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Many of you have probably already heard of the old remedy of peeing on your feet in the shower for curing athlete’s foot. But will pee cure athlete’s foot for real?
Some of the best things about using your pee as a cure for athlete’s foot is that it doesn’t cost you anything, plus there’s plenty of it to last a lifetime. Not only that, but no one will borrow your remedy and not return it. In 1994 Madonna gave pee a pretty good boost as a cure for athlete’s foot during a David Letterman interview. But the real question remains, does it really work?
Is the Pee Cure for Athlete’s Foot a Myth
Well sadly, we have to say yes, this is a myth. But let me explain further.
There are tons of commercial athlete’s foot creams on the market today and all claim to be the best. But many of them have one thing in common. That’s the ingredient urea. Urea just so happens to be a major component of human urine. This would certainly explain why pee gained such high marks as an athlete’s foot remedy.
Urea is used to carry excess oxygen from the body and has magical properties that may help soften and exfoliate skin. But it’s concentration in the urine is not nearly enough to clear up a case of athlete’s foot. For example, many of the antifungal remedies that are on the market today will contain upwards of 40% urea. That’s over 15 times the amount found in human urine.
Another thing to consider is the method in which you are administering this treatment. Some may chose using a bucket to collect urine specimen in and give their feet a bath in the bucket. While others may prefer taking care of business while in the shower. But there are other elements at play while showering. There are adulterants such as soap and water that will mix with the urine and most certainly further dilute any urea that may be present. So you can see how there would be a pretty slim chance of this remedy working properly.
Is it Bad to Wash your Feet in Urine?
Well to quickly answer that question, No. As we discussed in the post Why is Urine Yellow and is it Safe to Drink, urine is actually quite sterile and non-toxic. And I say hesitantly that guys are not the only ones peeing in the shower. Glamour magazine discovered that 75% of women admitted to peeing in the shower.
And get this quirky little fact, during a 2009 campaign to save the rainforest in Brazil, they asked that everyone pee in the shower in order to save a few gallons of water flushing the toilets!
So, is this a myth you’ve heard over the years. Has someone told you that peeing on your feet would cure your athlete’s feet? I just rhymed, what do ya know, I’m a poet and didn’t know it…
I’m sorry but peeing on your foot to cure athletes foot does work I did it for two or three weeks straight and till this day it hasn’t come back! My uncle told me about this” myth”so I tried it and it actually worked is it possible to have urea more then others though?
Brandon, I’m glad to hear you’ve had success curing athletes foot with urine. Although this has never been medically proven to have any effect in healing athletes foot, that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. After all strange things is what this whole blog is about, so in that respect, thank you for sharing.
But one question, do you think that after 3 weeks the athletes foot may of simply ran it’s course and went away? Or do you feel that urinating on your feet was the sole cause of it clearing up?
nice article i hope athelete can stay to keep urine not to his foot
Great post and for my story I had a bad case of athlete’s foot so I heard the myth and started peeing on my feet in the shower I did this for about 2 to 3 days and I did notice that it started to clean it up a little bit so I stopped peeing on my feet and it got worse it it kinda grew back if you’ll say so again I started peeing on my feet again and it cleaned it up a little bit so I say everyone is different and it didn’t permanently cure my athletes foot but it is a temporary solution but bathing my feet in P just sounds gross I don’t know if I could do that
Hey William, thanks for sharing with us.
There are a lot of home remedies that don’t really sound all that clean, this being one of them. But believe it or not, urine is a very sterile body fluid. I suppose our bodies were designed to fight most infections. As you’ve said, it may not be a cure, but it could help to subside the condition temporarily. The best solution is always a doctor of course.
I’ve peed on feet..after a couple of days gone..compared to creams for week or more…will stick with urine
Hi Mike, thanks for sharing your test results with us. I suppose it definitely helps save on expense as well eh?
Been doing it for years, always works. In my case just one whizz and I’m all good to go.
The article comes to the conclusion that this is a myth, and I’ve just seen most of the responses confirming that it does work. Maybe edit a bit, start with ‘well, seems I was wrong…’
Well Dms, that’s the glory behind discussion. The comments are freely open so we can all give our finding and opinions on things. And I value yours as much as the next persons. So thank you for sharing your results with us all.
