Chinese Urine Therapy: Man drinks his own wee everyday claiming it cures tumours,broken bones even baldness
It's mid-morning in the Kangyuyuan residential area in the city of Wuhan, China. Bao Yafu and Yi Dongshan are about to enjoy their first cups of urine of the day.
Having returned from the bathroom of the cluttered China Urine Therapy Association office, they head to the roof terrace clasping newly-filled cups of dark yellow waste liquid, each with a little head of foam on top.
'Delicious! I want more!' says Mr Yi, 61, after enthusiastically taking a sip of his own effluent.
'Mine tastes like light tea,' says Mr Bao, 80, after drinking his.
The pair polish off the rest of the contents of their cups. Mr Yi, who is sporting a fetching pair of knock-off Playboy shoes, splashes a bit around his face with his hands and dribbles some down his stripy shirt.
Since 2010, Mr Bao has been the head of the Wuhan branch of the China Urine Therapy Association, an organisation comprised of people who drink their own urine every day.
The association, which is not recognised by China's Ministry of Health, was set up in Hong Kong in 2008, with the Wuhan office opening in 2008. Membership has grown from an early count of around 400 to today's total of roughly 1,000.
Ignoring medical consensus – and anyone who believes that drinking urine is just plain disgusting – members believe that drinking it prolongs life, improves health and can even cure diseases such as cancer.
MailOnline was invited to the office for a closer look at the bizarre practice. The poky apartment certainly gives an indication of how fervently Mr Bao believes in his endeavor.
Urine therapy newsletters are stacked high on a bench and bottles of cloudy yellow liquid are lined up on a coffee table.
Our host explains that he has been drinking urine daily since 1972. He was introduced to the practice by a family in Hong Kong, where the main office of the association is based.
The family claimed that drinking it restored the ailing father of their clan to health.
Mr Bao says that after being convinced to give it a whirl, daily urine doses led to him being cured of constipation and canker sores. Then, he claims, after six months his previously-bald head started sprouting hair again.
While today he happily sips his own urine without gagging or retching, he admits that when he first tried it he was concerned about how it would taste.
'I held the cup for a while then plucked up the courage to drink about 100ml whilst holding my nose,' he says.
'I found that it didn't taste of much, and in fact tasted better than some traditional Chinese medicines. I made it a habit to drink 100ml a day from then, and now I'm on 300ml a day.'
Last year, speaking to the South China Morning Post, nephrology doctor Chen Wenli explained why drinking urine is not beneficial.
'Five per cent of urine is nitrogenous waste, which is mainly urea, while the other 95 per cent is all water,' he said.
He added: 'If the person is ill, there will also be sugar, protein, red and white blood cells and ketone bodies in the urine. Because the toxin dispelled by the body may end up in metabolite products like urine, there is no good in drinking it.'
In 2013 GP Dr Rob Hicks told MailOnline: 'Over the years many people have claimed health benefits from drinking their own urine, but as far as I'm aware there is no scientific evidence to back-up these claims.
'The kidneys are an efficient filtering system getting rid of what the body doesn't need, so to put this back into the body seems counter-productive.'
But the China Urine Therapy Association's line is that the liquid garners nutrients from blood, so is beneficial. Its official literature reads: 'Urine comes from blood. Its chemical components come from blood and equal those of blood. The urine from a healthy person is sterile.'
In line with this stance, Mr Bao won't entertain any experts' dismissals of his habit. Sitting in the main office room next to the association's wall-mounted official green flag, he waves around a printout of a 2013 Canadian scientific study of the complexity of urine named The Human Urine Metabolome.
He cites the study as justification for the view that urine is far more than just a waste product. His claims about the curing abilities of the liquid, however, are based on dubious anecdotes. They get more outlandish as the morning progresses.
Mr Bao says that he knows of an elderly Shanghai woman whose ribs were broken in a violent attack. 'She asked her daughter to buy her a pot and gauze,' he says.
'Then she peed in the pot, soaked the gauze, wrapped it on her ribs then did it again and again for five days.
'An X-ray was done and the ribs were shown to be healed. The doctor asked what treatment she had received and she said, "I won't tell you – you make money, but we don't".'
He shows a photograph of someone he claims is a peasant who used to be in a vegetative state following a brain hemorrhage.
'One of our members went to his house and got him to regularly drink his son's urine,' he says. 'Ten months later he could walk like nothing had happened.'
His friend Mr Yi, who has a job erecting advertising billboards, adds his own story. He says that he turned to urine drinking after discovering that he had a cancerous tumour on his jaw.
13 years ago he was told he needed drastic surgery that would render him dumb and unable to eat solids for six months.
'It was unacceptable – I am a person who loves to speak and smile,' he says. 'I was ready to give up and felt like ending my life in a cave with sleeping pills and alcohol.
'Mr Bao, who I am friends with through exercise sessions in the park, advised me to try urine therapy.
'I didn't feel it was disgusting – for a person who already had feelings of suicide it was an easy thing to do. Since I've been drinking it my tumour has become under control, going from 2cm wide to the size of a small bean.
