Last week, British hiker Paul Beck was stranded in the Spanish mountains for six days - and survived by drinking his own urine.
As the 33-year-old waited for rescuers to find him, he resorted to urinating into a cup and drinking a few drops a day.
Last year, yachtsmen Mark Smith and Steven Freeman spent 11 days stranded in the South China Sea after their boat capsized. They put their survival down to urine.
But apart from possibly helping to keep you alive in extreme circumstances, is drinking urine really good for your health?
Auto-urine therapy, or urotherapy, dates back to several ancient cultures and even, arguably, the Bible.
Egyptian medical texts and Chinese and Indian documents mention the benefits of drinking one's urine, while the Aztecs used it to disinfect wounds.
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Contrary to popular perception, urine is not a by-product of the body's waste disposal system but of blood filtration.
Nutrient-filled blood passes through the liver, where toxins are removed and excreted as solid waste. The purified blood then goes through another filtering process via the kidneys, where components for which the body has no immediate use are collected in a sterile, watery solution.
For that reason, urine is highly sterile. It consists of 95 percent water and five percent nutrients, including vitamins, minerals, proteins, antibodies and other beneficial ingredients.
Advocates of auto-urine therapy believe this combination can help cure everything from the common cold to cancer, boost energy levels and sexual performance.
While the practice has always been popular in China, India and south-east Asia, a small but growing band of Western fans are also downing a daily dose.
One of the prime movers in the movement, Martha Christy (author of Your Own Perfect Medicine) says the first toilet visit of the day is the most beneficial.
She recommends a regime beginning with five drops of "fresh morning urine" under the tongue before gradually increasing the dosage to as much as a cupful, morning and night. Urine can also be used as eye and ear drops, for gargling or in the bath.
Christy says doctors have deliberately not highlighted the benefits of auto-urine therapy because there are no profits in it for them.
But there is little firm proof for the claims made about the therapy, and medical experts have remained unconvinced.
Dr Michael Stroud, an expert in nutrition at England's Southampton University - and a member of explorer Sir Ranulph Fiennes's record-breaking expeditions - says people who believe their urine can cure them of Aids and improve their complexions are "daft as brushes".
Sceptics have even poured cold water on the theory it can save lives on the high seas or frozen mountain tops.
They say the concentration of nutrients will take more water to get rid of than is present in urine - it will dehydrate you rather than keeping you hydrated.
"There are no health benefits to drinking your own urine, and in fact, I think it could be quite detrimental," said Helen Andrews of the British Dietetic Association.
"Each time you put it back it will come out again, even more concentrated, and that is not good for health.
"If you are stranded, your body will try to conserve as much water as it can. Drinking your urine would be like drinking sea-water."
Perhaps the last word should be left to that embracer of all things alternative, Jennifer Saunders's character Eddy in the sitcom Absolutely Fabulous: "It's urine therapy, darling, it's not to be sniffed at." - Foreign Service
- This article was originally published on page 18 of Cape Argus on March 30, 2006
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