Eric & Steve's First Web Page - The Human Body

The

Kidney

The kidneys are the filters of the body. They clean the blood by filtering out all the stuff the body does not want while at the same time they work to conserve or get rid of excess water. This excess water is urine, or liquid waste which carries out of the body all the stuff the body has used and no longer needs. The kidneys remove water and wastes from the blood just drops at a time. Then the urine is collected in the bladder where it is stored until the bladder gets full. When the bladder gets full you feel the need to go to the bathroom. When the bladder is empty the whole process starts all over again. The kidneys are important in maintaining a balance of fluids, salts, and acids. If the kidneys fail to work there is no way for the many substances they normally get rid of to be taken out of the body. Some people use an artificial kidney, called dialysis. Dialysis removes the excess fluids and some proteins out of the body,but a person on dialysis has to watch just how much fluid they eat or drink. Dialysis keeps the person alive, but it does not replace their own kidneys. Kidneys usually produce 1.5kg of urine in about 24 hours. Naturally that would depend on how much you drink. The more you drink the more urine you would have to get rid of. If you do not drink enough, or if it is really hot, or if you are sick you can get dehydrated. That means that your body is not taking enough fluid in and you can get even more sick.

Some of the diseases that make it hard for the kidneys to do their job is, high blood pressure, kidney stones or infections. All these can be treated by a doctor and the kidneys should then be able to do their job as the clean up crew for the body.

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This page lasted edited on 03/31/98