SOME 100,000 people have been practising urine therapy in China, South China Morning Post reported, citing figures from the China Urine Therapy Association.

    For 79-year-old Bao Yafu, urine therapy is just another daily routine: he drinks three cups of his own urine every day, and even washes his eyes and wipes his face with it.

    “In these 22 years [of urine therapy], I never caught a cold. My eyesight has become clearer and I don’t have any age pigment,” Bao told Wuhan Evening News, revealing that a recent medical check by a hospital showed that he has the bone density of a 30-year-old.

    One of the requirements of joining is to consume urine and promote its healing effects. The groups’ membership fee is 20 yuan (US$3.23) per year, and around 100 members gather once a year to share their experiences.

    According to the China Urine Therapy Association’s website, the “theory” behind drinking urine lies in the fact that the fluid differs from excrement, and comes from the circulation of blood which absorbs nutrients in food and is therefore a “genuine metabolic product.”

    The site claims that drinking urine can improve the body’s ability to fight diseases. It also argues that urine “works better than synthetic medicine and has no side effects.”

    Bao is far from the only one to claim that drinking urine has improved his health. A 21-year-old man named Xiao Liu said that urine therapy cured his hyperthyroidism.

    Xiao Liu was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism in 2010. He stopped taking subscribed medication for a year and a half because he felt it “had no effect.” After learning about urine therapy on the Internet, he decided to give it a try. A year later, the results of his medical examination showed that his thyroid figures had all returned to normal. But Xiao Liu’s doctor refuted the alleged curative effects.

    Xiao Liu’s story went viral on the Internet.

    According to Chinese medicine experts, although urine was recorded in several ancient Chinese medicine books as an ingredient for its ability to stop bleeding and cure bruises, there were strict requirements for using it. There is no medical evidence to support using urine as a long-term dietary therapy. (SD-Agencies)