what are your kidneys used for and what can cause them to be infected all the time?

Answer 1

Everybody knows that some organs in the human body are necessary for survival: you need your brain, your heart, your lungs, your kidneys...

KIDNEYS? Absolutely. Even though you won't find a Valentine's Day card with a kidney on the cover, the kidneys are every bit as important as the heart. You need at least one kidney to live!


Kidneys normally come in pairs. If you've ever seen a kidney bean, then you have a pretty good idea what the kidneys look like. Each kidney is about 5 inches (about 13 centimeters) long and about 3 inches (about 8 centimeters) wide — about the size of a computer mouse.

To locate your kidneys, put your hands on your hips, then slide your hands up until you can feel your ribs. Now if you put your thumbs on your back, you will know where your kidneys are. You can't feel them, but they are there. Read on to find out more about the cool kidneys.

Cleaning Up
One of the main jobs of the kidneys is to filter the waste out of the blood. How does the waste get in your blood? Well, your blood delivers nutrients to your body. Chemical reactions occur in the cells of your body to break down the nutrients. Some of the waste is the result of these chemical reactions. Some is just stuff your body doesn't need because it already has enough. The waste has to go somewhere; this is where the kidneys come in.

First, blood is carried into the kidneys by the renal artery (anything in the body related to the kidneys is called renal). The average person has 1 to 1 1/2 gallons of blood circulating through his or her body. The kidneys filter that blood as many as 400 times a day! More than 1 million tiny filters inside the kidneys (nephrons) remove the waste. Nephrons (say: neh-fronz) are so small you can see them only with a high-powered microscope.

The waste that is collected combines with water (which is also filtered out of the kidneys) to make urine (pee). As each kidney makes urine, the urine slides down a long tube called the ureter (say: yu-ree-ter) and collects in the bladder, a storage sac that holds the urine. When the bladder is about halfway full, your body tells you to go to the bathroom. When you pee, the urine goes from the bladder down another tube called the urethra (say: yu-ree-thruh) and out of your body.

The kidneys, the bladder, and their tubes are called the urinary system. Here's a list of all of the parts of the urinary system:

the kidneys: filters that take the waste out of the blood and make urine
the ureters: tubes that carry the urine to the bladder
the bladder: a bag that collects the urine
the urethra: a tube that carries the urine out of the body
Keeping a Balance
The kidneys also balance the volume of fluids and minerals in the body. This balance in the body is called homeostasis (say: hoh-mee-oh-stay-sus).

If you put all of the water that you take in on one side of a scale and all of the water your body gets rid of on the other side of a scale, the sides of the scale would balance. Your body gets water when you drink it or when you drink other liquids. You also get water from some foods, like fruits and vegetables.

Water leaves your body in several ways. It comes out of your skin when you sweat, out of your mouth when you breathe, and out of your urethra in urine when you go to the bathroom. There is also water in your bowel movements (poop).

When you feel thirsty, your brain is telling you to get more fluids to keep your body as balanced as possible. If you don't have enough fluids in your body, the brain communicates with the kidneys by sending out a hormone that tells the kidneys to hold onto some fluids. When you drink more, this hormone level goes down, and the kidneys will let go of more fluids.

You might notice that sometimes your urine is darker in color than other times. Remember, urine is made up of water plus the waste that is filtered out of the blood. If you don't take in a lot of fluids or if you're exercising and sweating a lot, your urine has less water in it and it appears darker. If you're drinking lots of fluids, the extra fluid comes out in your urine, and it will be lighter.

What Else Do Kidneys Do?
Kidneys are always busy. Besides filtering the blood and balancing fluids every second during the day, the kidneys constantly react to hormones that the brain sends them. Kidneys even make some of their own hormones. For example, the kidneys produce a hormone that tells the body to make red blood cells.

Now you know what the kidneys do and how important they are. Maybe next Valentine's Day, instead of the same old heart, you can give your parents a special card featuring the kidneys!

Answer 2

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Answer 3

The kidneys are two organs roughly bean shaped about the size of your fists that are found on either side of your torso, more towards the back, almost tucked up under yout back ribs.

