Woman survives five days at sea drinking urine

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http://today.reuters.com/news/artic...UKOC_0_US-LIFE-THAILAND-AUSTRALIAN.xml&rpc=22

I'm going to get a reputation if the media keeps printing these stories.

Do these stories that constantly pop up in the media about people surviving by drinking urine actually change anyone's opinions on the matter?

In this woman's case she did the right thing by keeping cool during the day and no doubt this did a lot ot conserve the water she had in her body.

Does the drinking of urine in her case represent a net gain?

I am not convinced that it does help the situation. I think that the most that can be said about the practice is that it seems almost a universal last ditch effort for people who are desperate and dying of thirst. Judging by the experiences of many survivors and those who did not it does not seem to be as dangerous as drinking seawater, which is a sure way to degrade your situation.

In this case I don't think five days is enough time to make a determination. If she was out there ten days and only drank urine it would be a different matter. All this proves to me is that people can get thirsty enough to try it, but not that it significantly improves your chances of survival. Mac
 
I know it depends on the level of hydration but 5 days at sea and no clean water to drink must give you a salinty level in your urine higher than sea water. Or, because you are not introducing more salt to your system by recycling fluid it may not have as much of a detrimental effect. I can't really see that as salt is salt, but I do wonder if it is changed at all from have being through your system once. Anyway from breathing, and sweating she is losing water all the time, I would say you can only drink it for so long until it becomes so salty that its doing nothing to help.

We need some biology nerds to chime up :)
 
To drink your urine or not?

This is an argument that has been going on for generations. For every story of someone being "saved" there is another that says "perished".

I live in a desert environment, I know nothing of the sea, but I would love to hear from suitably qualified medical personnel or biologists about the merits or otherwise of drinking urine in a survival situation.

Common sense tells me it would kill you quickly, especially if you are dehydrated, but I am groping in the dark here.

A knowledgeable answer would be very much appreciated.
 
I swallowed a mouthfull of sea water when diving for abalone of the coast of Ca. I was sick for three days, I was vomiting for most of the first and then just miserable for the others. I cant see urine as being much better.
Wade
 
In a survival situation, I've been taught that you can use urine to help cool you off, thereby staving off hyperthermia. But drinking it? I suppose it represents that much less fluid that you're losing from your system if you recycle it back in, but if you're so far gone that you have to do this, I suspect chances are good that you're going to die anyway.
 
If your level of hydration is very high urine can be very clear, however once you are dehydrated your body starts attempting to retain water as much as possible and urine gets very concentrated. In many of those stories it isn't clear if what was done was actually helpful or not.

-Cliff
 
i wonder about the psychological aspects of drinking urine. it i were at sea for five days without water, it sure would be nice to be able to 'wet my whistle' with something other than sea water, even if it doesn't have any overall effect on my hydration. this is where the idea of sucking on stones comes from. it allows you to produce saliva, keeping the irritation of a very dry mouth to a minimum. doesn't affect overall hydration, but keeps you more comfortable, and keeps the 'dying thirst' feeling at bay.
 
The one thing this story highlights to me is the need to have survival gear with you whenever you leave the home. In this situation, I'd want my survival bag to include a way to make shade (she said she had to hide under her raft during the day) and a solar still for making water.

I spend virtually no time on the ocean, I'm not a sailor, and I don't play one on TV. So I don't know what exactly I'd need to build a solar still large enough to keep me alive in a raft. That said, I think it'd drive me particularly crazy to be surrounded by all that water and have nothing to drink.

A few gallons of fresh water, some sort of a solar still, an umbrella, mirror, and whistle. Don't get on a dinghy in a southern ocean without it.
 
As an update to the other urine drinking/snow eating thread...

The Brit who slid down the slope did try to melt snow and ice with his camp stove. He was in such a tight space that he decicded there was a real risk of lighting himself on fire. He had started out peeing in a cup to keep himself from getting wet and ended up sipping away out of desperation.

Not wanting to second guess the guy, but working out the logistics of melting snow would have been my #1 priority if faced with the option of drinking pee.

Searching the topic (not recommended) I did find a report of two guys who survived 11 days at sea by drinking rain, dew and also urine.

One man was trapped in rubble and drank urine. He survived while the two women with him refused to drink it and they died. The report was on a site which advocated drinking urine as therapy so they didn't raise the obvious objection that there are so many factors involved in being trapped in rubble that the urine drinking can hardly be singled out for it's effect on survival rates. No cause of death for the women was actually mentioned.

I have yet to see a conclusive case where drinking of urine has tipped the scales in favor of survival. I think that "survivor stories" will remain popular while "died by exposure" stories will most likely receive less attention. As long as poeple get trapped or lost and run out of water some of them will drink urine. Some of them will get rescued and then the media will continue to attribute their survival to what most of us regard as repugnant. Intresting reading does not a strategy make. Mac
 
There was once a science show Brainiac did an experiment on if urine was drinkable. the urine which came out of the people was UNDRINKABLE. but after putting it through reverse osmosis a few times using backyard materials, it is DRINKABLE but with a bad taste which the guy, Jon Tickle, would drink it only as the last restort
 
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