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One woman thinks drinking her own urine can help cure her cancer.
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Age-old cure?
Do you think drinking urine could help cure diseases?
And you thought “Fear Factor” was bad.
A woman who appeared on TLC'S “My Strange Addiction” is turning stomachs with her strange addiction — drinking her own urine in what she believes is a foolproof way to battle her cancer.
The 53-year-old, identified as Carrie, says in a preview to the show that for the past four years, she has also washed her eyes with it, poured it in her nose using a neti pot and brushes her teeth in urine.
"It tastes like water to me," she told her friend.
While the show has received attention each week highlighting strange and stomach-turning addictions, Carrie's pee problem seems to have made some viewers question the show and its subjects.
"I suppose one could argue that eating your dead husband's ashes is grosser than drinking your own urine," one Gawker writer wrote, referencing an earlier episode of the show, "but there is something uniquely horrifying about watching this lady pour "aged" urine through her nasal cavity with a neti pot, then tilt her head back so the snot-tinged piss will pool in the back of her throat."
Carrie's not the first person to come up with this strange supposed cure — it's been a health fad for centuries with a loyal following.
British newspaper The Independent reported in 2006 that Egyptian medical texts, as well as Chinese and Indian documents mention drinking urine as cures. Advocates of the current drinking-urine movement reportedly say it can boost energy levels, cure diseases and improve sexual function.
Most doctors doubt the practice's health benefits, warning it can cause dehydration and can damage your body.
"There are no health benefits to drinking your own urine, and in fact I think it could be quite detrimental,” Helen Andrews, of the British Dietetic Association, told the Independent. “Each time you put it back it will come out again even more concentrated and that is not good for health as it could damage the gut. If you are stranded, your body will try to conserve as much water as it can. Drinking your urine would be like drinking seawater."
Carrie's not the only on this week's episode with issues about what goes into her digestive system.
Another woman on the episode declared her addiction to eating dirt.
"It just tastes like potato chips," she said.
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Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/woman-drinks-pee-tlc-strange-addictions-article-1.1040794#ixzz1pVpkAw2n
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