Atlas›Domain XII · Complementary, energy & biofield›Guide 145
Guide XII-145

Urine therapy

J. W. Armstrong, Coen van der Kroon1944
A 32 · L 56 · M 1212 interventions in the Trinity explorer
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[source: …] where a claim comes from[uncertain] not confirmed in a primary source[synthesis] the writer's reconstruction

1. Introduction

Version followed: auto-urine therapy as presented in J. W. Armstrong's The Water of Life: A Treatise on Urine Therapy (publisher description, Vermilion/Penguin) and Coen van der Kroon's The Golden Fountain (publisher description, Wishland/IPG), and as practitioners described it at the Second World Conference on Urine Therapy (Gersfeld, Germany, 1999). This guide sets out the psychotherapist's own work alongside it: the psychotherapist never performs, sells, prescribes or recommends urine therapy; section 4 is the therapist's own work with a client who uses or considers it.

Urine therapy (also called urotherapy, urinotherapy, auto-urine therapy or, in India, shivambu) is the drinking of one's own urine and its application to the skin, gums, eyes, ears or other body sites as a health practice [source: National Capital Poison Center; Science Feedback 2025; Salon 1999]. Its core idea, as proponents state it, is that urine is not waste but a filtered product of blood carrying mineral salts, hormones and other substances that the body can reuse; Armstrong's publisher summarises his claim that almost all disease other than trauma or structural disorder can be cured this way, by analogy with fallen leaves returning nutrients to soil [source: Penguin, The Water of Life]. Later advocates add that urine "reflects the body's current state" and that re-taking it acts as a kind of "self-vaccination" stimulating the immune system [source: Salon 1999], and some current social-media promoters claim benefits from stem cells, urea or pH balance [source: Science Feedback 2025]. These are attributed claims.

  • Evidence status (one line): no scientific evidence supports urine as a medical therapy [source: National Capital Poison Center; UPMC HealthBeat 2022; Science Feedback 2025].
  • Regulatory status (one line): urine therapy is not a licensed medicine or a regulated profession in the main jurisdictions; in China a national urine-therapy association was reportedly declared an illegal organisation in 2016 [uncertain: secondary, unverified].

2. Framework

2a. The method as its proponents describe it

  • Origins and texts. Armstrong, a British naturopath, published The Water of Life in 1944; it is still in print (Vermilion paperback 2005, ebook 2011) [source: Penguin]. He is reported to have prescribed urine regimens, including a prolonged fast on urine and water, from 1918 [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. In India the practice is linked to Shivambu Kalpa, a verse text said to belong to the Damara Tantra; a medical anthropologist has argued the text is poorly attested and that modern Indian practice owes more to Armstrong [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. Van der Kroon's The Golden Fountain (1996) presents it as "an ancient Eastern tradition" with internal and external uses [source: IPG].
  • Public advocacy. India's Prime Minister Morarji Desai said publicly in 1977 that he drank his own urine daily, called it a cleansing tonic that was free, cited a Biblical proverb about drinking from one's own cistern, and was reported to have claimed at a Tuberculosis Association meeting that it cures cancer and cataracts [source: The Spectator 8 Oct 1977; TIME 24 Oct 1977].
  • Organisations and gatherings. World Conferences on Urine Therapy were held in Goa, India (1996) and Gersfeld, Germany (1999, about 250 attendees from over 40 countries, organised by van der Kroon) [source: Salon 1999]. Since the 2010s the practice spreads mainly through Facebook groups, Instagram hashtags and TikTok/short-video creators [source: PhillyVoice 2019; Science Feedback 2025; The South First 2025].
  • What a client experiences (qualitatively). Self-administered at home: drinking own urine (often first-morning urine), rubbing or massaging it into skin, gargling, nasal or mouth use, eye and ear drops, bathing, enemas and douches; some practitioners favour "aged" urine kept for days as "more potent"; a few German doctors described injecting it [source: Salon 1999; PhillyVoice 2019; Spectator 1977]. Fasting on urine and water is part of Armstrong's tradition [uncertain: secondary, unverified]. No quantities, schedules or preparation details are given here.
  • Who practises it. Mostly lay self-practice guided by books, online groups and influencers; also some naturopaths and a minority of doctors [source: Salon 1999; Science Feedback 2025]. A related variant is drinking camel urine, used by 15.7% of complementary-medicine users in a Saudi cancer-patient survey [source: Abuelgasim et al. 2018].
  • Regulation. No licensing body certifies urine therapists [synthesis]. Injection or other invasive administration is a medical procedure that only legally authorised clinicians may perform, and doing so with urine is not an accepted procedure anywhere [synthesis; uncertain: not verified against a regulator statement]. Marketing urine products or courses with disease claims falls under advertising and consumer-protection law in most jurisdictions [synthesis].

