Paresh Rawal Said Drinking Urine Solved His Health Issues. Does it Work?
There is no scientific evidence which supports the claim about benefits of "consuming urine", as claimed by Rawal.
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In a recent interview with Lallantop’s Saurabh Dwivedi, Bollywood actor and former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Paresh Rawal explained how he drank his urine for 15 days which helped him recover from knee pain.
However, this statement raised several eyebrows.
This brings back the urine therapy or urotherapy in discussion, which, in fact, was not an alien topic for Indians. There are plethora of claims linked to drinking urine, those refer to "ancient texts".
Ayurvedic "solutions" have also claimed that once upon a time, urine was used to treat asthma, allergies, indigestion, wrinkles and even cancer. But as pseudoscience goes, all this carries big words, big claims but little to no empirical scientific evidence.
But our focus is: how does drinking a liquid which is exerted out by the body as waste helpful to us in anyway? Let's find out.
What is Urine?
Urine composes of fluid and waste products which are body does not need anymore. In this process, kidneys play a vital role as filters and removes the excess water and cellular byproducts present in the bloodstream. This waste is later sent down to the bladder as urine.
Urine consists of almost 91 to 96 percent of water and the rest is salts, ammonia, and byproducts produced during normal body processes.
It is also important to note that the urine exits the body through urethra which carries some types of bacteria. Although these aren't problematic, when in control, however, they do contaminate urine.
We reached out to Dr Vikram Raut, Head-Liver Transplant and HPB Surgery, Fortis Hospital Mulund. He backed this process and clarified that although urine is sterile but when it passes through urethra, it does carry infection and gets contaminated.
"So there is a chance that if you drink urine then you can get infection from these bacteria," he adds.
But Is Urine Really Sterile?
To confirm another claim about the urine being sterile, we looked up at some studies and found out that urine being sterile is actually a myth.
This is another ubiquitous claim, and often medical professionals also believe it. The myth about urine being sterile dates back 1950s to a study of urinary tract infections (UTIs). In this study, urine samples without signs of a UTI were marked as “negative.” But having no UTI doesn’t mean there are no bacteria in the urine.
Studies like 'Urine Is Not Sterile' published in 2014 has proved that urine contains bacteria that could be harmful if ingested or introduced into the bloodstream through a wound, so clearly, it is not sterile.
No Scientific Evidence Supporting Rawal's Claim
As mentioned before, this claim isn't new. It has been around since 1945, when John W Armstrong, a British naturopath, published a book, The Water of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy, about the alleged curative power of drinking one’s own urine.
It claimed that urine can cure almost all major illnesses. He even went a step further and also claimed that people who are nearing death should only drink their own urine for several weeks and also have urine massaged into their skin daily.
Rawal mentioned this method helped him recover his injured knee, there are chances that the actor must be taking medicines, doing less workout targeting knee, or taking medical or professional help to recover, which was not mentioned.
Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, also known as The Liver doc, on X (formerly Twitter) also reposted Rawal's video and shared that this claim is baseless.
"In fact, consuming urine can be harmful, potentially introducing bacteria, toxins, and other harmful substances into the bloodstream," he adds.
So Is it Safe to Drink Urine?
The short answer is no.
Here's the explanation, Dr Raut asserts that urine carries contamination which should not be ingested in any form.
Introducing these bacteria into your system again can also cause gastrointestinal problems or other infections.
Urine contains waste products and toxins which are meant to be filtered out of your bloodstream and are highly concentrated. If the body automatically gets rid of them, there's no reason to drink it again. This loop can also cause strain on the kidneys.
After the medications are metabolized, meaning when the body chemically alters them to prepare them for elimination through urine, it is not advisable to drink it again.