This is a glass of apple juice!

Many of us are familiar with the infamous “Friends” episode where we learned about how a little tinkle may help relieve the effects of a jellyfish sting.  Well, I think it’s safe to say that for most of us, the idea of one’s own pee is probably a bit repulsive.  After all, “number one” is something that is usually reserved for the bathroom and we associate it with a  certain colour, temperature, and of course SMELL!  However, are we thumbing our noses at something that has healing properties?

Urine therapy (or auto-urine therapy, urotherapy) has ancient origins.  There are traditional uses for one’s own urine both as a topical remedy as well as a remedy taken internally – yes, that means DRINKING it.  There are many examples throughout history of urine being used to improve one’s health in Anceint Rome and China as well as for Ayurvedic practices in India.  Some have gone so far as to espouse urine therapy as being beneficial in the treatment of certain cancers, although there is no scientific evidence to back up these claims.

Of course, high-performance athletes are always willing to try all legal means to stimulate the body’s natural ability to heal itself.  When American downhill ski racer Lindsey Vonn suffered a bad shin bruise prior to her races at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, she resorted to some unconventional remedies for her recovery.  and wound up winning two medals.  More recently, Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida has talked several times about his daily practice of drinking his own urine and how it has greatly improved his physical health.  Unfortunately, for Machida, he was unsuccessful in defending his UFC light heavyweight championship against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua at UFC 113 this past Saturday in Montreal.  However, he does have a number of injuries as a result of getting knocked out during the fight so maybe he’ll drink his way back to good health!

Tags: burnaby, drink, drvictorchan, lindsey vonn, lyoto machida, mauricio rua, mixed martial arts, mma, naturopath, Olympics, pee, performax, performax health group, ufc, urine, urine therapy, vancouver