2b. The psychotherapist's work alongside it

Not a course of treatment; a set of tasks woven into ordinary therapy [synthesis]:

  1. Detect — routine, non-judgemental inquiry about complementary practices at intake and when health changes (first session; repeat at review points).
  2. Understand — explore meaning, hopes, explanatory model and the social context (online groups, family, faith) (revisited as needed).
  3. Assess risk — medical red flags, delayed or abandoned care, children, pregnancy, eating disorders, money, group pressure (same session as detection when red flags are present).
  4. Support decisions — informed, values-based choice without coercion; coordinate with the doctor or pharmacist with consent.
  5. Treat what is psychological — health anxiety, somatic symptom presentations, distrust or medical trauma, grief and regret (Domain II approaches).
  6. Report where safeguarding or regulatory duties apply.

Move from 1 to 2 once use is disclosed; go straight to 3 if any red flag appears (section 4.6); stay in 4–5 as long as the client is weighing options; 6 overrides everything when a child or adult at risk is involved [synthesis].

3. Guiding principles

  • Never perform, sell, prescribe or recommend it — you do not advise on how to practise urine therapy, on amounts or methods, or on medicines; you route medical questions to the doctor or pharmacist [synthesis; source: APA Ethics Code 2.01 Boundaries of Competence].
  • Curiosity before correction — ask what it means before discussing risks; disclosure falls when clients expect ridicule (only 30% of complementary-medicine users in one oncology survey had told their doctor) [source: Abuelgasim et al. 2018].
  • Respect self-determination — adults may choose practices you consider unwise; your job is informed choice, not compliance [source: APA Ethics Code, Principle E].
  • Attribute, don't adjudicate — describe health claims as the client's or the movement's claims and state the evidence status plainly once, without lecturing [synthesis].
  • Harm avoidance has priority — act on red flags (infection, eye symptoms, dehydration, stopping treatment, children) even if it strains the alliance [source: APA Ethics Code 3.04 Avoiding Harm].
  • Coordinate, with consent — share only what is needed with the medical team, and only with consent unless law requires or permits disclosure to prevent harm [source: APA Ethics Code 3.09, 4.05].
  • No conflicts of interest — no products, courses, referrals for gain or personal advocacy for or against the practice [source: APA Ethics Code 3.06].
  • Treat disgust as clinical data, not a verdict — your own or the client's shame or disgust can shut down disclosure; notice and contain it [synthesis].
  • Look beneath the practice — the drivers (control, distrust, cost, identity, community, despair) are usually the therapeutic target, not the urine [synthesis].
  • Children are not autonomous adults — a parent's belief does not override a child's right to safe care [synthesis; see section 4.7].

4. Intervention inventory

All interventions below are the psychotherapist's own work. Unless a source is tagged, the steps are [synthesis] built on the principles in section 3 and the APA Ethics Code standards cited.

