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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
 Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 01:55:47 AM
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 Wow it's late. I have spent a few hours typing this up...
For anyone who hasn't heard of it yet, amaroli is the practice of drinking your own urine. Before making any judgement on this, a person should become informed about all the details.
So what makes up urine? Wikipedia says - water, urea, urochrome, creatinine, uric acid, and inorganic ions (like sodium and chloride). I read these things and think, "Oh, that means very little to me." Luckily, wikipedia has links to pages on each of these terms. I found some interesting info...
1) We all know what water is about. One part hydrogen, two parts oxygen. It's wet. You should drink it. You're made of a lot of it...lets move on...
2) Urea is created by the liver when the body digests protein. Ammonia is created from nitrogen in the proteins, and urea is created from the ammonia. It is made up of carbon, oxygen, 2 parts nitrogen, and 4 parts hydrogen. But of course, that means nothing to a person like me, who knows almost nothing about science. So lets look at the facts that wikipedia presents on urea...
It's non toxic. It's used as a topical agent in some dermatological products for the rehydration of your skin. When used with an occulsive dressing, it works as a nonsurgical debrider of nails. Debridement is where dead tissue is removed and the healing potential of healthy tissue is strengthened. Interesting! It can increase the solubility of some proteins. It's used as a component of animal feed and fertilizer, in order to promote growth in a cheap way, because it has the highest nitrogen content. That's interesting as well! It's also secreted somewhat when we sweat. It's interesting how yogic literature of the past has said to rub sweat back into your body.
So overall, urea seems to promote the health of plants and our skin. Alright amaroli, you are winning the case so far...
3) Urochrome is what makes your pee yellow. It's a breakdown product of the blood's hemoglobin (the oxygen carrying part which red blood cells are mostly made of), which is broken down because of aging or defects. That breakdown is also the cause of the yellowing of bruises, although that yellowing isn't due to urochrome, but bilirubin. I think urochrome is simply bilirubin that's peed out. If there's too much breaking down of the red blood cells (which would be due to defects), then jaundice (yellow eyes and skin) and kidney failure will occur.
So is it good to digest urochrome? I don't know. It is in the blood stream more when red blood cells are dying too rapidly, and it could be acting like a signal for the body to create more red blood cells and hemoglobin. If that's so, then being healthy and taking urochrome would be beneficial because it'd be boosting the oxygen that's circulating throughout your body (which is always good as I understand it). But if it doesn't stimulate red blood cell and hemoglobin growth, or if it has some negative effect...then of course it's not beneficial to digest it.
I hope someone else will have something to add to this...
4) Creatinine is a breakdown product of creatine, which is produced and used in the muscles. When the creatine is used and turned into creatinine, the creatinine then goes into the kidneys. Some is peed out, and some is reabsorbed into the bloodstream. The more muscle you have, the more creatinine you will pee out. If the kidneys aren't functioning properly, less is peed out and more is absorbed into the bloodstream.
This is the same situation as urochrome. The more unhealthy you are, the more it's found in the bloodstream and the less it's peed out. I don't know if putting more in the body fixes your unhealth. It's a toss up with the amount of information that I have...
5) Uric acid is carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and hydrogen. It's the final product of purine metabolism in humans, but in a lot of other mammals it's processed further into allantoin. What's interesting about allantoin is that it heals wounds and promotes healthy skin. Apparently it's contained in the infamous "Udder Creme". Perhaps humans that drink their pee evolve to create allantoin instead of uric acid? But that's just jumping to conclusions, which isn't very scientific or honest at all.
High levels of uric acid in the body leads to arthritis, because the acid crystallizes in the joints. You can also develop kidney stones from having too much uric acid in the bloodstream. Meat eaters have higher uric acid levels, because of the purine in meat...and vegetarians don't have as high of numbers. Uric acid has a potential role as an antioxidant, kind of acting like ascorbate. It's unknown whether it's the body trying to cure itself of free radicals, or if uric acid is actually the cause of cellular death...but what's known is that when cells are dying, uric acid levels rise. Same situation with creatinine and urochrome. It's found in guano, which is used as a fertilizer because of the high nitrogen content. And probably because...what else are you going to do with a lot of bat poop?
Anyway, is it good to digest uric acid? It's said that humans don't produce that much of it. If you cut down on your meat eating, and drank your pee, I think it'd be a fair tradeoff. And who knows what happens when these compounds get digested...will they stimulate other processes or turn into something else? I don't know...
6) Inorganic ions. These are electrolytes...the things which make our cells function properly. Calcium, potassium, sodium, magnesium, chloride, calcium carbonate, ATP and hemoglobin. We take a lot of these in our food in large amounts sometimes. The literature about amaroli says to limit sodium intake. But these things aren't released in huge amounts when we pee, so it's okay to have this part in my opinion. A lot of these won't even be peed out. The main ones are sodium and chloride. If we take insoluble vitamins, or improper combinations of vitamins (like eating a multivitamin), then you pee those electrolytes out. It seems fine to drink the inorganic ions contained in your pee.
