Is urine therapy a cure for ailments?
by A. F. DAWOOD

Dr. C. P. Mithal, M.D., an Indian doctor, in his book "The Miracles of Urine Culture" reveals some stunning facts on the efficacy of urine for so many dreadful diseases, which to lay people seem incredible. He asserts that urine is a panacea for ailments like diabetes, cancer, tuberculosis and for diseases of eyes, ears, teeth and skin. Moraji Desai, a former Prime Minister of India, vouchsafes the fact that he had tried the efficiency of urine on himself very successfully and on his advice some others have tried this remedy with success. The author elicits the following information, which would raise the eye-brows of the readers: that in the days of yore urine therapy was practised widely in the interior villages to the extent that old grandmothers gave children to drink their own urine to overcome fever, lose motion and many other ailments; that Tibetan lamas (monks) used to drink their own urine to preserve their health, as it was believed that urine contained nutritious ingredients; that in the past, a mixture of cow urine and human urine was an essential composition in the ancient ayurvedic medicine; that travellers and explorers drank their own urine when water was scarce in the desert.

Volatile

Dr. C. P. Mithal further pinpoints that urine contains volatile salts which are beneficial to the human body because these salts destroy acidity and get rid of pain in kidney, intestine, and womb; furthermore urine, a natural tonic, eliminates giddiness, tension in nerves, lazy feeling, hemicrama, paralysis, decaying of any part of the body, common cold, diseases of brain, nerves, joints and leukorrhoe (a whitish discharge from vagina resulting from inflammation or congestion of the mucous membrane). According to this book, there is a string of advantages by the use of urine internally and externally. A sick cow or dog drinks its own urine from time to time and recovers from the illness in a few days. If the teeth are washed many times daily with urine, advised a French dentist three hundred years ago, those suffering from tooth ailment could get relief. Dr. Mithal highlights that two books, one published in the nineteenth century "One Thousand Notable Things" and the other published in 1695 "Solomon's English Physician", record the following useful features of urine.

By drinking urine, diseases of kidney, liver and bile, dropsy, jaundice, sinuses and plague could be cured; by washing the anus with urine diseases of the ear, nose and eyes could be cured and the joints become flexible and the skin becomes smooth.

He also quotes in his book an interesting account of an English author, C. Scott on Dr. W. H. Buxton's application of urine therapy in his book "Doctor's Disease and Health". According to this book, though incredible it sounds, the doctor cured himself of cancer by using urine pack and drinking urine, and also drank three tumblers full of urine daily for preservation of his eye sight, in addition to using urine as eye drop. Monks in India, leading a solitary life in the jungles, called Naga Sadhus, remain naked throughout the year and drink their urine daily to maintain good health. The erudite doctor describes urine as a product of the body's excretory system but contains chemical composition such as potassium, calcium, magnesium, chloride and many more, all of which are essential for body health and hence concludes that urine is a natural tonic.

Islam considers urine an impurity and a drop of urine on body or clothes of one due to pray could nullify his or her prayer. I am not aware of the Buddhist point of view on urine but the Holy Bible, according to Dr. Mithal refers to urine therapy in these cryptic words, "Drink waters out of thine own cistern; when thou fastest, annoint thy head and wash your face." It was J. W. Armstrong, those father used to cure disease of domestic cows, horses and dogs by treating them with urine, that first understood the significance of these words. Armstrong was suffering from T.B. for which Antibiotics such as stretomycia and penicillin were not available during that time. Having failed to get completely cured from T.B. by two doctors, he adopted urine therapy after he came across the above Bible statement. He fasted on urine and tap water for 45 days and at the same time annointing his body with urine. At the end of forty nine days he broke his fast with raw meat.

It is said that urine is a sure curative for heart ailments; that urine is mixed with other medicines by allopathic doctors and urine is used for the manufacture of skin tonic by some foreign firms.