The kidneys have a series of looping tubes for the blood to pass through, where they are in very close contact with colecting tubes that eventually empty into the "ureters" which pass urine into the bladder to be held until you choose to excrete the waste.

The blood waste products are able to pass into the collecting tubes because of diffusion. The concentration of "solutes" is very high on the blood side, and very low on the other side, it is almost like the salts and metabolites are going "downhill" in a way. Some liquid also moves along with the the salts etc. This makes up your urine.

(Salts here does not mean "Table salt" it means bile salts, and other things in your blood stream)

Many factors can lead to Kidney Infections, including the disease Poly cystic kidney disease and Diabetes. IF you have realitive good health it could be due to a physical abnormality such as an extra set or ureters, a stricture, or an inability to fully empty your bladder. Causing the urine (and bacteria) to back up to the kidneys.

Kidney Infections are a serious condition. If you suffer from them you should consult your doctor for treatment options. If you doctor is not providing you with a good treatment plan, get a second opionion.

I hope the information helps.

Answer 4

Involved in removing some waste products from the blood (ie ones that can be dissolved in water) cleaning and filtering it and recycling some nutrients and electrolytes. Also important in regularizing blood pressure; produces erythropoetin which helps in blood cell production and a form of Vitamin D that is involved in strengthening bones. It does several other things too, but this isn't a physiology course.

Women are more prone to bladder infections because of their anatomy (urethra is short). An untreated bladder infection can lead to a kidney infection, but it is not usual to start off with a kidney infection, and if you are really having "kidney infections" (pyelonephtitis" as opposed to bladder infections "cystitis" you need to see your doctor.

Frequent intercourse, or poor hygeine can lead to bacterie getting into bladder through the urethra. There are also some anatomic problems that may lead to more frequent infections.
Emptying your bladder after intercourse, and especially after anal sex can help prevent, as can drinkin lots of water or cranberry juice.

Answer 5

Kidneys filter the blood of toxins, excess water, etc and excrete it as urine. I had chronic infections in my early 20's. Turns out I was born with "horseshoe kidney" -my kidneys were joined together at the bottom and looked like a horseshoe. The section that joined them was chronically infected. Had to have surgery to disconnect. No problems in 25 years since!

Answer 6

Your kidneys filter toxins out of your blood. Kidney infections can be caused by a blow to the kidneys or a birth defect such as reflux.

Click this link to take you to the National Kidney Foundation website where you can learn about reflux.

http://www.kidney.org/atoz/atozItem.cfm?id=107

I had reflux as a child and had surgery to fix it. I haven't had a kidney infection since!

Answer 7

Oh, that is so not true! We all know the dinosaurs were secret minions of Satan and on NASA's missing day they flew around the whole world in a sleigh and left their bones everywhere to trick people into accepting evolution. The rat in the KFC was merely trying to spread the truth but it was cooked alive, and now anyone who looks at rats while eating chicken will have bad luck for 700 years. Well one day Bill Gates ate some as a rat was running across the floor, which is why Vista crashed, so the people at Proctor and Gamble accidently added Sodium Laureth Sulfate to the shampoo because their computers exploded and they lost the 10 secret herbs and spices which were SUPPOSED to go into the shampoo. And THAT'S why we eat babby on Christmas.

Answer 8

If you are prone to UTI's they may develop into kidney infections. UTI's are commonly caused by bacterial infections (wiping for women is extremely important! always wipe from front to back)

Sex with a new partner can also introduce UTI's which can develop into Kidney infections.

These infections are typically easy to take care of. Your best line of defense against UTI's and Kidney infections is CLEANLINESS, LOTS of fluids and if problems still persist....CALL your Doctor!!!

Answer 9

All 6 orifices are subject to infection or can be the gareway.
Water flushes, many things.
Thank God or Someone there aren't more than 6.
Cuts and injures are others. .

Answer 10

I couldn't just sit around and do nothing like my doctors suggested.

They didn't want me to do anything or to take herbs or herbal remedies, but I had to try something - they just wanted me to do dialysis!

This program allowed me to take control of my health. I went from Stage 4 to Stage 3 kidney disease.

It was easy to do and my BUN, creatinine and anemia are all in better ranges.

Reversing Your Kidney Disease?