Illustration by EUGENE CUBILLO

Q. I recently saw a film clip showing boxer Juan Manuel Marquez drinking his own urine because he says urine has a lot of constituents that makes him strong and improves his stamina. Is this true? Is there any benefit to drinking urine?

—George F, Pasay City

A. Drinking one’s own or another person’s urine is the utmost form of urine therapy, also known as urotherapy, urinotherapy or uropathy, an alternative medicine procedure that refers to various applications of human urine for medicinal or cosmetic purposes. Very often practitioners of this form of alternative medicine simply massage urine on their skin or drink some, but not all, of their urine output. Urine therapy has a considerable number of adherents including a former Indian Prime Minister.

Urine is an ultrafiltrate of plasma (the fluid component of blood) that is produced by the kidneys.  The kidneys form urine to maintain the normal composition and volume of body fluids. Urine formation involves a series of steps which starts with filtering of blood by the kidneys. Filtration is a huge undertaking; 1.2-1.3 liters of blood or 1/4 of the total blood volume of the body pass through the kidneys per minute. After the filtration process, some important substances which have passed through the kidney filters are reabsorbed. Finally, some substances that are secreted by the kidneys are added to the filtered fluid to come up with urine, the final product, which goes to the urinary bladder in trickles for temporary storage. Once the urinary bladder is full, the person has the urge to urinate and the bladder is emptied by urination.

Aside from water, urine contains metabolic waste products that are toxic to the body; some cells that are shed by the urinary tract; a host of micronutrients including minerals such as sodium and potassium, and, vitamins such as vitamins B6 and B12; hormones; antibodies; at least one enzyme, urokinase, which is capable of dissolving blood clots; and, occasionally protein and sugar molecules.

All the constituents of normal urine, except for the waste products and dead cells, are needed in varying amounts by the body. Many find their way into urine only because at the time of filtration, they exist in excess amount in blood. And here lies the rationale behind urine therapy: to bring back these substances into the body.

According to practitioners of urine therapy, urine is a tonic and cures a variety of illnesses including heart and kidney problems. When re-utilised, the chemicals and nutrients in urine supposedly act as natural vaccines, antibacterial, antiviral and anticarcinogenic agents as well as hormone balancers and allergy relievers. But the truth is that although numerous anecdotal reports attest to the curative powers of urine in treating a variety of illnesses, there is no scientific evidence that supports these claims. 

Some uropaths (practitioners of urine therapy) claim that pharmaceutical companies have grossed billions of dollars from the sale of drugs made from constituents of urine constituents. As proof, they enumerate some proprietary products whose main active ingredients are found in urine. Of course, this is true, but taking a constituent of urine that has been purified or synthesized is not the same as drinking urine.

I see no benefit in drinking urine.  If you want to bring back into your body the beneficial substances that you loose with urine, you can do so in the form food supplements, vitamin and mineral pills, etc. This way you do not re-expose your body to the toxic metabolic waste products that were excreted with urine.

Incidentally, urine is normally sterile unless there is an infection present in the kidneys or any portion of the urinary tract. Hence, the risk of getting an infection from drinking one’s own urine is minimal. Likewise, drinking a small amount of urine is probably not harmful, but drinking all your urine can overburden the kidneys and damage vital organs of the body.

One final point: people who are taking medicines or drugs regularly should not drink their urine because most drugs and/or their metabolites are excreted with urine.

(Email inquiries on health matters to: medical_notes@yahoo.com or wellbeing@mb.com.ph.)