As far as editing my post, that would kill all the fun in discussion don’t you think? That’s the reason for many of the topics I write about is to gain more knowledge, I just simple write about what I’ve learned through reading and research and let my readers fill in the rest. 🙂
Iv had athletes food for about 6 years, college football gave my feet hell, Iv tried all kinds sprays and creams, didn’t work….I peed on my feet in the shower for the first time 4 days ago, is say it’s the best remedy, it definitely softened my feet as well as dissolve the foot fungus
Hey thanks for posting your experience with this one Fred!
That’s one more mark on the board for urine having a positive effect on athletes feet. This is the kind of feedback we’re looking for to help in either confirming or debunking these myths.
Glad you found some relief however brief it may or may not be! 🙂
I pee on my feet first thing in the morning in the shower and this is an effective way of managing athletes foot, but not curing it ( for me ).
I wonder if the urea concentration is higher in the morning after a nights sleep, as opposed to throughout the day.
Thank you Dan for posting your findings on this for us.
I am no doctor, I merely post what I’ve uncovered during my research on these subjects. But to answer your question on morning urea concentration to the best of my ability…..
It sort of makes sense to me that urea levels first thing in the morning may have a small to moderate impact on the amount or urea found in the urine and here’s why.
Urea concentration would all depend on the amount of fluid intake your body had consumed during any part of the day. And considering you normally won’t be drinking any fluids during the sleeping hours, this may increase the urea concentration. But there are also other factors such as exercise that can effect this.
Hopefully this has helped a little in answering your question, but I did find a few good sources during a search so there is some information out there on your question.
Thanks again for stopping by 🙂
Well, urine is sterile so it wouldn’t hurt to try it. I have not heard of this remedy before but seems like other people have tried it and it has worked.
Seemingly Kat…Although science says there’s no known proof that this remedy actually works, there have been a lot of folks comment that is works great for them. So maybe scientists need to re-think their theories on this one. Like you said, it would be worth a try to rid yourself of such a terrible affliction.
Let me chime in on this as well. Urine has stopped my athletes foot. I have had it for years and it is recurring. I was using some over the counter creams for a while but started having some side effects from them as I’ve been using them for about 4 months twice daily now. So I actually found this site….Read the comments and decided to try it. I pee in a couple small mason jars during the day then soak the infected part of my feet at night and in the morning–it works for as well for me as Clotrimazole or Tolnaftate (active ingredient in tinactin)
I’m going to get on my soap box for a second. The medical community can only support things they can measure. And they typically only study methods of treatment that will be profitable. I don’t begrudge good business people since it takes capital to get products on the shelf. If you go to MDs and they always tell you the *best* and or most inexpensive solution for your medical problem (hey kid, go home and pee on your feet twice a day–it’s free) the entire American health care system would collapse. In addition, I don’t think any company will spend the capital to generate the hard measurements to prove that peeing on your feet works. As a result, they don’t know if it works and there is no proof that it works. However, they can recommend an over the counter creme or a prescription drug that has shown some efficacy in double blind placebo tests….and the system gets to make a little cash. Not a bad thing for the system, but it can be extremely detrimental to the individual depending on the ailment.
Anyway, I can go on and on on this subject. But we all need to do our own research and do some trial and error. After all, that’s what the medical community does–but their solutions have to involve you contributing to their economic system–that’s how they feed their families. However, we all have google now–which brought us into the information age and makes medical information much more accessible than it was 30 years ago. Let’s use all our tools to find the best solutions!
Bill, I have to say, that was very well said!
I’m a firm believer in the “Big Brothers” of large industry. And you’re absolutely right! There is a huge link between the MDs and big business/manufacturers in promoting products to keep the industry alive.
If we look back let’s say a mere century, household cures and home remedies were a dime a dozen. Most of which I might add worked great! It really is a shame that society has become so dependent on someone manufacturing a remedy rather than using the things nature gave us.
But like you said, it’s all about the money and as they run out of ideas for making it, invention has to come into play. But at least “most” products are more than just a scam. But it sure is cheaper to take a whiz than to buy some expensive prescription ointment!!! lol 😀
urinating on your feet forces you to wash them that is the real cure. Wash your feet.