use. During ancient Roman times, Pliny the Elder, used urine for treeing sores, burns, anal afflictions, scorpion stings and baby rash. Dr. Ambroise Pare, the most famous surgeon of the 16th century advocated its use for bathing itchy eyelids. In the 1500's when Magellan circumnavigated the world, his crew had a limited water supply, and resorted to drinking their own urine. Stories of survivors of catastrophic events have circulated with claims of drinking their own urine to survive. In Siberia, drinking urine helped potentiate the hallucinogenic effect of psychotropic mushrooms. Lewis and Clark in 1806 described native Americans bathing in urine daily. Numerous medicinal uses of urine were reported well into the 1900s. Over time urine therapy has been used as an embrocation, a compress for local tumors, as eye ear or nose drops, and its crystals used for wound cleansing. Much of what we have heard about the use of urine therapy has no medical basis, and is folk remedy that can actually worsen the injury, such as Jellyfish stings. Despite this, many public figures have advocated its use. In the cosmetics industry, urea remains an important ingredient in medicinal skin creams. Urea has also been shown to have antibacterial and anti-fungal properties. Multiple medical products have been obtained from urine and urea including diuretics, fertility agents, and estrogens. CONCLUSIONS: With a long history of reported medical uses over many millennia, despite clinical evidence of iits efficacy, ongoing interest is still being demonstrated for the medicinal uses of urine. Ongoing research is being conducted on the chemotherapeutic potential of cow urine and the potential use of stem cells derived from human amniotic fluid in renal diseases.

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APA

Motola, J. (2016). FRI-15 THE HISTORY OF URINE AS HEALING AGENT. Journal of Urology, 195(4S). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.juro.2016.02.100

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