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There are a lot of strange beauty and health regimes, recommendations and so-called benefits people swear by.
From vampire facials which involves a procedure that supposedly promotes anti-ageing, to spas that offer ramen, wine, and green tea jacuzzis that promise to give your skin a youthful and dewy glow, the range of unconventional methods people will go through to look and feel a certain way speaks to our obsession with living up to society’s beauty standards.
In a case that will no doubt make you shudder, Teen Vogue reports that Kayleigh Oakley, a 33-year old woman based in the UK has revealed that drinking her own urine every day has helped her with chronic health issues.
Not only that but she says that she also uses her own urine to dab on her skin and uses it as a moisturiser. Yuck!
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Kayleigh has an autoimmune disorder and suffers from a chronic pain condition known as fibromyalgia. She revealed in an interview that she first discovered what has been deemed “urine therapy” while she was studying natural healing and medicine, The Daily Mail reports.
The yoga teacher says that she was inspired by other people’s success stories and that she’s also heard that urine can “reset the immune system, promote general good health, and is good for the skin.”
She adds that she made a lifestyle change (she’s on a vegan diet) and that she tries to actively avoid taking pharmaceutical medication.
The condition that she has been struggling with has left her feeling pretty miserable. She was constantly tired and in pain and every activity would be a monumental chore, she revealed to The Daily Mail.
Ever since her lifestyle change she’s taken to urinating in a glass every morning. She says it the taste is a bit salty and that you can taste some minerals, but that it’s not too strong because of her vegan diet.
Ever since consuming urine, she adds that her energy levels have gone up so much.
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Whew! While she might believe in urine therapy as a means to help promote good health, many folk, especially medical professionals are sceptical, if not downright negative about it.
A doctor revealed to BBC Three that while there is a common belief that urine is sterile, it is still a waste product. And waste products that leave the body can be contaminated with bacteria that can lead to illness.
Healthline.com reveals that urine consists of products that your body doesn’t need – so why would you ingest waste that your body is specifically getting rid of through urination?
Not only that, but if you are on medication, ingesting urine could affect and alter the dosage since medication, after it has been absorbed and processed, is excreted. Re-ingesting what your body has gotten rid of could change the way your medication behaves.
While many experts can agree that drinking urine won’t ultimately kill you, it’s nevertheless not recommended.
But it’s 2018 and we’re living in a society where almost nothing is sacred, taboo or even out of bounds, so clearly we actually need to tell people to stop drinking their own pee.
Frankly, we’re going to stick with the doctor’s advice and simply stick to our eight glasses of water a day.
