Golden powers?
Troy Casey has received a steady stream of press for his unorthodox wellness regimen, which includes the daily practice of drinking his own pee.
A former model and the author of “Rippedat50: A Journey to Self Love,” Casey has been drinking his urine for years — and he regards it as something of a diagnostic tool.
“I think it teaches your insides a little bit more about yourself,” he told The Post. “Urine has stem cells, amino acids and antibodies. It’s the hair of the dog, a direct biofeedback loop. You know what’s wrong with you as soon as you drink your morning pee.”
Casey was introduced to urine therapy by a breathwork coach who, after an unsuccessful round of chemo, claims to have healed himself of testicular cancer through urine looping. Akin to fasting, urine looping is the practice of drinking only your own urine and supplemental water for a designated period.
Not so much teetotal as pee total.
Casey — who goes by The Certified Health Nut and previously made headlines for sunning his anus — was up for the challenge. Two decades later, he is a urine convert, spreading the good word about the worth of waste.
Urine therapy: Is it actually good for you?
While Casey is sold on what he says are major health benefits, medical experts consulted by The Post are less convinced by this whizz kid health hack.
Dr. Michael Aziz, board-certified Internal Medicine physician and author of the “Ageless Revolution,” warned that drinking urine can be hazardous because it’s both dehydrating and contaminating.
“The morning pee has the most stem cells, and if you ferment it for up to three weeks, it has hundreds of millions of stem cells.”
Troy Casey
“Urine is mostly water and salt, which dehydrates you. Your kidneys are trying to get rid of the toxins, and if you drink urine, you’re putting the toxins back into the body,” he told The Post.
“When people have a UTI, most of the infection in the urine is E. coli. People can get seriously sick from drinking urine.”
For those on medications, drinking urine amounts to re-introducing discarded metabolites back into the body. Meanwhile, above-average levels of urea can be toxic.
“You’re drinking the urea, and that’s going to cause problems; introducing it to the GI tract can cause poisoning,” he said.
“Number one” tip
Casey opts to drink what he calls the “middle pee,” emptying the first splash of his AM stream into the toilet, portioning some in a cup or mason jar, and siphoning the last drops back into the bowl.
“The morning pee has the most stem cells, and if you ferment it for up to three weeks, it has hundreds of millions of stem cells,” he said.
Despite the risks and repugnance of drinking pee, Dr. Aziz admitted it is not entirely void of benefits.
“Morning urine has melatonin in it, and drinking it could restore and regulate melatonin levels,” he said.
The doc noted that the hormone melatonin is a crucial antioxidant, and regulating melatonin can improve mood and sleep. However, due to the risk of toxicity and contamination, he strongly recommends that patients not drink their urine.
Potty mouth cure?
Casey was drawn to the fountain of funk after a lifelong struggle with severe gut dysbiosis, an imbalance of the bacteria in the microbiome.
But Courtney Smith, a registered dietitian, diabetes specialist and founder of the Keys to Nutrition, stresses that this is not the way to treat it.
“Drinking your urine is not a solution for this,” she told The Post. “If you are struggling with stomach issues, I recommend a medical workup with a gastroenterologist. Secondly, you may want to increase your consumption of prebiotics and probiotics to improve your gut microbiome.”
Ancient elixir
While Casey’s methods may seem extreme — or at least extremely unappetizing to most — they are in no way new or novel.
In the Old Testament, the Book of Proverbs (5:15) commands, “…drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well,” suggesting our forebears were indeed pee drinkers.
Dr. Jonathan Jennings, a board-certified internist with Medical Offices of Manhattan, notes that “diabetes mellitus” translates into “passing through sweet” because ancient physicians diagnosed the condition by sampling a person’s urine to determine if it tasted like honey.
Taking it back even further, 5,000-year-old sacred Hindu texts espouse the practice of Shivambu, or drinking urine for rejuvenation.
Implemented in Ayurvedic healing, Shivambu is named for the Hindu deity Shiva, the creative, protective force of the universe.
“I don’t have any shame … [I’m] reporting on my own scientific laboratory, which is my human body.”