Overall, it seem urine is great as a topical agent. I've even heard in my medical training about using it as a field expedient treatment for burn injuries. This colonel told us, "Just pee on them! Get your friends to do it too. You will save them further injury." Yes, sir.
But drinking your pee...tests need to be done on it. Good research. People need to find out what exactly happens when these individual things are redigested.
If anyone has anything to add, feel free... |
Edited by - Scott on Aug 17 2006 01:58:36 AM |
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yogani
USA
5241 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 08:54:02 AM
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Moved this topic for better placement. 
The guru is in you. |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 09:39:25 AM
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| Ah, thank you Yogani. |
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Hunter
USA
252 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 09:57:21 AM
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Your work to provide this information to us is very much appreciated. This compilation of information will be very useful. It will be a nice reference to keep around.
Thank you, Scott. |
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Richard
United Kingdom
857 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 10:14:09 AM
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The only problem I've ever had is loose stools. Now I've cut down from just under half a pint (a mug full) to about an average normal cup full.
Richard |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 10:34:58 AM
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You're welcome, Hunter.
Upon looking at the details further, it seems to be that eating a primarily vegetarian diet, with decreased salt intake would produce better results than eating steaks and pouring the salt on, while practicing amaroli. Also, this should be combined with other processes which boost your immune system functioning and decrease cellular death, because if not it might make your problems worse than they already are. And of course, the more pee you drink the more of an effect it has.
So really, I don't think it should be practiced by a person that isn't in good health. You should probably get checked up by a doctor and be told "You are perfectly healthy" beforehand, because if you have damage to your liver, GI tract, kidneys...or if you're anemic, or you have asthma...you can potentially be damaged by this. Because the process depends on proper functioning of all of these things.
But perhaps it is healthy to start it in an unhealthy state. I don't know, I'm just guessing here. |
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 11:25:34 AM
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Scott,
if you read these links below, you will find some speculation that a hormesis-like phenomenon is responsible for the effect of amaroli. Again, only speculation. Maybe it too is entirely wrong. But biological processes are complex and sometimes counter-intuitive.
amaroli, hormesis
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....&whichpage=1
hormesis and yoga in general:
http://www.aypsite.org/forum/topic....OPIC_ID=1030
I don't think you need to be healthy to benefit from amaroli, BTW.
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 11:55:37 AM
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David,
I like your ideas, and I think we can both see where they fit in with this topic as well. Now we just need to find out, by experimenting and testing, if hormesis is the case with amaroli.
More thoughts on Urochrome:
The more cellular death (disease) there is in the body, the more urochrome and bilirubin (yellowing stuff) is produced. If your kidneys are functioning properly, then the yellowing stuff should probably mostly be peed out, and not reabsorbed through the bloodstream. You can tell something's wrong if the whites of your eyes are yellow and you are getting more bruises, because that means too much of this yellowing stuff is being reabsorbed in the blood. That means bad kidneys.
So a good experiment to try out is to see if amaroli causes your pee to become more yellow, and if your eyes are made whiter. If the eyes become more yellow, it's a sign that excess levels of urochrome digested doesn't have the hormetic effect on kidney functioning. The pee should eventually lose some of its high concentration of yellow, if amaroli truly has the hormetic effect, because it should stop cellular death. But if the pee becomes very yellow, and the eyes lose whiteness and become more yellowish, it's a sign that amaroli could actually be harmful for you.
I am going to test this, among other things, once I'm able to get my diet pure and steady. |
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david_obsidian
USA
2602 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 12:07:20 PM
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If the eyes become more yellow, it's a sign that excess levels of urochrome digested doesn't have the hormetic effect on kidney functioning. The pee should eventually lose some of its high concentration of yellow, if amaroli truly has the hormetic effect, because it should stop cellular death.
Hmmm, you're making some leaps here... I'm not assuming at all that the hormetic effect is localized to kidney functioning at all...
Also, the yellowness of your pee will depend a lot on how much water you drink. It's hard to go from a subjective measure of yellowness to an assumption about UroChrome levels in the urine...
However, it doesn't sound right to me either that amaroli would make the eyes yellower -- that wouldn't sound right from here....
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
Posted - Aug 17 2006 : 12:39:23 PM
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I am making leaps, because my understanding of the physiology of the human body is extremely limited. But I think it's a reasonable leap to assume that the hormetic effect of amaroli will have a positive impact on kidney functioning. If it has a negative effect on kidney functioning, then it's obviously not hormetic but just plain toxic.
Also the yellowness of the pee doesn't just depend on how much water you drink, but how much is expelled from how much you drink. That's why I want to make my diet pure and steady first, to assure that I'm not retaining too much some days and expelling too much on other days. I always drink around a gallon of water a day, so I will be good with intake.
About using subjective measures - I guess I could take pictures of my eyes and pee...that'd be pretty amusing. |
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Scott
USA
969 Posts |
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Amaroli on trial
