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Stranded + Thirsty = Urine: You CAN drink it but SHOULD you drink it?

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
GOLD Site Supporter
Well I watched Bear Grylls drink his pee on TV one day.

And I've heard advice over the years that says you can drink pee in an emergency.

But this appears to have some level of science behind the advice NOT to sip on the yellow fluid.

http://www.backpacker.com/survival/...ter/survival-mom-is-drinking-urine-dangerous/

Dear Survival Mom, I’m hiking in 90°F weather, halfway through a three-day, waterless trip. I accidentally spill the rest of my water. But my bladder’s full. Is there any way to make my urine drinkable? Filtering? Boiling? Or is it always going to be undrinkable? –Angela Schmidt via Facebook
➔What exactly do you mean by “undrinkable”? Kids in the UK have been known to sip their pee after watching Bear Grylls do the same on TV, with no lasting ill effects beyond their parents being very, very disturbed. But that only works if you’re well-hydrated, and that’s not what you’re talking about here.

Despite what you saw on TV, pee is even more full of salts and minerals than seawater, and drinking it will suck the life out of you faster than a bayou full of leeches. And a regular backpacking filter will do you no good. Your only hope is to evaporate the water out of the urine, then collect it. Pee in a large container, apply heat, catch and condense the vapor, and funnel that clean water into a second container.

Now, you’ve got two options. If you have a stove or a campfire, tinkle in your cookpot, put a cup inside (on a flat rock), cover the whole thing with your lid inverted so the handle points into the cup, and boil away. Or build a solar still: Dig a hole about a foot deep, then add urine and any greenery you can find. Stand a cup in the center. Spread plastic over the opening, pull taut, seal the edges using rocks and dirt. Use a stone to weight the sheet over the cup so the water drips into it. The stove is faster; the still might help you get extra water out of the soil. Both will only get you a small fraction of what you put in. Either way, the water will still taste like pee. So there’s some justice in the world after all.​



Dear Survival Mom, When you’ve run out of water is it better to hold your pee or let it flow? –Kyle Lintern via Facebook
➔Sitting around thirsty and needing to pee seems double dumb to me, but I asked Dr. Paul S. Auerbach, a wilderness medicine expert for his say on the matter. “Water that sits in the bladder has already been discarded by the body and will not be reabsorbed,” he says.

See that? Always listen to your mother. -​
 

EastTexFrank

Well-known member
GOLD Site Supporter
Well, this is a nice topic for a Sunday night. :yum:

I'm going to throw in my 2¢. I'm in the don't drink it camp because that is what I was taught. If you drink it, you're making it more concentrated with every pass through. That makes it even tougher for your body to process and eventually it'll shut down with possible damage to your kidneys. Similarly, if you gotta go, just go. There's nothing to be gained by trying to hang on to it.

I actually built a solar still once in New Mexico during the summer. Myself and a couple of rig hands were bored and decided to try it to see if it would work. We dug a big hole, placed a large wash basin in the hole, filled it with some fresh water, placed a cook pot in the basin weighed down with pieces of metal, covered it with clear plastic and sealed the edges with dirt dug from the hole. We placed a rock on the plastic directly over the pot. We left it for the rest of that afternoon and at sundown there was some condensation on the plastic. We left it all of next day in temperatures of 100 degrees. That evening there was quite a bit of condensation on the plastic which we tried to "bump" down to center and hopefully fall into the pot. We got tired of that and ripped it apart to see how much water we had. Hardly a mouthful after a full day. Not nearly enough to help you survive in those temperatures. It's one of those really interesting theories that doesn't work very well in practice. It really wasn't worth the effort.
 

Catavenger

New member
SUPER Site Supporter
How about instead of carrying all that heavy extra crap like plastic, cups & pots to make a "solar still" you just carry more water instead?
 

MrLiberty

Bronze Member
Site Supporter
It seems to me that if you are on a walking trip and water is unavailable except for what you are carrying, and it is hot outside, I would say you are drinking to much water if your bladder is full. Having worked outside in blazing hot conditions, (roofing, mid summer,) and drinking water to keep hydrated I don't ever remember having to pee. Your body will sweat out the water first before it will go to the bladder.

I'm neither a doctor, or scientist, just commenting from experience.
 

Galvatron

Spock and Galvatron < one and the same
I would suggest carrying a lemon just in case,a twist of lemon would add a level of enjoyment to the pee pee.
 
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