'I have no problems with blood pressure. Plus, I was fat before and couldn't lose weight no matter how hard I tried, but urine helps clean your intestine so now my weight is standard.'
Most doctors would balk at the idea of using urine therapy to try and cure serious illness. But Mr Bao insists that his anecdotes prove he is on to something.
He also believes that he might one day push forward knowledge of urine therapy with his own 'experiments'.
He points to the coffee table, on which lies a sealed bottle of dark yellow liquid, another cap-less one with mould inside, and an even more mould-encrusted cup.
'This is an experiment – I've kept urine in these for two years,' he says. 'I'm trying to find out more about the benefits of old urine.
We used to believe that only fresh urine is beneficial, but in 2004 someone from Hong Kong found that old urine can cure constipation.'
Mr Bao doesn't stop at drinking urine – he also washes his eyes, ears and face with it. He demonstrates on the roof terrace, bathing his eyeballs in an eye bath full of fresh urine before slapping a load over his face.
'I do this when I wake up,' he says. 'I am 80-years-old but my vision is perfect. I also use urine to soak my ears.
'You can do so many things with urine, like washing your hair with it.'
He says that he's not worried about getting a reputation for smelling iffy because only stale urine smells bad – and he mainly sticks to the fresh stuff.
He's incredibly sprightly for a man his age – a fact he demonstrates by taking MailOnline to a nearby park to show off acrobatic exercises.
'People who drink urine appear younger than those who don't,' he says, 'Back in 2001 I declared that I want to live until I'm 120.'
Tragedies could be caused if Mr Bao convinced anyone to forgo proper medical treatment for serious illness and turn to urine therapy instead.
But he insists that promoting drinking urine as part of a general healthy lifestyle is his main message, rather than relying on it as a cure.
He is clearly delusional, but his fantastic health in comparison to his age has served to buttress his view that urine is to thank for it.
Furthermore, although delusional, his beliefs are sincere.
The association is a non-profit organisation and costs just 20 Yuan (£2) to join, with the extremely poor given free membership.
It's not a crackpot scam system preying on the ill.
His urine drinking obsession has also given Mr Bao a strong focus in life as well as a big friendship network.
Members often go on holiday together, and Mr Bao proudly shows photos of trips to the beach they've taken.
Clearly, although there is almost certainly no medical benefit in drinking urine, the process of doing so has been good for his mental wellbeing.
'Urine is not here to just cure diseases, rather to help improve your whole body system,' he says.
'I have been drinking urine for 23 years, during which time I've not spent a penny on hospital fees. I am used to it now. It's… tasty!'
Having returned from the bathroom of the cluttered China Urine Therapy Association office, they head to the roof terrace clasping newly-filled cups of dark yellow waste liquid, each with a little head of foam on top.
'Delicious! I want more!' says Mr Yi, 61, after enthusiastically taking a sip of his own effluent.
'Mine tastes like light tea,' says Mr Bao, 80, after drinking his.
The pair polish off the rest of the contents of their cups. Mr Yi, who is sporting a fetching pair of knock-off Playboy shoes, splashes a bit around his face with his hands and dribbles some down his stripy shirt.
Since 2010, Mr Bao has been the head of the Wuhan branch of the China Urine Therapy Association, an organisation comprised of people who drink their own urine every day.
The association, which is not recognised by China's Ministry of Health, was set up in Hong Kong in 2008, with the Wuhan office opening in 2008. Membership has grown from an early count of around 400 to today's total of roughly 1,000.
Ignoring medical consensus – and anyone who believes that drinking urine is just plain disgusting – members believe that drinking it prolongs life, improves health and can even cure diseases such as cancer.
MailOnline was invited to the office for a closer look at the bizarre practice. The poky apartment certainly gives an indication of how fervently Mr Bao believes in his endeavor.
Urine therapy newsletters are stacked high on a bench and bottles of cloudy yellow liquid are lined up on a coffee table.
Our host explains that he has been drinking urine daily since 1972. He was introduced to the practice by a family in Hong Kong, where the main office of the association is based.
The family claimed that drinking it restored the ailing father of their clan to health.
Mr Bao says that after being convinced to give it a whirl, daily urine doses led to him being cured of constipation and canker sores. Then, he claims, after six months his previously-bald head started sprouting hair again.
While today he happily sips his own urine without gagging or retching, he admits that when he first tried it he was concerned about how it would taste.
'I held the cup for a while then plucked up the courage to drink about 100ml whilst holding my nose,' he says.
'I found that it didn't taste of much, and in fact tasted better than some traditional Chinese medicines. I made it a habit to drink 100ml a day from then, and now I'm on 300ml a day.'
Last year, speaking to the South China Morning Post, nephrology doctor Chen Wenli explained why drinking urine is not beneficial.
'Five per cent of urine is nitrogenous waste, which is mainly urea, while the other 95 per cent is all water,' he said.
He added: 'If the person is ill, there will also be sugar, protein, red and white blood cells and ketone bodies in the urine. Because the toxin dispelled by the body may end up in metabolite products like urine, there is no good in drinking it.'
