What is the History of Urine Therapy?
Urine therapy is not a quirky new thing. It has a long history.
For example, it by Solomon was in the Bible mentioned in the Book of Proverbs.
“Drink water from your own cistern.” When my seminary professor in Proverbs class came to this admonition, he became very quiet. He wanted to say something, but appeared to be hesitant.
Sort of under his breath he quickly said there is this ancient medical practice of drinking your own urine [one sentence]. Then he quickly and forcefully started interpolating it into a thought about marital fidelity.
No professor, Solomon was referring to urine therapy. My teacher’s interpolation came from modern aversion to the idea and dealing with the text for what it said in its ancient context. When we consider urine therapy we need to step outside our social mores and look at the practice’s on its own merits.
When I was researching salt, I found that in the middle east new born baby in old times were first bathed in camel’s urine. It was the salt content that they thought cleansed the baby. Salt is a way to deal with bacteria and pathogens.
When Cortez was on his campaign to conquer the Aztec Empire, he was aided by a native woman, Do~na Maria. After a battle, Cortez and others wrote about how she helped dress the wounded. She, after cleaning the injury, wrapped the wounds in bandages soaked in urine. It worked well as an antiseptic.
Urine therapy has been used and written about for 5,000 years in India. They have a form of medicine called Ayurveda. This is a powerful practice for healing that is continuing to be practed today. It has been so respected for thousands of years that they call it the “Mother of Ayurvedic Medicine”. Shivambu means literally “Water of Shiva”, referring to their divine respect for the practice.
Urine therapy as an alternative medicine was popularized by British naturopath John W. Armstrong
in early 20th century. Armstrong had three things lead him to this therapy, his family practiced urine therapy for treating minor stings and toothaches, he read the Biblical Proverb “drink water from your own cistern…”, and he experienced a recovery from ill-health using it. He did a long fast [like Gandhi] in which he treated his malady taking in nothing but urine and tap water. Armstrong’s 1944 book sold widely.