4.1 Routine, non-judgemental inquiry and recording

  • Purpose / when: detect use that clients rarely volunteer; at intake, at reviews, and whenever a physical illness, new diagnosis, "detox" talk or online-wellness interest comes up. Disclosure to doctors is low even among cancer patients using complementary medicine [source: Abuelgasim et al. 2018].
  • Steps:
    1. Normalise: ask about all self-care practices in one list (supplements, diets, fasting, cleanses, folk or religious remedies, "natural" therapies) so urine therapy is not singled out.
    2. If disclosed, ask open, factual questions: what form (drinking, skin, eyes or ears, enemas, injection by someone else), since when, for what purpose, who introduced it, whether the doctor knows.
    3. Keep your face and voice neutral; if you notice disgust, slow down and return to curiosity.
    4. Record in plain terms: the practice, purpose, source of advice, medical involvement, any red flags screened (section 4.6) and the client's stated plan. Do not record your opinion of the practice as fact.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Many people use things outside mainstream medicine, from herbs to fasting to remedies their family swears by. What do you use, or have you thought about using?" / "Thanks for telling me. People often expect a reaction when they mention urine therapy; I'm interested in what it does for you."
  • Watch for: hesitation, joking or testing your reaction (disclosure being rehearsed); a sudden change of subject after mention (shame). Working: the client volunteers updates later without prompting.

4.2 Exploring meaning, hopes, expectations and explanatory model

  • Purpose / when: understand what draws the client (control, hope, distrust of medicine, cost, identity, spirituality, community) before any decision work.
  • Steps:
    1. Elicit the explanatory model: what they think causes their problem and how urine therapy is meant to help (e.g. "cleansing", "self-vaccination", stem cells, pH, "water of life") — these are the movement's terms [source: Salon 1999; Science Feedback 2025; Spectator 1977].
    2. Ask what they hope will change and how they will know it is working; ask what they will do if it does not.
    3. Explore the story of how they came to it: a book, a family elder, a respected public figure, a Facebook group, a TikTok creator.
    4. Explore their experience of conventional medicine: cost, access, side effects, feeling dismissed, past medical trauma.
    5. Reflect the values underneath (self-reliance, naturalness, faith, thrift) without endorsing the practice.
  • Example language (illustrative): "In your own words, how does it work in the body, as you understand it?" / "What would it mean to you if it helped? And if it didn't?" / "It sounds like being in charge of your own health matters a great deal, especially after how the hospital treated you."
  • Watch for: fixed, all-or-nothing beliefs; hope that is carrying unbearable fear (e.g. a serious diagnosis); distrust rooted in real mistreatment that needs validating. Working: the client can name both hopes and doubts.

4.3 Mapping the social and commercial context

  • Purpose / when: identify group pressure, influencer dynamics and money; whenever use is linked to an online group, practitioner, retreat or paid course.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask who else is involved: online groups (some urine-therapy Facebook groups have thousands of members [source: PhillyVoice 2019]), influencers, a practitioner, family or faith community.
    2. Ask what happens in the group when someone doubts the practice, gets ill or sees a doctor.
    3. Ask about spending: books, courses, retreats, consultations, "supporting" products.
    4. Note escalation: from drinking to eye drops, enemas, "aged" urine or injection, which these communities describe [source: PhillyVoice 2019; Salon 1999].
  • Example language (illustrative): "What's the group like? What happens there when someone has doubts or decides to see a doctor?" / "Has it cost you anything — money, time, relationships?"
  • Watch for: shunning of doubters, "healing crisis" explanations for getting worse [uncertain: term not verified], pressure to stop medicines, secrecy, recruitment, mounting costs (section 4.6). Working: the client can describe the group's influence from a little distance.

