Especially in India, where this controversial and for many disgusting custom has a long tradition, although urination therapy – urotherapy or urinotherapy – has followers all over the world and is considered an alternative medicine in other countries such as China . It consists of the use of human or certain animal urine for cosmetic and therapeutic purposes, which includes its application on the skin and also the ingestion of urine. Its followers defend the antibacterial and antiallergic properties of pee and speak of benefits in the treatment of tumors, but there is no conclusive scientific evidence, as the American Cancer Society warns. Although it is true that some chemical elements in urine have a dermatological use – urea – and surgery – urokinase – and that pee is basically made up of water, hormones and metabolites and is usually sterile and antiseptic, the detractors of this practice They add that it is a waste of the body, such as sweat or defecation, which can also include toxic catabolites, bacteria or viruses.
The truth is that the medicinal use of pee dates back to ancient times and has been present in many cultures: the Romans used it as a tooth whitener, the Aztecs drank it to heal stomach and intestinal problems … But India is the urine-therapeutic country by excellence. In the Ayurvedic tradition, amaroli – drinking the first pee in the morning on an empty stomach – is almost as important a rule as yoga and meditation to purify the body, prevent disease and lengthen life. Gandhi is said to have watched it, and in 1978 the country’s then prime minister, Morarji Desai, publicly extolled the virtues of the method. Recently, in 2013, the Hindu Jairam Singhal made headlines for his defense of the benefits of cow pee . Singhal, a 42-year-old diabetic living in Agra, said he has been drinking a glass of urine from virgin cows every morning for ten years and that now his condition is under control.
