91-year-old man drinks his own urine, says without it: ‘life would not be worth livin
91-year-old man drinks his own urine, says without it: ‘life would not be worth living’
Posted on October 25, 2013
In an era where the quest for eternal youth is never ending, we happily pop pills, down potions and spend a fortune on face cream.
But would you be brave enough to drink your own urine if it made you look ten years younger?
One 91-year-old man insists this home-brewed elixir is the key to his youthful appearance and active lifestyle.
Mark Ambrose, who ‘lives in sin’ with his 87-year-old partner Joyce, in the south of Spain, sips his way through a tumbler of the liquid every day.
Elixir? Mark Ambrose, who ‘lives in sin’ with his 87-year-old partner Joyce, sips his way through a tumbler of his own urine every day. He believes this is the key to his youthful appearance and active lifestyle
He also dabs it on wounds as he believes it can aid the healing process.
‘Joyce and I both have serious health problems which have to be coped with.
‘I have a badly damaged spine and she suffers from macular disease, knees that really need replacements and other complaints normally associated with elderly people.
‘Nonetheless, we lead a very active life with friends saying I look a lot less than my age, and my partner possessing remarkable energy and looking no more than 65-70 years of age.’
The former publicity director said: ‘As far I’m concerned, I am convinced that urine therapy, which I started practicing over three years ago, is mainly responsible for my younger appearance.’
Mr Ambrose admits he stumbled across the so-called fountain of youth by accident while searching the internet for a cure for back pain.
He explained: ‘I’d already undergone three lumber operations in the UK and in Spain with the specialists admitting they could do nothing more for me apart from trying out different painkilling medicines.
‘With nothing to lose, I thought I’d try the therapy to help to obtain a better quality of life for my remaining years.’
He eagerly began researching what needed to be done – but could find nothing about when or how much to drink.
While the practice might sound abhorrent, Mr Ambrose isn’t alone – in fact, urine therapy is said to date back to the Bible.
Historical documents suggest that the Aztecs disinfected wounds with it, while the benefits are also mentioned in Indian and Chinese literature.
Urine is highly sterile, consisting of water and five per cent nutrients such as proteins, vitamins and minerals.
Advocates of urine therapy believe these excreted ingredients have health benefits ranging from a boosted immune system to eye and ear drops.
Undeterred, and armed with this knowledge, Mr Ambrose he decided to adopt the trial and error approach.
He recalls: ‘Taking a small sample in a small glass – easier for a male than a female, I guess – I gingerly tasted the perfectly clear, amber-coloured liquid.
‘Not too bad, I thought – a peculiar taste, nothing like anything I’ve had before. Not pleasant, but on the other hand, not too awful.’
Determined to continue, over the next few days he kept tasting his urine until he was brave enough to drink some.
‘Taking a small sample in a small glass, I gingerly tasted the perfectly clear, amber-coloured liquid.
‘Not too bad, I thought – a peculiar taste, nothing like anything I’ve had before. Not pleasant, but on the other hand, not too awful’
Starting with just a sip, he began drinking a little almost every time he went to the loo, gradually increasing the amount as the weeks went by, building up to a tumbler.
And the secret to it not leaving a nasty after-taste? A grape or two, or a quick rinse of the mouth with water,’ he confesses.
Three years on, he’s also become somewhat of an expert on how one’s bodily fluids should appear.
‘I learnt that one should note the colour of one’s water and drink it if it’s mid-stream and a definite straw-colour.’
But forget sipping on the pale stuff. ‘If it’s clear then it’s practically tasteless – and I think pretty useless as a healing agent,’ he instructs.
At the other end of the scale, the elixir can also be a bit too strong to handle. ‘If it’s a deep amber colour veering towards yellow, it looks beautiful but it’s a bit too strong for me to take, despite it’s potential benefits.’
But what are the benefits? Mr Ambrose says his research has shown that ‘only five per cent of urine contains health-giving vitamins which will certainly strengthen one’s own immune system’.
And how much does he drink in total? ‘Half a small glassful as many times as I can during a normal day’ – equating to about a tumbler a day.
But it doesn’t stop there. He also massages the elixir into skin, believing it can be ‘very effective healing problems on the face, arms and legs and even eyelids and ears, by massaging the affected areas with urine which can be fresh or a day or two old’.
But he stresses that persistence is needed. ‘Firm massaging of affected areas with urine can sometimes be needed for weeks on even months before healing is complete.’
So, three years on, does he feel better? ‘I still find it very difficult and painful to walk upright and I have to take a couple of painkillers a day to keep active.
‘However, I firmly believe that the urine therapy helps to reduce the spinal column nerve pains to an acceptable level – and it doesn’t cost a bean!
‘The rest of my body is in pretty good shape, with many friends and even strangers remarking how well I look.’
‘I think I look and feel about ten years younger than my age. I possess a Spanish driving licence up to 2014, I do all the cooking, I belong to a bridge club which I helped to start 20 years ago; and I’m learning to play the piano whenever I can because I never had the chance when I was younger.
‘The morning can’t come quickly enough for me and I often get up early and do some brain train work on the computer, then cheerfully wake up my partner with her morning cup of tea.
‘Because I can memorise the words of almost a 100 songs, Joyce encourages me to sing two or three of them before getting up and making the bed.
‘This is an excellent therapy for me and I’m then ready to make the most of the remainder of the day.’
He thoroughly believes that drinking urine is responsible for much of this well-being attitude. ‘In fact, I feel that life for me would not be worth living without it,’ he says.
But while Joyce is impressed with the fruits of his efforts, he says she ‘finds it impossible to overcome her feelings of repugnance at the very thought of drinking her own urine’.
‘She has resisted all my attempts to persuade her to try the urine therapy,’ he admits.
DOES DRINKING YOUR OWN URINE REALLY HAVE HEALTH BENEFITS?
Urine therapy is said to date back to the Bible. Historical documents suggest that the Aztecs disinfected wounds with it, while the benefits are also mentioned in Indian and Chinese literature.
Urine is highly sterile, consisting of 95 per cent water and five per cent nutrients such as proteins, vitamins and minerals. During the digestive process, the liver deals with toxins and removes them to be excreted.
The blood then goes to the kidneys where it is filtered again and extraneous components the body no longer needs are collected in a sterile solution which is then passed as urine.
But GP Dr Rob Hicks said: ‘Over the years many people have claimed health benefits from drinking their own urine, but as far as I’m aware there is no scientific evidence to back-up these claims.
‘The kidneys are an efficient filtering system getting rid of what the body doesn’t need, so to put this back into the body seems counter-productive.
‘Personally, I believe there are better – and more palatable – ways to keep the body healthy including not smoking, eating a healthy diet, and keeping stress under control.’
From me: I'll pass, thanks though.
