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Claims of therapeutic properties of human urine go back to ancient times. In the early 1930s several medical publications claimed that a specific substance, called "proteose," is present during allergic disease. Injections of extracts of this substance were recommended for treatment of allergy, and there were reports of successes in many other diseases. The practice subsided after several years, but it has resurfaced.
Several chemical extraction procedures have been recommended for obtaining "proteose" from the urine. The extracted protein is suspended in a buffered solution and then injected for
Proponents of this form of treatment believe that urinary "proteose" contains the allergen specific for
The published reports consist of uncontrolled anecdotal histories of apparently successful treatment of
There have been no studies addressing the question of long-term safety. This is critical because small quantities of
The practice of injecting an extract of the patient's own urine for diagnosis or treatment of allergy is clearly
Enzyme-potentiated desensitization, a procedure in which allergen is mixed with the enzyme beta-glucuronidase before injection, is promoted as an improvement over conventional allergy
A very low dose of allergen, approximately equivalent to the amount administered in a standard prick test, is mixed with partially purified beta-glucuronidase in a dose equivalent to the amount of enzyme