In 2013 GP Dr Rob Hicks told MailOnline: 'Over the years many people have claimed health benefits from drinking their own urine, but as far as I'm aware there is no scientific evidence to back-up these claims.
'The kidneys are an efficient filtering system getting rid of what the body doesn't need, so to put this back into the body seems counter-productive.'
But the China Urine Therapy Association's line is that the liquid garners nutrients from blood, so is beneficial. Its official literature reads: 'Urine comes from blood. Its chemical components come from blood and equal those of blood. The urine from a healthy person is sterile.'
In line with this stance, Mr Bao won't entertain any experts' dismissals of his habit. Sitting in the main office room next to the association's wall-mounted official green flag, he waves around a printout of a 2013 Canadian scientific study of the complexity of urine named The Human Urine Metabolome.
He cites the study as justification for the view that urine is far more than just a waste product. His claims about the curing abilities of the liquid, however, are based on dubious anecdotes. They get more outlandish as the morning progresses.
Mr Bao says that he knows of an elderly Shanghai woman whose ribs were broken in a violent attack. 'She asked her daughter to buy her a pot and gauze,' he says.
'Then she peed in the pot, soaked the gauze, wrapped it on her ribs then did it again and again for five days.
'An X-ray was done and the ribs were shown to be healed. The doctor asked what treatment she had received and she said, "I won't tell you – you make money, but we don't".'
He shows a photograph of someone he claims is a peasant who used to be in a vegetative state following a brain hemorrhage.
'One of our members went to his house and got him to regularly drink his son's urine,' he says. 'Ten months later he could walk like nothing had happened.'
His friend Mr Yi, who has a job erecting advertising billboards, adds his own story. He says that he turned to urine drinking after discovering that he had a cancerous tumour on his jaw.
13 years ago he was told he needed drastic surgery that would render him dumb and unable to eat solids for six months.
'It was unacceptable – I am a person who loves to speak and smile,' he says. 'I was ready to give up and felt like ending my life in a cave with sleeping pills and alcohol.
'Mr Bao, who I am friends with through exercise sessions in the park, advised me to try urine therapy.
'I didn't feel it was disgusting – for a person who already had feelings of suicide it was an easy thing to do. Since I've been drinking it my tumour has become under control, going from 2cm wide to the size of a small bean.
'I have no problems with blood pressure. Plus, I was fat before and couldn't lose weight no matter how hard I tried, but urine helps clean your intestine so now my weight is standard.'
Most doctors would balk at the idea of using urine therapy to try and cure serious illness. But Mr Bao insists that his anecdotes prove he is on to something.
He also believes that he might one day push forward knowledge of urine therapy with his own 'experiments'.
He points to the coffee table, on which lies a sealed bottle of dark yellow liquid, another cap-less one with mould inside, and an even more mould-encrusted cup.
'This is an experiment – I've kept urine in these for two years,' he says. 'I'm trying to find out more about the benefits of old urine.
We used to believe that only fresh urine is beneficial, but in 2004 someone from Hong Kong found that old urine can cure constipation.'
Mr Bao doesn't stop at drinking urine – he also washes his eyes, ears and face with it. He demonstrates on the roof terrace, bathing his eyeballs in an eye bath full of fresh urine before slapping a load over his face.
'I do this when I wake up,' he says. 'I am 80-years-old but my vision is perfect. I also use urine to soak my ears.
'You can do so many things with urine, like washing your hair with it.'
He says that he's not worried about getting a reputation for smelling iffy because only stale urine smells bad – and he mainly sticks to the fresh stuff.
He's incredibly sprightly for a man his age – a fact he demonstrates by taking MailOnline to a nearby park to show off acrobatic exercises.
'People who drink urine appear younger than those who don't,' he says, 'Back in 2001 I declared that I want to live until I'm 120.'
Tragedies could be caused if Mr Bao convinced anyone to forgo proper medical treatment for serious illness and turn to urine therapy instead.
But he insists that promoting drinking urine as part of a general healthy lifestyle is his main message, rather than relying on it as a cure.
He is clearly delusional, but his fantastic health in comparison to his age has served to buttress his view that urine is to thank for it.
Furthermore, although delusional, his beliefs are sincere.
The association is a non-profit organisation and costs just 20 Yuan (£2) to join, with the extremely poor given free membership.
It's not a crackpot scam system preying on the ill.
His urine drinking obsession has also given Mr Bao a strong focus in life as well as a big friendship network.
Members often go on holiday together, and Mr Bao proudly shows photos of trips to the beach they've taken.
Clearly, although there is almost certainly no medical benefit in drinking urine, the process of doing so has been good for his mental wellbeing.
'Urine is not here to just cure diseases, rather to help improve your whole body system,' he says.
'I have been drinking urine for 23 years, during which time I've not spent a penny on hospital fees. I am used to it now. It's… tasty!'
Music : Ishikari Lore by Kevin MacLeod
Source : DailyMail , SCMP
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