4.4 Supporting informed, values-based decisions

  • Purpose / when: the client is deciding whether to start, continue, change or stop; or whether to use it instead of medical care.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask permission before giving information: "Would it help to hear what is known?"
    2. Give the evidence status once, plainly and attributed: health bodies state there is no scientific evidence that urine is a medical therapy [source: National Capital Poison Center; UPMC HealthBeat 2022].
    3. Name the risks as clinical sources state them, without exaggeration: urine is not sterile and can carry bacteria, including in people with urinary infection; it can infect eyes and open wounds; swallowing it commonly causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea; its salts and waste can worsen dehydration and strain the kidneys; urine eyewash has been linked by eye specialists to serious infection and vision loss [source: National Capital Poison Center; UPMC HealthBeat 2022; Science Feedback 2025; The South First 2025]. Medicines taken by the client are excreted in urine, so re-ingesting it could re-expose them to drugs and their breakdown products — a question for the pharmacist [synthesis].
    4. Help the client weigh options against their own values (e.g. naturalness vs. staying well enough to look after children) using a simple pros/cons and "what matters most" conversation; no published decision aid for urine therapy is cited here [uncertain: not verified].
    5. Separate two decisions: using it at all, and using it instead of medical care. The second carries the larger risk (section 4.11).
    6. Accept the outcome, document it, and keep the door open.
  • Example language (illustrative): "It's your decision. My part is to make sure you're deciding with the full picture, including the parts the group may not talk about." / "If you keep doing it, would you be willing to keep your doctor in the loop and stop if certain warning signs show up?"
  • Watch for: your own urge to persuade (reactance); the client agreeing to please you; decisions made under group or family pressure. Working: the client states the choice and the reasons in their own words and agrees safety signals.

4.5 Coordination with the doctor or pharmacist

  • Purpose / when: whenever the client has a medical condition, takes medicines, is pregnant, has kidney or heart disease, uses eye/ear/enema or injected routes, or is reducing medical care.
  • Steps:
    1. Explain why coordination helps (safety, medication questions) and ask consent; agree exactly what will be shared [source: APA Ethics Code 3.09, 3.10, 4.05].
    2. Encourage the client to tell the doctor themselves first; rehearse the conversation if they fear judgement.
    3. With consent, contact the GP/physician or pharmacist briefly: the practice (qualitatively), the client's goals, any red flags, and your role (psychological support, not medical advice).
    4. Never advise starting, stopping or changing any medicine; route all such questions to the prescriber or pharmacist.
    5. Record consent, what was shared and the response.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Would you be OK with me letting Dr X know you're using this, so they can check it doesn't affect your medicines? You can see what I write." / "That's a question for your pharmacist — shall we write it down so you can ask?"
  • Watch for: refusal of consent driven by fear of ridicule (work on that); the client hearing your contact as betrayal. Working: the client and doctor are talking directly.

4.6 Recognising and responding to risk

  • Purpose / when: at disclosure and at every review; immediately if any red flag appears.
  • Steps:
    1. Screen for medical red flags and route urgently to medical care: eye pain, redness or vision change after urine in the eyes; fever, wound redness or discharge; persistent vomiting or diarrhoea; signs of dehydration (thirst, confusion, little urine, lethargy), especially if combined with fasting — severe hypernatraemia and acute kidney injury have been reported after a person drank only their own urine for days [source: Kang et al. 2022; The South First 2025; National Capital Poison Center].
    2. Ask directly about stopping or delaying medical treatment, diagnosis or tests, and about medicines being reduced (section 4.11).
    3. Ask about pregnancy and about any children being given urine or deprived of care (section 4.7).
    4. Screen for restrictive eating or prolonged fasting framed as "cleansing" (section 4.8).
    5. Check money and group pressure (section 4.3).
    6. Check mental state: despair driving the choice, suicidal ideation in serious illness, psychotic or over-valued beliefs about contamination or purity — use your standard risk assessment.
    7. Respond proportionately: inform, urge medical review, coordinate (4.5), safeguard (4.7), report (4.12); document each step.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Has any of it gone near your eyes? Any pain, redness or blurred vision since? That needs an eye doctor today, whatever you decide about the rest." / "Have you been eating and drinking normally while doing this?"
  • Watch for: minimising ("it's just a cleanse"), symptoms reframed as detox, isolation from people who might intervene. Working: red flags are named early and the client gets medical review.

