Health issues
Urophagia is generally considered harmless, since the urine of healthy individuals is mostly sterile. However, a small risk exists if there is a disease present, or bacterial infection of the urethra. There may also be secondary effects, such as skin rashes in individuals sensitive to urine. [1]
The main dangers are the high salt and mineral content. The high salt content usually does not pose a problem if the urine is sufficiently diluted and not consumed in mass quantities. The effect of the high salt may be mitigated by drinking some water after consuming urine. The urine may be diluted if the person whose urine will be consumed drinks some water (or diet soda, see below) an hour or so before the act. Many people into BDSM drink beer before the act[citation needed] because it dilutes any unpleasant chemicals in the urine, and alcohol acts as a diuretic, stimulating the body to excrete more urine than it normally would.[2]
Since artificial sweeteners are excreted in urine, consuming artificial sweetener before urine play can lend a sweet taste to the urine. Drinking diet soda, or other beverages containing artificial sweetener, before urine play will have the dual effect of diluting the urine and sweetening it. However, if the taste of sugar is detected in an individual's urine, and it is known that artificial sweetener has not been consumed, this may be a sign of diabetes and a doctor should be consulted. Asparagus, on the other hand, gives urine an unpleasant smell with about 40–79% of people.[3]
The participants should use caution or avoid drinking urine if one or both of them are taking vitamin or mineral supplements or medication, since elements of these can be excreted in urine.[4]
Urine of persons who are ill, or regularly take medication, should generally not be consumed. In special cases (e.g. chronic illness of the partner), a medical doctor should be consulted to clarify whether the urine of the chronically ill or medicated person may be consumed without endangering one's health, or not.[citation needed]
If put through a house hold water filter, the urine will become odorless and taste much like water.[citation needed]
[edit] Survival
It has been suggested that when a person is in desert survival or surrounded by salt water and devoid of drinking water that the person must resort to drinking his/her own urine if it is the only liquid available.[5] As it tends to cause further dehydration due to the salts in it, drinking urine for survival is advised against by the US Army Field Manual[6], the head of the Texas Urological Society[7], and numerous survival instructors and guides[8][9][10][11][12][13], while the Discovery Channel advises it.[14]
Aron Ralston claims to have used the technique when trapped for several days with his arm under a boulder.[15]
Bear Grylls of the Discovery Channel's Man vs. Wild drank his own urine while he was in the Outback of Australia.[16]
Alternatively Les Stroud on Survivorman drank water evaporated from urine that he produced using a solar still but advised against drinking pure urine.
As a human being can only survive without water for about three days, drinking urine probably would extend life for only one to two extra days. However, these two extra days might mean death or life under extreme conditions. Several people saved themselves by drinking their own urine during the 2008 Sichuan Earthquake.[citation needed]
[edit] Alternative medicine/Practices
Main article: Urine therapy
In countries such as India and China, it is considered normal by some groups to drink your own urine for health and cosmetic purposes. This health branch of drinking urine is considered to be labeled as Urine therapy. Also, an old method of teeth-whitening during the Renaissance involved the consumption of urine, though it needn't be, and wasn't always necessarily, that of the user.[citation needed]
[edit] Teeth whitening
In Roman times, there was a tradition among the Gauls to use urine to whiten teeth. A famous poem by the Roman poet Catullus, criticizing a Gaul named Egnatius, reads:
Egnatius, because he has snow-white teeth, smiles all the time. If you’re a defendant in court, when the counsel draws tears, he smiles: if you’re in grief at the pyre of pious sons, the lone lorn mother weeping, he smiles. Whatever it is, wherever it is, whatever he’s doing, he smiles: he’s got a disease, neither polite, I would say, nor charming. So a reminder to you, from me, good Egnatius. If you were a Sabine or Tiburtine or a fat Umbrian, or plump Etruscan, or dark toothy Lanuvian, or from north of the Po, and I’ll mention my own Veronese too, or whoever else clean their teeth religiously, I’d still not want you to smile all the time: there’s nothing more foolish than foolishly smiling. Now you’re Spanish: in the country of Spain what each man pisses, he’s used to brushing his teeth and red gums with, every morning, so the fact that your teeth are so polished just shows you’re the more full of piss. [17][18]
[edit] Ceremonial
Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion. (May 2008)
The Koryak people of Siberia drink urine in conjunction with their ceremonial use of the psychoactive Amanita muscaria (commonly known as fly agaric) mushroom. The active alkaloids are unchanged as they pass through the human body, allowing the urine to retain the intoxicating effects of the mushroom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urophagia
