How the kidney Works

A human body needs food for growth and development and for the overall sustenance of the body. When one takes the food, it is broken down and nutrients derived from the food which in turn are converted into energy required by the human body.

The body will then take in the nutrients that it requires and the excess is just waste which are left down in the bowel and blood.

In the human body there are kidneys which work together with the urinary system to keep chemicals (such as sodium & potassium) and water in balance, and remove waste called urea from the blood. Urea is produced when protein foods are broken down by the body. This urea is then carried by blood to the kidneys which have a mandate to remove urea which is a waste product and ‘clean’ the blood.

The kidneys will remove this urea from the blood by filtering it through some small units found in the kidneys called nephrons. Nephrons comprise of a circular ball of small blood capillaries, called glomerulus and a small tube called a renal tubule.

Now urea, excess water and other waste products form the urine as these products pass through the nephrons to the renal tubule of the kidneys.

 

 
 

As you have seen, the work of the kidneys which work together with the urinary system is to filter out the waste products and pass them out thus leaving the blood “clean”.

Now in the event that the kidneys get injured, diseased or malfunctioned in any manner, then the human body will experience a lot of difficulties trying to get ride of the waste products. A means of removing the waste products from the human blood has to be devised and that leads to the dialysis process.

Dialysis is an artificial process through which waste products in the human body are extinguished. The process is done to patients whose kidneys have malfunctioned and can’t carry out the process.

 

The process of dialysis seems not to be a favorable solution, Why?

The human body has to keep supporting it’s life by the intake of food and water. We have discussed the process whereby the excess water and nutrients in the food are broken down are passed in the blood stream and need to be removed from the blood system.

 
 

This means that the process will not only be cumbersome but will in the long run become so expensive and probably uncalled for.

These limitations of the use of dialysis in the case of failed kidneys have led to the need of a better solution for the process of removing the waste products from the human body.

 

Although it has it’s own setback, such as in the likely event of a kidney rejection by the patients body.