4.7 Children, consent and safeguarding

  • Purpose / when: a parent or carer gives urine to a child (to drink, on the skin, in eyes or ears), or uses it instead of medical care for a child.
  • Steps:
    1. Ask specifically and calmly whether children in the household are given it, and in what form (qualitatively).
    2. Ask whether the child's medical care, vaccinations or nutrition have changed because of the family's health beliefs.
    3. Give clear information: urine carries bacteria and can infect eyes and wounds; children are a priority for poison-centre advice if they swallow urine [source: National Capital Poison Center].
    4. A child cannot give valid consent to an unproven practice that carries infection risk; assent is not consent [synthesis].
    5. If a child is being harmed or deprived of necessary medical care, follow your jurisdiction's child-protection procedure; consult your safeguarding lead; disclosure without consent is permitted or required where law provides [source: APA Ethics Code 4.05].
    6. Document facts, not judgements. Never name the child in case discussion outside the record.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Is this something the children do as well? … I'm asking because their eyes and skin are more vulnerable to infection, and I have to think about their safety too." / "I need to be honest with you: if a child isn't getting the medical care they need, I have a duty to talk to child protection. I'd rather do that with you than behind your back."
  • Watch for: a child with untreated eye or skin infection, missed appointments, the child being told to keep it secret. Working: the child is seen medically and the parent stays engaged.

4.8 Eating-disorder and fasting screen

  • Purpose / when: the client combines urine therapy with fasting, "cleansing" or "detox", or links it to weight loss (some users credit it with maintaining weight loss [source: PhillyVoice 2019]).
  • Steps:
    1. Ask non-judgementally about eating, fasting and fluid restriction, and about weight and shape concerns.
    2. Look for restrictive patterns, compensatory behaviours, rigid "purity" rules about food and fluids (orthorexic patterns), and loss of control.
    3. Use a validated eating-disorder screen your service already uses [synthesis; no specific instrument opened].
    4. If fasting or fluid restriction is under way, route to urgent medical review: electrolyte disturbance and dehydration are documented risks and must be monitored medically [source: Kang et al. 2022; UPMC HealthBeat 2022].
    5. If an eating disorder is likely, refer to specialist assessment; do not negotiate the fast's details.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Some people use urine therapy alongside fasting. Is that part of it for you? How much are you eating and drinking at the moment?" / "I notice a lot of rules about what's clean and what isn't. How much do those rules run your day?"
  • Watch for: dizziness, fainting, confusion, rapid weight change; secrecy about intake. Working: the client accepts medical monitoring and the eating pattern itself becomes a therapy focus.

4.9 Health anxiety and somatic presentations

  • Purpose / when: urine therapy is one of many attempts to control feared illness, "toxins" or persistent bodily symptoms. Cross-reference Domain II (health anxiety, somatic symptom presentations, idiopathic environmental intolerance).
  • Steps:
    1. Map the cycle: trigger (symptom, article, video) → threat appraisal ("I'm toxic", "I'm getting sick") → safety behaviour (cleansing, urine therapy, checking, searching) → short-term relief → long-term maintenance.
    2. Treat urine therapy as one safety behaviour among others; do not single it out for attack.
    3. Apply the Domain II approach (CBT for health anxiety, or the somatic-symptom approach in use): psychoeducation on the cycle, reducing checking and reassurance-seeking, behavioural experiments, attention training, and values work [source: Domain II guides; synthesis].
    4. Reduce exposure to online material that fuels the cycle (feed curation, time limits) as a behavioural experiment.
  • Example language (illustrative): "When you get that worry about toxins, what do you do next — and what happens to the worry an hour later, and a week later?"
  • Watch for: substitution of one cleanse for another; increased fear when a practice is dropped (expected; work through it). Working: less time spent on health behaviours, more on valued activities.

4.10 Working with shame, disgust and the therapist's own reactions

  • Purpose / when: throughout; urine therapy readily provokes disgust and ridicule (a Columbia professor publicly called the underlying idea "extraordinarily arrogant" [source: Salon 1999]), which can rupture trust.
  • Steps:
    1. Before sessions, notice your own reaction; take it to supervision if strong.
    2. If the client anticipates ridicule, name it and show you will not mock.
    3. If the client feels ashamed after stopping ("How could I have believed that?"), normalise: respected public figures and doctors have promoted it [source: TIME 1977; Salon 1999].
  • Example language (illustrative): "You looked at me carefully just then. Were you expecting me to laugh? I'm not going to."
  • Watch for: your sarcasm, over-correction or avoidance of the topic. Working: the client talks about it as plainly as any other health practice.

