What You Know About Urea

If you asked a person on the street what uric acid is, he or she would invariably answer that it's a toxic body waste. No so, say medical researchers at the University of California at Berkeley who in 1982 reported they had discovered that "uric acid destroys body-damaging, cancer-causing free radicals and is considered to be one of the physiological factors that enable human beings to live so much longer than other mammals."

But what about urea? Urea is in urine and isn't that the toxic stuff that causes uremic poisoning? Actually, medical researchers discovered many decades ago that urea, far from being a toxic body waste, is an incredibly versatile, far-reaching and effective medicinal agent. In numerous medical studies, it was shown that urea is one of the most potent non-toxic virucidal agents ever discovered.

 In one particular study, the rabies and polio virus [sic] were killed so quickly and efficiently by concentrated urea, that even the laconic researchers themselves were surprised: "Urea is such a relatively inactive substance and certainly not a protoplasmic poison such as are most virucidal agents, that it is in a way surprising that rabies and poliomyelitis are killed so easily by urea solutions" (McKay & Schroeder, Society of Experimental Biology, 1936).

In reality, Urea is an FDA-approved medicinal agent that doctors and researchers utilize in an amazing variety of therapeutic modalities. Because of its remarkable and comprehensive anti-neoplastic (anti-tumor) properties, it's presently being used in anti-cancer drugs and is extensively studied for use in cancer treatments. The urea compound drug, glicazide, is used successfully by the medical establishment in treating both insulin-dependent and non-insulin-dependent diabetics.

As a natural diuretic, urea is unparalleled, and is a proven and accepted treatment in cases of edema or swelling such as excess cerebral and spinal pressure, glaucoma, epilepsy, meningitis, even premenstrual edema and many other disorders in which excess fluid is a problem. As one American neurosurgeon reported regarding a patient who nearly died form complications following brain surgery: "Urea was administered intravenously as an emergency measure. Within 20 minutes from the start of injection, her blood pressure had returned to normal....from this time on her recovery was uneventful. In this case, urea was definitely life-saving, because prior to its administration, the patient's survival was unlikely. In many similar instances urea was found to be life-saving" (Dr. M. Javid, University of Wisconsin).