REVOLTING REMEDIES

DiSgUSTing medical treatments. This week: Urine for jetlag

SUFFERING from jetlag? Your own urine could provide a magical cure, according to Australian researchers, who suggested that frequent flyers adopt a breakfast regimen which involves drinking a glass of urine.

A study at the University of Newcastle, New South Wales, found that early-morning urine is significantly richer in melatonin than at other times.

Melatonin is a hormone involved in controlling our waking and sleeping patterns. An analysis of previous studies, published in the journal Medwave in 2015, concluded that melatonin in tablet form ‘probably reduces symptoms associated with jetlag syndrome’.

Melatonin tablets are not licensed for use in the UK.

Writing in the journal Medical Hypotheses in 1991, the Australian researchers suggested that if jetsetters drink their own urine first thing in the morning, it might help to reset their body clocks and persuade their brains that they have awoken from a night’s sleep.