Don’t drink urine to treat COVID. Doctors debunk newest ‘miracle cure’
Medical experts are urging people against drinking their own urine to cure COVID-19, a bogus and risky “treatment” that has been promoted online.
Doctors caution it’s a really, really bad idea. Not only is so-called “urine therapy” ineffective against COVID-19, it could make you sick.
Here’s what you need to know.
What is ‘urine therapy?’
The idea of treating ailments with urine dates back to ancient India, Egypt, Greece and Rome, a 2011 medical study found.
“It was in fact never considered a waste product of the body but rather as a distilled product selected from the blood and containing useful substances for the care of the body,” the study reported. “It was referred to as the ‘gold of the blood’ and ‘elixir of long life,’ indicating its therapeutic potential.”
But medical studies have never found “urine therapy” to be an effective treatment for anything — even for treating jellyfish stings, as is commonly thought, Medicinenet reported.
What does ‘urine therapy’ have to do with COVID-19?
Christopher Key, who promotes dubious COVID-19 cures on his “Vaccine Police” website, champions drinking urine to treat the disease, USA Today reported.
“OK, and I know to a lot of you this sounds crazy, but guys, God’s given us everything we need,” Key said, adding that he drinks his own urine, according to the publication. “Now drink urine!”
Does drinking urine cure COVID-19?
Absolutely not, doctors say.
“Do not, I repeat, do not drink urine to treat COVID,” Dr. Jon Klein, a kidney specialist from the University of Louisville School of Medicine, wrote on Twitter. “That is all.”
“There is absolutely no evidence that medicinal use of urine, in other words, drinking your urine as a way to treat COVID-19 or prevent COVID-19, has any efficacy,” Dr. Payal Kohli told WCNC.
If you want to be protected against COVID-19, get vaccinated, Dr. Amanda Torres, a physician at Winchester Hospital in Boston, told USA Today.
“I’ve seen a rise in anti-vaxxers and conspiracists supporting urine, Viagra and other odd alternatives to the vaccine,” Torres said. “It’s dangerous.”
Can ‘urine therapy’ affect your health?
Yes, and not in a good way.
“There are waste properties in urine, and it’s not something that is designed for human consumption,” Dr. Karla Robinson told WCNC.
Rather the opposite, in fact.
“It’s been something that our body is designed to release from the body to remove toxins,” Robinson said.
Urine is not sterile and can contain harmful bacteria that can make you ill and stress your kidneys, another medical study found.
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