Drinking urine for survival when dehydrated

I agree, bird poop water enemas aside. Yeah, I want to introduce pathogens directly into my colon and lower intestine. That'll fix things proper.

Thanks for the information you have provided. I fight a similar battle year in and year out with my customers who do not understand that their pools evaporate a lot of water. More when there is heat and wind, but a lot when the water is warmer than the air. I know from experience how much water a person can lose from breathing overnight. Ever breathed into your sleeping bag all night long in cold weather? And sweat. I fight that battle with folks who like to crank up the heat on their hot tubs. You can sweat an enormous amount of water even under water in a very short time. In fact, you can die from it.
 
This is bringing back memories of a flick I once saw. Dont remember what the title was but it was all about the "golden showers"! Let it rain! lol :D
 
Here is my stance on it. I've been through the desert many times, and it sucks. Deserts are deserts because they kill. Just sitting, standing, walking or laying, you are dying without water.

I have heard that urine is sterile and safe to drink. I also think that if it was that good, you wouldn't be ridding your body of it. Thanks to ksg, as usual, fantastic post, excellent info, we have the science behind it established.

For me, there are things one can "get over" rapidly in a tough spot. Bugs, dark, etc. But ingesting urine,.for me, would more than likely cause me to wretch. Thus depleting me further.

Whether or not its safe or a good thing for one does not mean its good for me.

Moose
 
kgd said:
I posted this on another site about a year ago. About 5 years ago I used to teach a University course on human physiology and kidney function was part of my unit:
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Thanks for that, I particularly liked this line: "I thought it might be fun to re-evaluate this one from a human physiology perspective"! "Fun"??!!! :D

I saw the original comment on the thread referred to. I've never seen any of BG's TV shows, but all the evidence seems to be strongly against drinking your own urine if you run out of water. Sure, there are stories of people who survived at sea and drank small amounts of urine, but maybe they survived DESPITE that, not BECAUSE of it. The only other people I've come across who advocate drinking urine, are frankly crazy people. It's worth noting that urine is indeed sterile, and may have uses in survival situations, but not for drinking. As for the sand/sock filtration of urine, that's a new one to me I have to admit, but I don't see how it would make any difference. I'd be interested to hear BG's reasoning for advocating drinking urine when you have no water.
 
IIRC, Ron Hood once said something like "drinking your own urine to survive, is like shooting yourself in the head to win a gunfight" :)

Technically, if your fully hydrated drinking that first round, probably wont hurt you, but if your in a situation where you are already dehydrated and your urine is already concentrated, then you are in effect making yourself worse.
 
"san bushmen do it" and how long do they live? I suspect that a lifetime of conditioning may be a part of it, but I also suspect that being an old man at 40 is something else as well. It amazes me that this idea still circulates around.
personally, I'll let my kidneys fail on their own, I won't need to help them.
 
claymoore said:
ok, whatever you say. You quote one sentence , sounds like your a lawyer. I don't type very fast and write every step, but u have to use layer's in the said sock or whatever, thats what i meant. It has sea water on your list also, read the rest. You sound like a nintendo sniper. That list means pee in you mouth like a monkey.
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You're stay here is going to be a brief one if you continue with this attitude. You made a statement and were then asked to back it up. If you can't participate in the discussion without resorting to insults, I suggest you log out and don't come back.
 
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Drink my own urine?With the way I've treated my liver and kidneys over the years,no thanks.:eek::D
 
I understand that field-expedient mechanical filtration cam remove parasites and bacteria. So filtration can make water safer in that sense.

Dissolved salts and toxins in urine would be much smaller than entire living creatures like bacteria or parasites that are themselves composed of chemicals.

I cannot find any information regarding expedient filters removing molecules of dissolved salts or toxins.

Literature regarding removing sodium from water suggests distillation or reverse osmosis filters. The first has been suggested in this thread. Reverse osmosis filters do not appear to be field-expedient and are somewhat beyond a sock and sand/ashes/grass, requiring a special membrane.
 
Having read the thread,
I'm unconvinced that drinking my own urine
would facilitate survival; which would be
the whole point of drinking it, right?
 
claymoore said:
the Army does not say don't drink urine. If you have a sock fill it with sand, filter it .
6 times you know the rest..... SERE grad.
Claymoore
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I doubt your even a vet with your attitude. If you are you are a pog and my bet is that the only SERE training you had was online.
 
images
 
Actually, you might get better results if you pee on yourself to stop sweating as much then to drink the urine.
 
In an episode of Man Woman Wild, Hawke stated that you could drink urine only once. If you drank your urine a second time (If you haven't had any other fluids or urinated since), then it would be concentrated and possibly harmful.

I don't know if this is good advice or not, I'm just restating what he said.
 
So if you filter one run of urine thru a sock filled with sand over and over you get.... 1. No water as the sand absorbs it all or most of it. 2. A sandy,piss covered sock which will keep one foot cool...
Save the urine to add to a solar still...which also don't produce much but the addition of vegitation and urine will up the output.
While survival manuals are full of possibilities.....it is up to you to validate before you try it in a real deal......
No disrespect meant to the SERE grad...I'm one also ;)
But I doubt the person who told you to do the piss sock has ever done it themselves.I have drank water evaporated from a group solar /urine/vegitation still and I'm alive and have clean socks.
 
My medical opinion is do not drink urine. I could spend 2 hours explaining how the kidney works, GFR, osmotic gradients etc. But I won't. I was taught in medical school during physiology class with very detailed scientific explanations NOT to drink urine. You end up losing water by drinking urine.

This is not to say that you shouldn't drink it if you have a system to convert urine back into water, but straight up urine just peed out? Don't drink it.
 
I was telling a buddy of mine about this thread, we had a good laff.

His response, "How do you make the thought of drinking piss worse? Run it through a sweaty sock, and add some sand for texture. "

Lmao, I love this stuff.....

Moose
 
Well, the sweaty sock and sand would strain out the bigger chunks in your urine. Assuming you had chunky urine. Otherwise, you would have to chew it.

Well, you did say "make it sound worse", didn't you? :p
 
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