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Urine Therapy for Cancer

The jury is still out on the usefulness of urine therapy, or urotherapy, in the treatment of cancer. However, it remains the subject of heated debate between its advocates in the field of alternative/complementary medicine and those in mainstream medicine who, for the most part, dismiss it as quackery. In the simplest terms possible, urine therapy can be defined as the internal or external application of urine as a way to bolster your health and combat various forms of illness.

  1. Makeup of Urine

    • Advocates of urotherapy, many of whom suggest that the greatest benefits come to those who drink their urine, point out that it is made up of 95 percent water and contains a wealth of enzymes, salts, hormones, and minerals, of which the single largest nonwater component is urea. While urine therapy has been slow to catch on in the West, it has been a widely accepted mode of treatment for millennia in many Asian countries, most notably in India, where it is known as "shivambu."

    Urea a Miracle Drug?

    • Proponents of urine therapy in the treatment of cancer offer a variety of reasons why it can be effective. One of the more widely held theories is that the urea in urine has cancer-fighting properties. Based on more than a decade of research, Dr. Evangelos Danopoulos concluded that urea interferes with the natural tendency of cancer cells to cluster together and ultimately kills them by short-circuiting their normal metabolic routines. The Greek physician wrote of his findings in multiple articles that appeared in scientific journals during the 1970s and 1980s. More recently, Dr. Vincent Speckhart, an American oncologist, concurred with Danopoulos's findings on urea, testifying to that effect before a congressional committee.

    Eldor on Antigens

    • In an article that he wrote for a 1997 issue of Medical Hypotheses, Dr. Joseph Eldor observed that cancer cells release antigens, some of which show up in urine. The doctor, a member of the staff at Jerusalem's Theoretical Medical Institute, suggested that auto-urotherapy---or the drinking of one's own urine---could help cancer patients develop antibodies to fight their cancers.

    ACS Skeptical

    • In a very reasoned overview of the urine therapy question, the American Cancer Society (ACS) observes that its proponents report "that drinking or injecting urine or applying it directly to the skin is safe and not linked to any harmful side effects, but the safety of these practices has not been established by scientific studies." More significantly, the ACS concludes that "no well-controlled studies published in available scientific literature support the claims that urotherapy can control or reverse the spread of cancer."

    Who's Right?

    • In the absence of proof positive that urotherapy is an effective mode of treatment for cancer, patients and their families and loved ones must make their own decisions about whether to give this form of therapy a try. Such decisions should be based on a thorough review of all the arguments put forward by both proponents and critics of urine therapy.

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