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without which your body cannot function. But both elements could be lethal if there were too much water or sodium in your blood. Now what about potassium, calcium and magnesium? These are familiar nutrients that we ingest in our.food and vitamin pills every day, but they're also in your urine. These nutritional ele- ments are extremely valuable substances to the body, certainly not toxic, and yet the kidney excretes these elements into the urine. Why? Because it's taking out the excess amounts of potassium, calcium, etc. that are not needed by your body at the time they are filtered out. Actually, it is this regulating process of the kidneys and the excretion of urine that allows us to eat and drink more than our bodies need at any one time. No matter how popular a conception, this commonly shared sce- _ without which your body cannot function. But both elements nario may be, it just isn't true. Urine is not made in your could be lethal if there were too much water or sodium in your intestines. Urine is made in and by your kidneys. So what does blood. this mean, and why should it change the way you feel about urine? Now what about potassium, calcium and magnesium? These In layman's language, this is how and why urine is made in the —_ are familiar nutrients that we ingest in our food and vitamin pills body. When you eat, the food you ingest is eventually broken every day, but they're also in your urine. These nutritional ele- down in the stomach and intestines into extremely small mole- _ ments are extremely valuable substances to the body, certainly not cules. These molecules are absorbed into tiny tubules in the toxic, and yet the kidney excretes these elements into the urine. intestinal wall and then pass through these tubes into the blood- Why? Because it's taking out the excess amounts of potassium, stream. calcium, etc. that are not needed by your body at the time they are The blood circulates throughout your body, carrying these food _ filtered out. Actually, it is this regulating process of the kidneys molecules and other nutrients along with critical immune-defence and the excretion of urine that allows us to eat and drink more and regulating elements such as red and white blood cells, anti- _ than our bodies need at any one time. bodies, plasma, microscopic proteins, hormones, enzymes, etc., which are all manufactured at different locations in the body. The "The principal function of the kidney is not excretion, but regu- blood continually distributes its load of life-sustaining elements _ lation... The kidney obviously conserves what we need, but, even throughout the body, nourishing more, permits us the freedom of every cell and protecting the body excess. That is, it allows us to take from disease. Urine is NOT a waste product of in more than we need of many As it flows through the body, this the body but, rather, an necessities—water and salt, for nutrient-filled blood passes through . * example—and excrete exactly what the liver where toxins are removed extraordinarily valuable is not required.” and later excreted from the body in i i (Dr Stewart Cameron [Professor the form of solid waste. physiological substance that has of Renal Medicine, Guy's Hospital, . Eventually, this purified, ‘cleaned’ been shown throughout the history London], Kidney Disease: The blood makes its way to the kidneys. H 1 H 7 Facts, Oxford University Press, When the blood enters the kid- of medical science right up until Oxford, UK, 1986) neys it is filtered through an today to have profound medical immensely complex and intricate But this isn’t the end of the story. system of minute tubules, called uses that most of us know Scientists have discovered that nephron, through which the blood absolutely nothing about. urine, because it is actually extract- is literally 'squeezed' at high pres- ed from our blood, contains small sure. This filtering process removes amounts of almost all of the life- excess amounts of water, salts and other elements in the blood that —_ sustaining nutrients, proteins, hormones, antibodies and immunis- your body does not need at the time. ing agents that our blood contains. These excess elements are collected within the kidney in the form of a purified, sterile, watery solution called urine. Many of “Urine can be regarded as one of the most complex of all body the constituents of this filtered watery solution, or urine, are then fluids. It contains practically all of the constituents found in the re-absorbed by the nephron and delivered back into the blood- blood.” stream. The remainder of the urine passes out of the kidneys into (A. H. Free and H. M. Free, Urinalysis in Clinical and the bladder and is then excreted from the body. Laboratory Practice, CRC Press, Inc., USA, 1975, pp. 13-17) So, you say, the body's gotten rid of this stuff for a reason—so why would we want to use it again? And here's the catch. The Many medical researchers, unlike most of us, know that far function of the kidneys is to keep the various elements in your _ from being a dirty body-waste, fresh, normal urine is actually ster- blood balanced. The kidneys do not filter out important elements _ile and is an extraordinary combination of some of the most vital in the blood because those elements in themselves are toxic or poi- and medically important substances known to man. Now this fact sonous or bad for the body, but simply because the body did not may be unknown to the vast majority of the public today, it is need that particular concentration of that element at the time it was _ nothing new to modern medicine. excreted. To us, the public, urine seems like an undesirable waste product And medica] researchers have discovered that many of the ele- —_of the body, but to the medical research community and the drug ments of the blood that are found in urine have enormous medici- _ industry it's been considered to be liquid gold. Don't believe it? nal value, and when they are reintroduced into the body they boost _ Read this: the body's immune defences and stimulate healing in a way that nothing else does. “Utica, Michigan — Realising it is flushing potential profits As medical research has revealed: down the drain, an enterprising young company has come up with se a A ea aoe "Urine can be regarded as one of the most complex of all body fluids. It contains practically all of the constituents found in the blood.” 24 SS ml. Bm ee (A. H. Free and H. M. Free, Urinalysis in Clinical and _ Laboratory Practice, CRC Press, Inc., USA, 1975, pp. 13-17) Many medical researchers, unlike most of us, know that far from being a dirty body-waste, fresh, normal urine is actually ster- ile and is an extraordinary combination of some of the most vital and medically important substances known to man. Now this fact may be unknown to the vast majority of the public today, it is nothing new to modern medicine. To us, the public, urine seems like an undesirable waste product of the body, but to the medical research community and the drug industry it's been considered to be liquid gold. Don't believe it? Read this: “Utica, Michigan — Realising it is flushing potential profits down the drain, an enterprising young company has come up with a way to trap medically powerful proteins from urine. Enzymes of America has designed a special filter that collects important urine proteins, and these filters have been installed in all of the men's urinals in the 10,000 portable outhouses owned by the Porta-John company, a subsidiary of Enzymes of America. "Urine is known to contain minute amounts of proteins made by the body, including medically important ones such as growth hor- mone and insulin. There is a $500-million-a-year market for these kinds of urine ingredients. “One of the most important functions of the kidney is to excrete material and substances for which the body has no immediate need..." (A. H. Free, and H. M. Free, Urinalysis in Clinical and Laboratory Practice, CRC Press, Inc., USA, 1975, pp. 13-17) For instance, the kidneys filter out water and sodium from the blood into the urine. These are both vital life-sustaining elements NEXUS ¢ 25 FEBRUARY-MARCH 1996