April 25, 2007

• "I've never been so full of vitality or zest for life since I started drinking Dr.Bulger's urine!"
• I'm sorry- are we talking about urine like in PEE?
• So, I see it falls to me to make the inevitable "they must be taking the piss" joke. Sorry.
• In past ages, Hindu and Greek doctors used to taste their patient's urine to help with diagnosis. No idea if they were really hirsute. The basic idea that you better be a vegetarian, non-smoker, not suffer from sugar or other chemical imbalances, in short, be really healthy in order for the golden liquid to be beneficial sounds just, well, obvious. If you're not expelling toxins, well, what harm can it do? What really rattles me are the boasted properties in helping with cancer. People often go to desperate measures when in such a situation, and the whole therapy sounds shaky, if not overtly misleading. from your tap or from the neighbour's Uh, well, if a Medusarita a day helps with my receding hairline...
• Paracelsus: Alle Ding' sind Gift und nichts ohn' Gift; allein die Dosis macht, dass ein Ding kein Gift ist. "All things are poison and nothing is without poison, only the dose permits something not to be poisonous." ...and that includes urine... Man, you'd think people could figure out that 'bodily waste products' are the toxins your body didn't want the first time round!
• > Hindu and Greek doctors used to taste their patient's urine to help with diagnosis diabetes mellitus = honeylike (sweet-tasting) pee
• Yesterday we talked about a guy cutting off his dick with a knife. Today, pee drinking. I fear tomorrow.
• They may have to start doing that in Brisbane...
• I like it when it smells of Sugar Puffs
• yet another reason to be happy for my lush, full head of hair. I eat waaaaay too much asparagus :P
• Reminds me of the lost-at-sea episode of Blackadder II. Edmund: Is Captain Rum joining us for this bring-a-sample party, or is he going to sit this one out? Percy: Oh no, he's been swigging his for ages. He says he likes it. Actually, come to think of it, he started before the water ran out.
• *enjoys a wee drink*
• *ditches thread to play with his Wii, instead*
• I frequently use the drink-your-own-piss example on people who try to (almost literally) shove nutritional supplements down my throat. It's like madlibs on any over-hyped, under-scienced "remedy". In every marketing advert you see some person with nice teeth telling you: "For several years I [insert malady], but since I started [taking over-priced placebo] it's [completely cured] - it's extraordinary." Now if you'll excuse me, I'm working on a way to extract anal leakage from Panda bears and make it into an all natural health tonic.
• "Piss be onto you...!" In several chinese cities, zoo-keepers sell Rhino and Tiger urine for human conumption. It is supposed to bring the drinker the strength and stamina of the donor animals. I wonder how the hell the keepers make a Rhino or a Tiger pee in a bottle!
• I don't understand why other people want hair so bad. Going bald has been great. There's so much freedom without hair. No brushing in the morning. No barber every month. Wind feels fucking awesome, and I still look good after the rain. There's so many everyday frustrations associated with hair, I have forgotten most of them. I've no regrets, and only one frustration: The bald guy in any TV show is almost always a rapist, usually a pedophile. Looking for a cure for baldness is like looking for a cure for straight teeth— It's not a problem, it's a solution to many other problems.
• greybeard, It's keeper piss
• ... How does someone even decide to TRY this? "Hm, I've been bald for years. Maybe DRINKING ME PEE will fix it!" Yeah, the article mentions that books are being written about (ugh) "urinotherapy," but it still means some crazy person had to try it first, and then a bunch of other people saw him and figured they'd try it too.
• There have, of course, been situations in which people had to drink urine in order to survive - a famous mine disaster in my province comes to mind. It's not too long a stretch to imagining pee-drinking disaster survivors (or their neighbours) imagining a tenuous connection between their "new lease on life" and urea tea. *extends pinky delicately* Welcome, JHarris!
• By definition, urine is WASTE. It's what your body has chosen to REJECT. Re-ingesting what your body has already expelled seems more than a bit daft, frankly. What next? "You want poo to go with that piss?" Think I'll stick to Earl Grey, thank you very much. *peers into teapot, sniffs dubiously*
• Well, at least it's sterile. But if I'm going to drink something that passed through a body already, I'd prefer kopi luwak. (but I can't afford it.)
• Who says it's sterile? There's a little test done by MDs where urine is "cultured" (kept under conditions which permit existing bacteria or other organisms to grow). If a person has a smoldering urinary tract infection or other nastiness, they will multiply. If the urine were sterile, that would not be possible. Within the bladder, yes, urine is generally sterile. But it can still pick up things from the urethra. *sips tea, mulls over human gullibility, dashes for WC*
• I've heard it's sterile to the owner only. Medicinally, urine has unusual properties. It contains ammonia, which can neutralize acids, and is usually free from bacteria, thus has disinfectant properties. Women have drunk urine from their husbands to speed up childbirth or have been given their own urine to relieve hysteria. Male urine contains androsterone, a male hormone, and it has long been believed that drinking one's own urine improves health and virility. via
• By definition, urine is WASTE. It's what your body has chosen to REJECT. Indeedy. But look at the acceptance (by many) of liver as a food - a poison filter! Bleh.
• Within the bladder, yes, urine is generally sterile. But it can still pick up things from the urethra. Yeah, think (think, think), let your mind go, let yourself be free.
• the "inventor of the medusarita" does have a full head of hair....
• What does the title of this post mean and why does it seem to have something to do with frogs?
• petebest, the title is from The League Of Gentlemen, a very dark British television comedy. There's a character who is obsessed with toads, and it's revealed that he drinks his own water of life in order to be more like the toad and his batrachian friends.
• "Urine sterile..." Urine from a healthy person is practically sterile. A US Army physician, Dr. Gene Lam, rapported using fresh urine extensively for washing wounds when incarcerated in a vietcong POW camp. It would seem that the urine was to be preffered to water of dubious sterility. As for drinking urine in a survival situation, it is a definite No-No! The high concentration of salts in the urine would play havoc with the salt/water balance in the body, actually shortening the timespan in which you would have been able to survive, had you not been drinking your urine. I am well aware that in several incidents survivors have told about drinkig their urine to alleviate their thirst, but it has defiitely not helped them survive their ordeal. As a former wilderness guide I am familiar with survival techniques - Hell, I even wrote a book about them - and no survival instructor that I am aware of would recommend drinking urine for ANY reason!
• Good to know, thanks greybeard. SWBM - do toads drink their own urine? I guess it's one of the very few things I'd never thought about . . .
• O mottled toad with smile wide belly stretched, insects inside will your cloaca dispel refreshing drinks, your thirst to quell?
• To help retain water, arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, and birds pass their urine through their hindgut or cloaca, which absorbs water from the urine in addition to absorbing water from material passing through their digestive tract.
• I don't understand why other people want teeth so bad. Going toothless has been great. There's so much freedom without teeth. No brushing in the morning. No dentist every month. Wind feels fucking awesome, and I still look good after the rain. There's so many everyday frustrations associated with teeth, I have forgotten most of them. I've no regrets, and only one frustration: The toothless guy in any TV show is usually always my dad, always a pedophile. Looking for a cure for toothlessness is like looking for a cure for straight hair — It's not a problem, it's a solution to many other problems.
• Har!