Urinotherapy - A Universal Cure-All

Today marked my 89th day on Urine Therapy.

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One newspaper hailed urinotherapy as a universal cure-all that could tackle scores of afflictions, including cancer, snakebites and infertility.

Testimonials to the benefits of urine consumption dominate radio phone-ins and newspaper letters pages.

"I had hemorrhoids for five years and nothing gave me relief. But six months ago, I started drinking half a glass of my urine every morning and I am practically healed," a shopkeeper from the capital, Yaounde, wrote to Le Messager newspaper.

A magistrate said: "For several years I haven't had a hair on my head, but since I started drinking my urine it's started growing again - it's extraordinary."

Omer Otabela telephoned a radio station with his grandmother's story. "When she was bitten by a snake in the fields, she drank her own urine. This slowed down the progress of the venom to her heart until she got to hospital," he said.
Urinotherapy is practically as old as man and its health-giving properties have been extensively documented. The Chinese have treated themselves with urine both externally and internally for centuries.
During World War I, doctors in the battlefield gave urine, which is sterile, to patients to ward off gangrene. Morarji Desai, a former Indian prime minister who lived to 99, drank a pint of his urine every day.
Some practitioners suggest that DHEA, a hormone related to testosterone that is found in large quantities in urine, has anti-ageing, anti-cancer and anti-obesity properties. It has helped those suffering from asthma and amoebic dysentery.
But in Cameroon, urinotherapy has been strongly condemned.
The Health Minister, Urbain Olanguena Awono, wrote: "Given the risks of toxicity associated with ingesting urine, the health ministry advises against the consumption of urine and invites those who promote the practice to cease doing so forthwith or risk prosecution."