The popular notion that urine is sterile is a myth, new research finds.
Yes, the myth that comes up every time someone pees in a pool (or drinking water reservoir) is actually false. In fact, bacteria do live in urine, Loyola University researchers reported this week at the general meeting of the American Society for Microbiology in Boston.
For years, even doctors believed urine was sterile. The myth goes back 50 years, Hilt said, when a screening method for kidney infections was developed. It was a simple and easy test that was soon applied to bladder infections, too. But the test involved culturing only a small amount of urine in open air, at a temperature of 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) for 24 hours. Not all bacteria grow in those conditions.
To get to the bottom of the mystery, the researchers cultured urine (collected via catheter) on various substrates and in different conditions, such as without oxygen or with more carbon dioxide. They found whole swaths of bacteria not detected before in healthy urine, simply because no one had ever looked.
"Now, more than ever, the illusions of division threaten our very existence. We all know the truth: more connects us than separates us. But in times of crisis the wise build bridges, while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after one another as if we were one single tribe.” -King T'Challa, Black Panther
The truth is incontrovertible. Malice may attack it. ignorance may deride it, but in the end, there it is. ~Winston Churchill
Sterile or not, the next time I get stung by a jellyfish I'm going to beg someone to pee on the wound!
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