Troy Casey
“Shiva is the one who swallows the poison; that’s why he’s blue,” author and Ayurvedic practitioner Kate O’Donnell told The Post.
“There’s a poisonous nature to your urine; your body’s getting rid of things that it doesn’t want, but the idea is that by drinking it you could create antibodies. If one can get over the weirdness of it, there are therapeutic benefits.”
Out one end and in the other
Well-versed in weirdness, Casey also ages his urine for use in enemas with the belief that the mucous membranes in the anus will activate and absorb the stem cells present in the urine.
“You can seal it in a mason jar or put a washcloth over it with a rubber band, and it will aerate,” he explained. Casey credits these enemas for flushing out his gut and helping him carve out his six-pack.
Muscle definition aside, Dr. Aziz said that urine has a minimal amount of stem cells and can help with tissue repair, but he is unaware of any studies to back up using it in enemas.
“There is no scientific evidence or research to support its effectiveness,” he said. “There are other proven ways to increase those cells, including eating a healthy diet, eating dark chocolate and drinking black tea.”
Better tea than pee, so to speak.
Dr. Aziz explained that stem cell loss is a hallmark of the aging process: “You don’t want to deplete your stem cells, but trying to get them from a urine enema amounts to being a guinea pig.”
Apropos of the guinea pig analogy, Casey conceives of his body as an ever-evolving experiment.
“My research is direct experience. I don’t have any shame,” he said. Part of my work is to obliterate shame and guilt for being a human being. I’m an investigative journalist reporting on my own scientific laboratory, which is my human body. If it resonates with me intuitively, then I will try it.”
“When it’s in the jug, it smells like ammonia, but once it goes on your body and the sun hits it, it’s like my own perfume, like a musk.”
Troy Casey
S-PEE-F and other uses
That direct experience also includes using urine topically, as an eye rinse, and in his Neti pot as part of his detoxification protocol.
“Just sticking it on your skin is really powerful. It’s good for breathing. It gets rid of aches and pains. It energizes me, and it lifts my mood,” he said
Casey, who lives in Scottsdale, Arizona, prefers to apply urine to his skin before sunbathing.
“I really like sitting in the sunlight with it. I put it on my body and go out on my electric bike. Topical is a different animal, and energy-wise, it’s got that stem cell-rich juju in it,” he said.
Casey says the topical application creates photobiomodulation, and he maintains the reward is well worth the initial whiff of rank.
“When it’s in the jug, it smells like ammonia, but once it goes on your body and the sun hits it, it’s like my own perfume, like a musk. It smells funky, but that’s a medicine as well. You know it means business.”
And that stank business is indeed and in part, supported by science.
While urine certainly can’t do the job of sunscreen to prevent skin cancer and aging, Dr. Aziz and Dr. Jennings both note that the urea found in it has been proven effective in softening nails and skin and is commonly added to cosmetic products to promote soothing relief for chronic conditions like psoriasis and eczema.
“Urea has anti-fungal and antimicrobial properties and works for seborrheic keratosis and eczema,” said Dr. Aziz, who added that topical application “will probably work, but I’d rather use a cream. I don’t want to smell like urine.”
Fair enough.
O’Donnell, the Ayurvedic practitioner, notes that in the Ayurvedic tradition, exploring aversion is the key to physical and mental resilience.
“Much of it is learning to transmute your instinctual reactions to things. Aversions and cravings are essentially the same,” she said.
“It’s about being aware rather than just running away from or grabbing at things. Something like urine that we’re like, ‘Ew, gross,’ to take a small amount and get over the aversion, would then train you to deal with aversions in your life in other ways.”
Casey believes Big Pharma intentionally suppresses natural healing methods like those found in the Ayurvedic tradition in an attempt to prevent people from healing themselves through themselves.
Returning to headwaters of intuitive health, Casey encourages the urine curious to consider a sip or splash of their own stank: “Whether you bathe in it, whether you drink it, whether you age it, it just has so much power in it.”
“It’s pretty out there for most people, and therefore, psychologically, it’s not right for all people. Apply it if it resonates with you; don’t apply it if it doesn’t,” she added.
