People flush 580 billion liters of urine every three months

It can be transparent and nebulous, it can provoke a sexual arousal and disgust, everyone has it all the time, and it appears for free. It is urine.

Photo: People flush 580 billion liters of urine every three months

Urine is produced in the kidneys and takes excessive water, salts, protein breakdown products and other materials out of the human organism. A human being produces 1-1.5 liters of urine, the chemical composition of which counts over 150 components.

The Earth’s population - 6.5 billion people - flush a huge lake of urine – 580 billion liters - during every two or three months. The productivity increases a lot if we count the planet’s fauna. Therefore, there is nothing surprising about the fact that there are many ways to use such a huge amount of free and multicomponent raw material.

Alchemists were the first to pay attention to urine over their concerns to synthesize gold from something they could access 24/7. The color of urine made them think that gold could be one of its components. It goes without saying that no one found the precious metal in the yellow liquid, although alchemists did make several important chemical discoveries during their hopeless experiments. German alchemist Henning Brandt, for example, discovered phosphorous in 1669 when he was distilling urine. French chemist Hilaire-Marin Rouelle discovered urea in 1773 when she was boiling the yellow liquid.

Urine has been considered a universal remedy in India for over 5,000 years. The Hindu refer to this therapy as amaroli. The Europeans are more familiar with the term ‘urine therapy’.

Urine can be used both internally and externally in this branch of alternative medicine. A well-known adherent of urine therapy in Russia, Gennady Malakhov, says that one should use almost a daily amount of urine to achieve the wonderful recovery. He offers to drink the urine and use it for rubdowns and enemas. Proponents of this insane therapy say that it can become the panacea in the struggle with intestinal, kidney and liver diseases.

Modern science has no facts to prove positive effect of the urine therapy. Some say that the healing can be achieved as a result of the placebo effect. Others describe the urine therapy as an instance of the hormone therapy. One thing is known for sure: if there is an infection in urine, one can get another disease when using their urine in medical purposes. There were many incidents, when patients became infected with gonococcal conjunctivitis after they had used urine to wash their eyes. In ancient times, people used urine to disinfect wounds and burns. However, it can be justifiable only if one has no other disinfecting substances at hand.

US pharmaceutical company Wyeth began to produce estrogen hormones in 1942 derived from the urine of pregnant horses. The medication was known as Premanin. Women use the medication for hormonal replacement therapy during the menopause.

Urine was used for whitening teeth until the 18^th century. Urine’s ammonia possesses perfect cleansing properties. Some modern whitening toothpastes contain urea hydrogen peroxide.

The Europeans used urine to produce gunpowder for quite a long time. It became possible due to the content of nitrogen-containing chemicals in the yellow liquid: urea and ammonia. It is an open secret that gunpowder is made of 75 percent of potassium nitrate (KNO3), 15 percent of coal and ten percent of sulfur. The last two components can be found in the natural world, but there are no natural reserves of potassium nitrate. The chemical was obtained from a small deposit of chile nitrate in India, whereas urine was used for the same purpose in Europe instead.

Some companies in America and Europe sell the urine of bobcats, wolves, coyotes, foxes, squirrels and rabbits. They offer their customers to mark their lawns and gardens with it to scare off wild animals. Experiments conducted on dogs, rats and mice showed that animals can identify the sex attribute of their species by smelling urine acids. Such chemicals as acetic acid, butanoic acid, pentanoic acid and acetacetic acid are all the products of cellular metabolism. That is why every living being has an individual urine odor.

There is joke in Russia: “I want to drink, and I want to pee – we won’t let each other die.” Indeed, history knows a lot of facts about drinking urine when one has no access to fresh water. Discovery Channel’s Survivor Man Bear Grylls had to drink his own urine in Australian deserts, for instance. However, the US Army, the Urology Association of Texas and other respectable organizations do not recommend drinking pure urine to satisfy thirst.

Urophilia (also urophilia) is a fetish activity in which a person experiences a sexual arousal by the smell of urine. A person may also receive sexual satisfaction from urinating on a partner. This activity is known as water sports or golden showers. Many champions of urophilia prefer the morning urine with its distinctive smell and taste.