4.11 Psycho-oncology and serious illness: when it is used instead of treatment

  • Purpose / when: a client with cancer or another serious illness uses or considers urine therapy (or camel urine) in place of recommended medical treatment. Proponents have claimed it treats cancer [source: TIME 1977; PhillyVoice 2019; UPMC HealthBeat 2022]; no method in this guide treats cancer or any other physical disease.
  • Steps:
    1. Respectful conversation first (4.1–4.2); explore fear of treatment, past experiences, hopelessness and spiritual meaning.
    2. Share, if invited, that complementary-medicine use in a large US cancer database was associated with refusing conventional treatment and with a greater risk of death, and that the gap may narrow when people also complete recommended treatment [source: JAMA Oncology 2018 via ecancer]. The decision to keep standard treatment and add things alongside is different from replacing it.
    3. With consent, involve the oncology team; ask whether they can discuss the client's fears directly; consider a palliative-care referral for symptom and decision support, which is not "giving up" [synthesis].
    4. Support family members in conflict about the choice; keep the client's autonomy central.
    5. If the client later regrets the choice, provide grief and regret work without blame.
  • Example language (illustrative): "Can we talk about what feels so frightening about the treatment your oncologist suggested?" / "Some people use things like this alongside treatment and some instead of it. Those are very different decisions, and I'd like to help you think the second one through carefully."
  • Watch for: missed oncology appointments, disease progression reinterpreted as "cleansing", family splitting. Working: the client re-engages with the medical team, even partially.

4.12 Reporting routes and professional boundaries

  • Purpose / when: misleading disease claims, sale of urine products or paid courses, unlicensed invasive procedures, harm to children or adults at risk, or a clinician promoting the practice.
  • Steps:
    1. Safeguarding: child or adult protection services through your local procedure (4.7).
    2. Products sold with medical claims: the national medicines regulator (e.g. FDA in the US, MHRA in the UK, TGA in Australia, Health Canada) [synthesis; regulators' positions on urine therapy not verified].
    3. Misleading advertising: advertising and consumer regulators (e.g. FTC in the US, ASA and Trading Standards in the UK) [synthesis].
    4. A licensed clinician offering urine injections or urging patients to stop treatment: that clinician's licensing board or professional regulator [synthesis].
    5. Social-media content: platform reporting for harmful health misinformation [synthesis].
    6. Your own practice: do not sell, recommend or refer for gain; manage any personal interest in alternative health via supervision [source: APA Ethics Code 3.06].
  • Example language (illustrative): "The person selling you this course is making claims that a regulator may want to know about. Would you be willing for me to help you make a report?"
  • Watch for: reporting that the client experiences as betrayal (involve them where safe); confidentiality limits — explain them first [source: APA Ethics Code 4.05]. Working: concerns reach the body able to act.

5. Handling problems

The sources describe the practice and its risks but give no guidance for psychotherapists; everything in this section is [synthesis] unless tagged.

