Why Drinking Urine Won’t Protect You Against COVID-19 (and May Make You Sick)
No scientific evidence supports that drinking urine can protect you from COVID-19. Drinking urine can actually be harmful to your health. Experts say staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines can be the best way to protect yourself from COVID-19.
It’s a common trope in many survival movies. A person who’s lost in the woods or stranded at sea drinks their own urine to stave off dehydration.
Drinking urine for medicinal purposes, also called urine therapy, has been documented as far back as ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Some people have advocated its use to help with various ailments, including but not limited to:
You may have recently heard of urine therapy for COVID-19. But drinking urine won’t protect you from COVID-19. In fact, it may actually harm you. Keep reading to find out why.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, some people have stated that drinking urine can protect you from COVID-19.
But no scientific evidence supports this claim.
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As of writing this, PubMed, a resource containing more than 35 million citations from peer-reviewed biomedical research, doesn’t have any studies linking urine therapy to protection against COVID-19.
In fact, a 2016 research review noted that “much of what we have heard about the use of urine therapy has no medical basis, and is folk remedy that can actually worsen the injury.”
In addition to not protecting you against COVID-19, drinking urine is potentially harmful to your health. Let’s explore why.
Urine is waste
Urine itself is waste. Your urinary tract’s function is to filter your blood, removing waste and extra fluids from your body through urine. Some examples of what urine comprises include:
- urea and uric acid
- creatinine
- excess electrolytes, sugars, and vitamins
- proteins
- hormones
- medications and recreational drugs
Simply put, drinking urine reintroduces unneeded substances back into your body. This means that your body will need to filter them out all over again, which may lead to unnecessary strain or damage to your kidneys.
Drinking urine can dehydrate you
Remember the concept of drinking urine for survival? It may seem counterintuitive, but rather than preventing dehydration, drinking urine may dehydrate you further.
While it’s true that urine is mostly water , it also contains salt. Salt can increase your level of thirst, which will actually make you more dehydrated.
Additionally, more concentrated urine, such as when you’re dehydrated, contains even more salt and other waste substances.
As such, the Department of Defense noted in a survival handbook that urine must not substitute as a water source due to its salt content and potentially harmful body wastes.
Urine isn’t sterile
You may have heard that urine is sterile. But that’s not necessarily true.
Studies have found bacteria in human urine samples. Some of these bacteria can cause disease and can include:
A 2010 study also found that some bacteria from human urine were resistant to antibiotics.
Cow urine and dung for COVID-19
People haven’t just advocated the use of human urine to treat COVID-19. A 2021 report looked at the use of cow urine and dung to treat COVID-19.
According to the report, people have used cow urine and dung in India and other countries for wellness since ancient times. However, it also represents a significant public health concern.
There’s no scientific evidence to support using cow urine or dung to treat COVID-19, and various diseases can spread through this method, including ringworm, Q-fever, and salmonellosis.
