NATURAL REMEDY: Not what the doctor ordered

26 January 2015 - 09:39 By Rebecca Reid ©The Daily Telegraph
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

In moisturiser. On spots. Three drops taken each morning in a cup of hot water. More and more women are using their own urine as a natural remedy.

Drinking your own wee (the technical term, I believe, is urophagia) is a health trend with a growing and extremely loyal band of followers.

A remedy that doesn't cost any money and you make the ingredient yourself? Doesn't sound so bad.

Martha Christy, author of the seminal urine-drinking work Your Own Perfect Medicine, claims the inexpensive nature of sipping wee is exactly why the health industry tells us it's a bad idea.

Christy suggests drinking an undiluted cup of your first morning's flow. She also recommends gargling with it and using it as eye and ear drops.

A friend says: "It's really good for sorting out spots. You put some wee on a cotton pad and then press it against the spot for a bit. It dries it out."

Wee isn't just a waste by-product of your body. Even though it is 95% water, the other 5% is made up of nutrients, including minerals, proteins, vitamins and antibodies.

Urine is also known for being sterile. Madonna famously claimed that urinating on her own feet while showering was the reason she never got athlete's foot.

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now