  • Client is stuck: will not discuss anything but the practice's benefits. Stop giving information; return to values and hopes (4.2). Ask what would make them reconsider, and what would make them more confident. Keep one safety agreement (stop and see a doctor if eye, fever or dehydration signs appear).
  • "Resistance" / reactance to risk information. You have probably pushed. Apologise for lecturing, re-establish autonomy ("it's your call"), ask permission before any further information. Use the client's own concerns, not yours, as the reason to discuss risk.
  • Overwhelm after learning risks or after a scare (e.g. an eye infection). Contain first: grounding, practical next step (medical review), then shame and self-blame work (4.10). Do not use the scare to win the argument.
  • Non-adherence to medical care. Explore the specific barrier (fear, cost, side effects, distrust, group rules); problem-solve with the client and, with consent, the doctor (4.5). Reduce the decision to the next step (one appointment, one test).
  • Rupture: client feels judged or that you sided with the doctor. Name it, take responsibility for your part, clarify your role ("I'm not here to police your health choices; I'm here for you"), and repair before returning to content.
  • Client asks you to endorse it or asks "Do you think it works?" Answer honestly and briefly: health bodies find no evidence that it works as medicine [source: National Capital Poison Center], you will not recommend it, and you remain interested in what it means to them.
  • Client asks how to do it "safely" (amounts, how to store, eye use). Decline: you do not advise on administration. Route all medical questions to the doctor or pharmacist; note that eye use has been linked to serious infection [source: The South First 2025].
  • Group pressure or a high-control community. Explore costs of leaving and staying; strengthen outside relationships; watch for isolation and financial exploitation; consider a referral to someone experienced with high-control groups.
  • Family conflict (partner or adult children horrified). Offer a joint session focused on safety and respect, not on proving who is right; help family members avoid ridicule, which entrenches use.
  • Escalation to invasive routes (enemas, douches, injections, "aged" urine). Treat as a red flag: higher infection risk; urge medical review; check who is administering it and whether reporting applies (4.12).
  • Serious illness and treatment refusal. See 4.11; involve the medical and palliative teams with consent; work on fear and meaning; accept and support autonomous choices while keeping contact.
  • Your own disgust or ridicule. Supervision; monitor sarcasm and avoidance (4.10).
  • Cultural or religious framing (e.g. scriptural or traditional sources, camel-urine use). Be respectful and curious about the tradition; distinguish the person's faith from a specific health claim; consider consulting a cultural or faith adviser the client trusts.

Harm account

What was actually done

  • 1918–1944 onwards, Britain: Armstrong reportedly prescribed urine regimens to many patients from 1918, including prolonged fasting on urine and water and rubbing urine into the skin [uncertain: secondary, unverified]; his 1944 book claims nearly all disease can be cured this way and remains on sale [source: Penguin].
  • 1977, India: Prime Minister Morarji Desai publicly described drinking his own urine daily and massaging it into the body for aches, and was reported to claim at a Tuberculosis Association meeting that it cures cancer and cataracts and had cured his brother's tuberculosis; India's Health Minister announced a committee to investigate [source: Spectator 1977; TIME 1977].
  • 1996 and 1999, Goa and Gersfeld: World Conferences on Urine Therapy, with many doctors attending, presented drinking, skin application, bathing, gargling, nasal and mouth use, enemas, douches, eye and ear drops and intramuscular injection of urine, with debate over using fresh or days-old urine; claimed uses included cancer and AIDS; practitioners advised against it for people on prescription drugs; a presenter described an abscess after injection in a dog [source: Salon 1999].
  • 2011–2019, social media: Facebook groups (one with nearly 7,000 members) and Instagram posts promoted drinking, bathing, eye drops, enemas, douches, gargling and "aged" urine, claiming cures for baldness, impotence, diabetes and cancer, and one group framed it as an alternative to unaffordable conventional treatment [source: PhillyVoice 2019].
  • 2020–2022: claims that urine therapy could cure COVID-19 circulated [source: UPMC HealthBeat 2022].
  • 2025, TikTok and short video: creators, including a chiropractor and self-described wellness coaches, promoted drinking urine with claims about stem cells, pH regulation, skin benefits and urine "rectifying" disease [source: Science Feedback 2025]; a viral video in India by a self-described "medicine-free life coach" promoted urine as an eyewash [source: The South First 2025].
  • Related variant: camel urine is sold or used as a remedy, including by cancer patients in Saudi Arabia [source: Abuelgasim et al. 2018].

