In TCM practice, it has a long history for physicians to use human excretions in their therapies. If stool and urine are properly processed and prepared, they can be and have been used to treat specific conditions.

Ancient scholars recorded that stool has a bitter taste, a cold property and non-toxic. It is mainly used in virulent heat and delirium conditions. According to Compendium of Materia Medica (ben cao gang mu), the major therapeutic indications of stool are:

• Bone heat syndrome: a disharmony due to a yin vacuity with internal heat , which is characterized by hectic fever, night sweats, dyspnea (difficulty in breathing), chest oppression, general weakness, insomnia, hot sensations in the palms and yellow or reddish urine.
• Disease relapse due to overstrain: the recurrence occurring in the early stage of disease recovery when the body’s resistance is not yet restored or the pathogens have not yet been expelled entirely from the body.
• Swollen and painful conditions
• Carbuncles on the back: a kind of sore that usually has several openings through which pus is discharged.

Urine is salty in taste, cold in property and non-toxic. The urine from a boy is thought to be most appropriate for therapy. The famous physician Zhu Zhenheng (1281∼1358 AD) described urine as “the fastest fire reducing agent.” According to Compendium of Materia Medica (ben cao gang mu), the major therapeutic indications of urine are:

• Headaches
• Consumptive diseases that appear fever and blood spitting
• Cough and difficulty in breathing due to retention of sputum: the air passage being obstructed by phlegm and dampness evils invading the lungs. The cough is usually productive and sticky in nature.
• Trauma which has developed blood stasis.
• Promoting urination and defecation.
• Promoting body fluid production and alleviating thirst. (Often we have heard of outdoor sporting persons who have drunk their own urine to prevent dehydration when water is not available.)