Understanding the kidney-1
I am currently training to be a nephrologist (kidney specialist). The kidney is probably the most complex organ of the whole body with respect to its functions. My goal of writing something about it here is to show that this organ is much more than a "pee-maker". If I see that people like what I write and become interested, I will post more information, basically answering questions. This and following posts are not intended to give individual medical advise, that is the job of your personal doctor.
Functions of the kidneys
- Participation in the maintenance of a constant extracellular environment for cells to function adequately.
- Hormone production and secretion, mainly to regulate blood pressure.
- Degrades some proteins and synthesizes glucose.
Facts about the kidneys
- Filters 180 liters of blood everyday.
- Produces between 1-4 L of urine everyday
- Senses the amount of hemoglobin we have in the blood and sends signals to stop or increase blood production.
- Receives 20% of all the blood flow of a person in a resting state.
- Consumes 7% of all the oxygen of a person in a resting state.
Post your questions in the comments section to see what my next post regarding this topic should be about. Remember thet I will not give individual medical advise.
posted by Doctor Marco at 13:57
6 Comments:
Hey, Aphrodite:
Urine is essentially sterile, this means (for your kids) free of germs. In the case of urinary tract infections, then it contains germs. Drinking urine, although not advisable, should not cause disease. Actually, people deprived of water had managed to prolong their survival by drinking their own urine. The toxins that it has are in minute concentrations to cause harm by drinking, although drinking a lot of it might cause harm.
The 20% statement has the purpose of underlining the importance of the kidneys. Each kidney is the size of your fist. They are little, and they receive 20%! of the flow of blood. The reason for this is that they have to filter the blood from waste products.
I will definitely write a part 2 and more. I just want people to ask questions to know what to write about.
Gindy: I hope you also had a great Christmas
Aphrodite: People can live with one kidney with no problem. But they have to acknowledge that they have only one kidney and thay have to be extra careful in cases of obstructive uropathy (calculus), pyelonephritis (infection). They cannot be donors.
Gindy: If ecstasy is useful to improve the quality of life of a dying person is ok. Actually any anfetamine could do the same job. As an example, heroin and morphine belong to the opioid class of drugs. Heroin is a street drug and morphine is a usual drug. The same analogy can be used for ecstasy and anfetamines. Anyway, drugs of the anfetamine family are already being used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The answer to the last question is: the drugs have different functions. Morphine may focus in the pain, the anfetamine may focus in the mood.
I will answer the questions in broad terms and not with the intention to give personal advise
The relationship between alcohol and kidney transplant survival is unknown. I do not know of a study done to answer the question.
The time of a survival of a graft is variable and depends on many things. Thay could last 20 years or they can last 1 week.
There is no option besides dialysis if you do not have kidneys. However, there are different modalities of dialysis
Thanks for the questions, sorry if the answers are too general, but I hope you understand that it has to be in that way
No problem. I hope the answers were ok, I will soon post an Understanding the kidney-2 to help people understand more. I will definitely take into account your questions when I write the post.
I good idea is to "subscribe" to my blog in the space assigned for it (sidebar). It will send you an email whenever there is an update. Thanks for encouraging me to post about the kidney, that is what I need to keep doing it.
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