Health experts have cautioned Nigerians against engaging in urine therapy, noting that the consumption of urine can cause gastroenteritis and other serious infections.
According to the experts, urine is dangerous for consumption because the drinker can end up swallowing bacteria.
The experts noted that the caution against the intake of urine is now imperative as some people hold on to the belief that urine is medicinal and can cure different illnesses noting that swallowing urine can cause all sorts of infections
Speaking with PUNCH HealthWise, a public health expert, Dr. Olaposi Olatoregun said, “When you do an assessment of urine, for instance, especially urine of someone with an infection like urinary infection…You will realise that it should not be consumed because the person might end up taking bacteria. There is no medical reason for anybody to drink urine.”
Speaking further, Olatoregun explained that urine consumption can also cause gastroenteritis, an intestinal infection marked by diarrhoea, nausea, vomiting and fever.
“It’s like having water that is infected. It can cause gastroenteritis. That’s the only one I can think of right now.”
Also, speaking with PUNCH HealthWise, Kogi-based medical practitioner, Dr. Simeon Oyiguh, said that the urine is a toxic substance, having been excreted from the body.
“Urine is what your body has already excreted because it does not need it. So, ordinarily, it suggests that urine is a toxic substance. If we give toxic substances as drugs to people who also have cancers that could be disastrous,” Oyiguh said.
He, however, challenged promoters of the belief to substantiate their claims by subjecting them to a clinical trial and publishing the outcome of such in reputable journals.
“Some people who are promoting urine saying that it has medicinal purposes. However, my first reaction will be for them to publish the result of their work then we can either applaud it or condemn it,” Oyiguh told our correspondent.
Healthline, a website dedicated to health-related issues, attributed the belief in urine therapy to a book authored in 1945.
“In 1945, John W. Armstrong, a British naturopath, published a popular book about the alleged curative power of drinking one’s own urine.
“The book, ‘The Water of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy,’ claimed that urine can cure all major illnesses. He claimed that those near death needed to eat and drink nothing but their own urine for several weeks and have urine massaged into their skin daily,” the website stated.
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