Is it possible to drink urine to survive?

 

Is it possible to drink urine to survive? Hopefully this never happens to you, but, let's say you found yourself in an extreme situation. You're out of food and water, and the only liquid nearby is, well (zipper zips) your own. (liquid splashing)

You've heard of astronauts

drinking urine in space, but they have high tech

• filtration systems, and you don't. Your best option is to drink it straight like Aron Ralston did when he was trapped 
• an adult can survive up
• list for such an occasion. 
• Low blood pressure means less
• best avoid that urine

in a canyon for 127 hours

before escape and rescue. If Ralston did it and

survived, so should you, right? Depending on the environment, 

to one week without water, and three weeks without food. But that window quickly narrows when you're dehydrated, sick, or both. For that reason, the

Army has a field manual which has a do not drink

The list includes, fish juices, blood, alcohol, sea

water, and, yes, urine. In fact, when you break it down, urine isn't that much

different from sea water. 

It's usually around 95% water with a mix of byproducts including

sodium, chloride, and urea. Sea water by comparison is 96.5% water, and 3.5% sodium and chloride. 

So drinking urine is basically

like drinking sea water. It's going to dehydrate you, which is the opposite of what you want. To make matters worse, if you keep drinking it,

the severe dehydration can trigger abnormally low blood pressure. 

blood flow to vital organs like your heart, lungs, and kidneys, which can be damaged or fail as a result. Not good. Adding to your trouble is that urea. 

In a word, urea is waste. It's not supposed to be in your body. That's why your kidneys filter it out of your blood and into your urine, which ordinarily then leaves your system. 

But if you drink the urine instead, your kidneys have to work harder to filter out that extra urea, which could lead to kidney failure. Again, not good. Suffice it to say, drinking urine may be your kidneys' worst nightmare. 

And to top it off, there's the bacteria. Contrary to popular belief,

urine is not sterile. According to one study, it contains at least 85

different bacterial species. 

Some of the most common are

ones like staphylococcus, which is known to cause food poisoning, and actinomyces which is

commonly found in gum infections. So unless you want sore gums, nausea, and failing organs while

you search for rescue, 

cocktail all together. What's the weirdest

survival tip that you know? Let us know in the comments,

and Thanks for reading.