91-Year-Old Man’s Secret To Longevity? Drinking His Own Pee

We often write about life-hacks to long, happy lives based on the advice of an older and wizened few here, but Mark Ambrose might be the first to ever advocate urophagia. That’s drinking pee, to the layman.

Ambrose is 91-years-old, “lives in sin” with his 87-year-old partner Joyce in the south of Spain, and drinks a pint of his own urine every single day. He insists that drinking his own pee is the secret to his youthful appearance and high activity.

“As far I’m concerned, I am convinced that urine therapy, which I started practicing over three years ago, is mainly responsible for my younger appearance,” he said.

Ambrose stumbled upon the practice while searching the Internet for a home remedy for his back pain. “With nothing to lose, I thought I’d try the therapy to help to obtain a better quality of life for my remaining years.”

He even puts the stuff on his wounds, claiming it to be “very effective healing problems on the face, arms and legs and even eyelids and ears, by massaging the affected areas with urine which can be fresh or a day or two old.”

So, does it actually work? You might not be convinced, but Ambrose sure is.

“I still find it very difficult and painful to walk upright and I have to take a couple of painkillers a day to keep active,” he said. “However, I firmly believe that the urine therapy helps to reduce the spinal column nerve pains to an acceptable level – and it doesn’t cost a bean!”

Joyce, by the way, does not share Ambrose’s enthusiasm. He said she “finds it impossible to overcome her feelings of repugnance at the very thought of drinking her own urine. She has resisted all my attempts to persuade her to try the urine therapy.”

Ambrose admits that it doesn’t taste great (though not bad, either) and said that he rinses his mouth out with water or eats a couple of grapes to cleanse his palate.

So, are there any actual health benefits to drinking urine? Dr. Rob Hicks told the Daily Mail that despite historical evidence of the practice being used in a medicinal capacity, there’s just no science to back it up.

“Over the years many people have claimed health benefits from drinking their own urine, but as far as I’m aware there is no scientific evidence to back-up these claims. The kidneys are an efficient filtering system getting rid of what the body doesn’t need, so to put this back into the body seems counter-productive.

“Personally, I believe there are better – and more palatable – ways to keep the body healthy including not smoking, eating a healthy diet, and keeping stress under control.”

Would you ever drink your own urine?

[Image: Shutterstock]