How it caused harm

  • Infection: urine is not sterile; it can carry bacteria (including E. coli, staphylococci, salmonella and antibiotic-resistant strains), more so with urinary infection, and can infect open wounds and eyes [source: National Capital Poison Center; UPMC HealthBeat 2022; Science Feedback 2025]. Eye specialists reported worsening infections and patients who lost vision or an eye after urine eyewash [source: The South First 2025].
  • Gastrointestinal upset: swallowing urine commonly causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea [source: National Capital Poison Center].
  • Electrolyte disturbance, dehydration and kidney strain: urine's salts and urea add to the body's load; in a published case a man with a serious heart condition who drank only his own urine for several days while stranded developed severe hypernatraemia and acute kidney injury, attributed to dehydration plus urea-driven osmotic loss of water, and recovered with careful hospital treatment [source: Kang et al. 2022]. This was a survival situation, not a therapy, but the mechanism applies to anyone combining urine drinking with fasting or fluid restriction [synthesis]. Health bodies warn of electrolyte disturbance and kidney damage [source: UPMC HealthBeat 2022].
  • Re-ingestion of drugs and their metabolites: practitioners themselves cautioned people on prescription drugs [source: Salon 1999]; the pharmacological significance for a given medicine is a question for a pharmacist [synthesis].
  • Delayed or abandoned treatment: proponents have claimed it cures cancer, tuberculosis and COVID-19 [source: TIME 1977; UPMC HealthBeat 2022]; complementary-medicine use in a large US cancer database was associated with refusing conventional treatment and higher risk of death [source: JAMA Oncology 2018 via ecancer], though that study is not specific to urine therapy.
  • Psychological and social harms: shame and secrecy reduce disclosure to doctors [source: Abuelgasim et al. 2018 (disclosure rates)]; isolation and pressure within online groups, money spent on books and courses, and regret after avoidable illness [synthesis].
  • Most at risk [synthesis, informed by the sources above]: people with urinary infections, kidney or heart disease, people who are dehydrated or fasting, those using eye, ear, enema or injected routes, people with cancer or other serious illness weighing alternatives, people with eating disorders, pregnant people, and children.

Recognising it today

  • Names and phrases: urine therapy, urotherapy, urinotherapy, auto-urine therapy, shivambu, "the water of life", "golden fountain", "drink from your own cistern", "self-vaccination", "stem cells in urine", "balances your pH", "natural urea for skin", "aged urine" [source: Penguin; IPG; Spectator 1977; Salon 1999; Science Feedback 2025; PhillyVoice 2019].
  • Claims to watch for: cures for cancer, diabetes, tuberculosis, COVID-19, eye disease; "better than drugs"; "free medicine"; presentation as an alternative to unaffordable or distrusted healthcare [source: TIME 1977; PhillyVoice 2019; UPMC HealthBeat 2022].
  • Rebrandings: wellness-influencer videos framed as "healing secrets", "medicine-free" coaching, skincare claims built on urea, regenerative-medicine language borrowed from genuine research on urine-derived stem cells (which would not survive digestion, according to a researcher quoted by Science Feedback) [source: Science Feedback 2025; The South First 2025].
  • Red flags in a colleague's or group's practice: recommending urine therapy to clients; selling courses or products; advising eye, wound, enema or injected use; telling clients to stop medicines or avoid doctors; shunning members who seek medical care; disease-cure testimonials.
  • How legitimate practice differs: urine testing is ordinary diagnostics; some drugs historically derived from urine are purified, regulated medicines, not raw urine [synthesis]. A therapist's role is inquiry and support, never promotion.

What to do instead and how to help those harmed

  • Instead: evidence-based medical care for the underlying condition, coordinated with the client's doctor; for psychological drivers, the Domain II approaches for health anxiety and somatic presentations; for meaning and control in illness, psychological support within or alongside integrative oncology as its societies describe it (see 172), never instead of treatment [synthesis].
  • Assessment of a harmed client: medical status first (infection, eye, kidney, electrolyte or treatment-delay consequences — refer); then shame, regret, grief, anger at promoters, damaged trust in self and in medicine, group loss, financial loss.
  • Treatment: non-blaming validation; grief and regret work; cognitive work on self-blame; rebuilding trust with the medical team; for those leaving a high-control group, support for identity and relationships; family sessions where conflict persists.
  • Ethical, reporting and legal duties: avoid harm and act on foreseeable risk [source: APA Ethics Code 3.04]; coordinate with other professionals with consent [3.09, 4.05]; never hold a financial or personal interest in the practice [3.06]; safeguard children and adults at risk via local procedures; report misleading claims, products and unlicensed procedures to the medicines, advertising and consumer regulators and professional boards (4.12) [synthesis].

Sources

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