THE BODY BEAUTIFUL



I have heard that urine is sterile, how can this be? Surely urine, along with faeces, rids the body of toxins? IN 1945, after four days in a rubber dinghy in the North Sea, my navigator and I, remembering an RAF lecture on survival, tasted our own urine. My own (and I made sure it was my own) four-day-old urine, even when flavoured with worked-out chewing gum and fluffy splinters of boiled sweet, was certainly not drinkable. Years later, when challenged, the lecturer was able to quote from official advice - "if stored in the first two days, urine is a drinkable fluid". Philip Brett, Yelverton, Devon. THE TERMS "sterile" (containing no living organisms) and "toxic" (poisonous) are unrelated. A substance could be sterile and toxic (cyanide) or non-sterile and non-toxic (yoghurt). Urine is normally sterile when produced in the kidney and stored in the bladder, but is likely to become non-sterile as it leaves the body. Urine is non-toxic, although it contains urea and other substances which can be toxic if they are not excreted and reach high concentrations in the body. (Incidentally, something is either sterile or not. "Quite sterile" is like being slightly pregnant). Ken Joy, Kenilworth, Warwickshire (lsrak@warwick.ac.uk) FOOD consists of many organic chemicals which release chemical energy during digestion. Larger organic chemicals, such as proteins and carbohydrates, are broken down into smaller components and the resultant wastes are excreted. The majority of the nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium which are predominately water-soluble are shed from the body in the form of urine. If we are to be aware of the benefits of organic farming practices, we should take a closer look ways of applying urine wastes to soil as a fertiliser because its nutritional value is much higher than that of faeces and the potential for the transmission of disease is also much lower. Urine is rather innocuous compared to the noxious nature of its counterpart, faeces. There are relatively few diseases that are transmitted by urine compared with the myriad of diseases caused by the faecal route. Two well-known diseases that can be spread through urine include typhoid (the likely source of the Croydon Typhoid epidemic in the thirties) and urinary schistosomiasis. However, there are two other points worth mentioning. Firstly, urine from a healthy person is pathogen free, as is the same person's faeces. Secondly, the lack of any pathogens in the urine does not mean that the urine is sterile which would imply that it would be void of any microbial activity. Some bacteria inhabiting the stomach intestine are inevitably detectable in urine. However, the concentrations are infinitesimally low compared to that in faeces which harbours vast populations of both living and dead intestinal bacteria. Jonathan Parkinson, Urban Water Research Group Environmental and Water Resources Engineering Section, Department of Civil Engineering, Imperial College, London (j.parkinson@ic.ac.uk) URINE formed by a healthy kidney does not contain any bacteria, though it could become contaminated with these on its way out through the urinary tract, especially when it reaches the tip of the penis or the vulva. This is why samples are usually taken of "mid-stream-urine" - the first flush washes out the potentially contaminated regions of the tract. (Dr) D E Evans, University of Manchester (devans@fs1.scg.man.ac.uk) URINE is sterile because it contains no living organisms, unless the person that produces is unlucky enough to have a urinary tract or bladder infection. There are less bacteria in urine than in tap water, for example. But drinking tap water is (generally) safe because it contains no toxic substances. Urine is actually pretty toxin free as well, but does contain plenty of waste products and some salts. Drinking it is a bad idea because it would upset the salt and nitrogen balance in the body, and the body would have to lose excessive water (as more urine), in redressing the balance. Bear this in mind if you ever find yourself adrift at sea in an open boat. (Dr) Peter Lund, School of Biological Sciences, University of Birmingham (p.a.lund@bham.ac.uk) URINE may be sterile, but it is useful for proofing and improving leather. There are accounts of wicketkeepers urinating on their gloves (although not on the field of play, thankfully), while the hillwalking cartoon character, Murdo Munro, anti-hero of The Angry Corrie magazine, routinely does the same with his best leather boots. Dave Hewitt, Alva, Clackmannanshire (sa39@dial.pipex.com) NOT ONLY is urine sterile, but it is a valuable physiological substance. As blood travels through the body it passes through the liver and the kidneys. One of the liver's major functions is to detoxify the blood. The kidneys balance the various elements in your blood, extracting excess amounts of vital substances and water in the form of urine. Urine contains vitamins, minerals, proteins, enzymes, hormones, antibodies and amino acids. This forms the basis of urine therapy, which is simply "recycling" urine by drinking it. Practitioners claim that it has cured, amongst many others, constipation, psoriasis, eczema, endometriosis, rheumatism, allergies and even some cancers. I have drunk over a pint of urine daily for seven years and can vouch for its efficacy. Clive Barker, Thornham, Rochdale. MAY I confirm Clive Barker's findings on the health benefits from drinking urine. Since moving from Rochdale to Spain 10 years ago I have been drinking three to four pints daily, but here we call it San Miguel. Alan Bray, Santander, Spain (ter4#gateway@jet.es) A Prime Minister of India, name escapes me, (circa 1975) was widely reported as drinking a glass of his own every day. He avoided alcohol and even had a swig of urine at official parties where he was the only one who was pissed. John Rogers, Austin, USA



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