Pilot drinks urine to stay alive

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=68&art_id=nw20071124091348394C361760

interesting article...

would have thought there'd be a lot of water sources in the jungle ( well he did say he was injured...)

good on him though.

He was just rescued yesterday. All the physical results aren't in, although I'm sure we won't hear about it if he goes into kidney failure or has liver damage.

And he wasn't dehydrated enough, he felt the need to eat.

Sue

If he could [censored], he wasn't dehydrated. When dehydrated, the body recirculates urine, and the urge to [censored] shuts down or can be easily overcome. If you [censored], you take water out of circulation. This idea is really a no-brainer.
I am absolutely convinced that "survivors" who drink their own urine have fallen prey to a non-viable "final option" or "alternative" which can ultimately serve as nothing more than a debilitating attempt to make up for the fact that one is mortal (not a closed-system) and perhaps has a weak will to begin with, like sucking on a pebble to create the illusion of extra water in the mouth. Pebble sucking might actually have some benefit though, as it might serve psychologically to stimulate reabsorption from the bladder into the bloodstream, and even as stimulus to keep the mouth closed which would keep the person from losing water via evaporation from the mouth, as well as possibly to slow the person down as he or she attempts to breathe solely through the nose, which might reduce sweating. Either that, or some people are simply uneducated and/or that that education is inacessible to the person who's mind begins to shut down in a survival situation such as dehydration. Quite simply, a survivor drinking his or her own [censored] is literally an ostrich thrusting its head in the sand. The only way to combat dehydration is to increase the amount of water in the body, and urinating causes water loss by evaporation and even by "missing" the canteen. It is much more efficient to keep what water remains in the body by not pissing and not sweating and not breathing with the mouth. It's already there, so why excrete it just to reintroduce it?
On the other hand, to drink someone else's [censored] would increase the amount of water in the body, and might be of some value. Here the only logic is that it is better to not die of thirst than to have a little extra strain on the kidneys.
A fellow survivor would not likely be a suitable [censored] donor (I wouldn't give mine except in certain situations, i.e. loved ones), but a camel might. But, I would probably drink some of the camels' blood if I had that option. I would think that blood would be more thirst quenching than [censored], but I would be interested to see a link to information concerning salt content, etc.

Maybe he believed in urine therapy. There is a group of people in this world who believe urine to be a panacea which can cure any illness, reverse aging, and make you more beautiful.

I think people make assumptions based on the fact that Urine (from a healthy person) is sterile...either that or they've been watching Bear Grylls drink his own wee. It can be proven that drinking (healthy) urine is NOT harmful to your body...as long as you're drinking enough water to counter the salt. What you might read about urine being full of 'poisons' isn't true unless the person expelling the urine is sick (or especially if they have a bladder infection). All that aside, there's absolutely no scientific benefit to ingesting the stuff.

The truth is that the salts and minerals in the urine act like a diuretic. In a person who hasn't had much to drink the urine will be thick and dark containing even more sodium and salts. This is going to cause the person to urinate more and even though urine is mostly water, there will be a net loss of H2O in the system. This is why it's so strongly ill advised in a survival situation. Even if dehydrated diuretics will force your kidneys to make pee stealing from the water reserves in your blood.

One other thing that's usually not considered is eating. Your body needs water to digest food. If you eat and don't drink, you're going to dehydrate that much faster...and if the food is high in sodium or caffeine, it's going to be worse. I recently flipped over a package of my favorite freeze dried hiking food. 2 servings, 500 calories, over 1000mg of sodium per serving. If you eat the whole bag like I do that's almost 100% of your daily intake of sodium in one sitting! I don't buy that brand anymore.

The SAS handbook I have says, Don't drink it. The brain cells I was born with say don't drink it.
Bear G. drank his on one of his shows one time.....grossed me out. Any more of those episodes and he's blocked from my cable.

People in other countries are known to drink animal blood on a somewhat regular basis. Ill effects???? I don't know.

I believe it's the Masai in Africa who drink a mixture of goat's milk and blood. The milk will dilute the salt content of the blood.

You CAN drink urine or blood, but you need to have water to dilute the effects. By themselves, they are just multiplying the original problem (dehydration) in a survival situation.

It's not going to do any harm to some guy who just watched Bear drink his urine and copies him, when the guy is awash with beer. It's not a survival situation.

Sue

When I was in Thailand some years ago, training with the Thai Marines we killed several cobras as part some survival training. They were killed by beheading, then the about 4" of tail was cut off to allow blood to flow freely out, where it could be drank straight from the serpent's neck.

They believed the cobra's blood increased a man's virility. Whether it did that or not I don't know. Anyhow, the taste is not terribly disagreeable, but my concern would be with salt in the blood. As Sue pointed out, some water to dilute it might be necessary.

I heard recently the quickest way to rehydrate is to drink cold beer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd7HTlkzS28&feature=related

But in a survival situation if it was a choice between Kaliber beer and Urine I might just have to pause for a while to decide.

The article says he ate leaves. It doesn't say what kind of leaves. There are plenty of plants that you can get enough water from to survive. I would rather waste the energy chewing on leaves and getting a little water than drinking urine.

I was TQS at the time, but I haven't been here in many years. I very recently googled something and came across this post which I replied to in 2007. I have been working on a follow-up expanded article which I just finished and put on my blog. I hope it is of some value... whether educational or entertaining: http://ecoculturevillage.org/survivalways/survive-dehydration-drinking-urine-wait/

I always wonder, did they survive because of drinking their own urine, or in spite of drinking it? My guess is the latter.