Why You Should Think Twice Before Drinking Urine If You Can't Find Water In The Wild

Imagine the following scenario playing out in your mind: you find yourself wandering in the woods on a hike and you've had the last of your water. You're beginning to feel incredibly thirsty and you're worried about finishing the hike. When you're unable to find enough water to use the simple trick for purifying water in the wild, you might feel like you're at the end of your rope. If you become truly desperate, is it ever a good idea to drink urine to rehydrate? Although you might have heard about people using this tip to survive in the wilderness, drinking your own urine is actually very dangerous. You can do a lot of damage to your body and overall health. It might be better to stay thirsty or become dehydrated than to ever drink your own urine.

No matter how desperate you are, avoid drinking urine if you are unable to find clean, running water or streams. Urine will not actually quench your thirst. Chances are you will end up more thirsty afterwards due to the high sodium content in urine. It can lead to you becoming critically dehydrated much faster than under normal conditions, especially if you are also sweating. You don't want to find out what happens to your body when you get severely dehydrated if you're in the wild without access to immediate medical care.

Although made up of 95% water, urine also contains electrolytes, nitrogen compounds (like urea), creatinine, and even bacteria. Your kidneys produce urine in a process that filters waste from your body to keep it running smoothly. By putting it back into your body, you end up forcing your kidneys and other organs to exert themselves more to clean it out again. You are not simply returning water to your body, but the bad things your body no longer needs. Urine can also upset your gut health in the short-term, leading to vomiting or diarrhea, which will also worsen dehydration and your overall health.

Before you make this type of choice in a moment of desperation, consider the potential long-term impacts. You could be doing irreparable damage to your kidneys by drinking urine. There's also the risk of infection from antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as E. coli, salmonella, and bacillus. If you have a urinary tract infection, it might be even more likely that your urine will contain a serious bacteria. You could end up in the hospital very easily from drinking urine, especially if you were already dehydrated to begin with after your outdoor adventure. So, next time you head out in the wild, avoid making this massive hiking mistake at all costs and take enough water to last.