URINE THERAPY BECOMING POPULAR AGAIN IN THAILAND!
http://www.salvationscience.com
Thais drink urine as alternative medicine
By Jill McGivering, BBC, Bangkok, July 21, 2003
At a busy and expensive alternative health centre in Bangkok, one
patient told of a remarkable cure.
In January she had an operation for colon cancer - but refused the
recommended chemotherapy.
Now she says she has eliminated her cancer through diet, prayer -
and daily urine therapy.
"I started drinking my own urine after hearing from a monk that if
you have any kind of disease, urine drinking will help," she said.
Her doctor, Dr Banchob, started recommending urine therapy a few
months ago, instructing patients to collect their own urine in the
morning and drink it untreated, starting with small amounts and
progressing to a glassful a day.
He now says he has seen some remarkable cures - from cancer to back
pain.
It is a controversial claim and when Dr Banchob recently started
organising public seminars on the topic, it caused strong media
interest.
"In the ancient times or early days in the rural area, I think Thai
people practising this. But very personal. They don't open up their
secret to anybody. But after we discuss in the public, there's a
reaction from the public, pro and con," Dr Banchob said.
'Not recommended'
But in a modern private hospital in the capital Bangkok - where
conventional Western medicine and commercialism are practised -
kidney specialist Dr Siribha will not be advising her patients to
drink their own urine.
"If somebody asked my opinion, I will warn them not to do that," she
said.
Urine is the body's way of getting rid of things it doesn't want,
she says, and can contain harmful toxins.
"If something is too much and not useful in our body, then the body
will excrete in the urine or in the faeces or in a stool. The body
didn't want it any more. So I don't think it's a good idea to re-eat
or to re-drink the thing our body don't need it any more," she said.
If I had some sort of incurable disease, I suppose I might try it.
Supporters of urine drinking say it has been practised in Thailand
for hundreds of years.
But officials at the government's Department of Thai Traditional and
Alternative Medicine say there is no record of the practice.
Deputy Director Dr Pennapa Subcharoen says she has tried to organise
research in the past, but can never find enough volunteers willing
to take part.
In the meantime, the department does not recommend it.
"Urine treatment is Chinese traditional medicine, and popular in
Japan and some traditional believe in India. I'm not sure it's
beneficial for the Thai people or not by such method, because
there's no paper or no clinical trials about this," she said.
Thailand's general public may still need some convincing. When we
went out to talk to shoppers one Saturday, many said that they had
heard about urine therapy, but not many were enthusiastic about
trying it themselves.
"I've read about it, but I'm not convinced. If I was ill, I'd rather
go to the doctor," one man said.
"I've heard about it on television but I only half believe in it. If
I had some sort of incurable disease, I suppose I might try it," a
woman said.
Many in Thailand's urban middle class are rediscovering traditional
and alternative medicine - but urine therapy, it seems, is still to
catch on.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/3083577.stm
Published: 2003/07/21 12:06:08 GMT
© BBC MMVIII
http://www.salvationscience.com