Category Human Body

The body needs water to stay alive. Every cell, tissue, and organ relies on a regular water supply to function properly. Water makes up more than half of the body. It is found inside cells, as well as in blood and other fluids, such as lymph, tears, saliva, sweat, and urine. The brain constantly monitors water level inside the body so it can make sure it maintains the correct balance.

Adequate water intake enables your body to excrete waste through perspiration, urination, and defecation. Water helps your kidneys remove waste from your blood and keep the blood vessels that run to your kidneys open and filter them out, according to the National Kidney Foundation. Water is also important for helping prevent constipation, points out the University of Rochester Medical Center. However, as research notes, there is no evidence to prove that increasing your fluid intake will cure constipation.

Your body loses fluids when you engage in vigorous exercise, sweat in high heat, or come down with a fever or contract an illness that causes vomiting or diarrhea, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If you’re losing fluids for any of these reasons, it’s important to increase your fluid intake so that you can restore your body’s natural hydration level. Your doctor may also recommend that you drink more fluids to help treat other health conditions, like bladder infections and urinary tract stones. If you’re pregnant or nursing, you may want to consult with your physician about your fluid intake because your body will be using more fluids than usual, especially if you’re breastfeeding.

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Inside the kidneys are thousands of tiny structures called glomeruli (one is called a glomerulus), working hard to filter toxic waste from the bloodstream. These tightly coiled clusters are the body’s smallest blood vessels (capillaries).

Each glomerulus works like a miniature sieve, transferring waste and excess water from the blood through the capillary wall into a renal tubule. This fluid drains away towards the bladder as urine.

The glomerulus receives its blood supply from an afferent arteriole of the renal arterial circulation. Unlike most capillary beds, the glomerular capillaries exit into efferent arterioles rather than venules. The resistance of the efferent arterioles causes sufficient hydrostatic pressure within the glomerulus to provide the force for ultrafiltration.

The glomerulus and its surrounding Bowman’s capsule constitute a renal corpuscle, the basic filtration unit of the kidney.[2] The rate at which blood is filtered through all of the glomeruli, and thus the measure of the overall kidney function, is the glomerular filtration rate.

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If the kidneys become damaged or diseased, a dialysis machine can be used to filter the blood instead. This large machine takes up to four times longer than kidneys to clean the body’s blood – which shows what an efficient unit the kidneys are.

The dialysis machine acts as an artificial set of kidneys. Blood flows from the body to the machine, toxic waste and excess fluid are removed, and cleaned blood is returned.

Some kinds of acute kidney failure get better after treatment. In some cases of acute kidney failure, dialysis may only be needed for a short time until the kidneys get better.

In chronic or end stage kidney failure, your kidneys do not get better and you will need dialysis for the rest of your life. If your doctor says you are a candidate, you may choose to be placed on a waiting list for a new kidney.

In hemodialysis, an artificial kidney (hemodialyzer) is used to remove waste and extra chemicals and fluid from your blood. To get your blood into the artificial kidney, the doctor needs to make an access (entrance) into your blood vessels. This is done by minor surgery to your arm or leg.

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Each kidney has three layers – the outer layer (cortex), inner part (medulla), and central pelvis. Blood flows into the cortex for filtering. The medulla absorbs substances to return to the bloodstream. Waste is taken by tubes to the central pelvis, a collecting area where urine is emptied out into two tubes called ureters, and then passes to the bladder.

Multi-purpose organs

The two kidneys sit high in the back the abdomen. Each one is about the size of a fist, shaped like a bean, and surrounded by a protective layer of tissue.

Adrenal gland

The adrenal glands are small glands located on top of each kidney. They produce hormones that you can’t live without, including sex hormones and cortisol. Cortisol helps you respond to stress and has many other important functions. Adrenaline released from this gland makes the heart beat faster in scary situations.

Renal artery

The renal arteries are responsible for carrying oxygen-rich blood to your kidneys, which in turn help the kidneys rid your body of waste and excess fluid. This artery carries blood into the kidney to be filtered.

Renal vein

The renal vein is an asymmetrically paired vessel that carries the deoxygenated blood from the kidney to the inferior vena cava. Cleaned blood is carried from the kidney by the renal vein.

Outer casing

The kidneys and adrenal glands are wrapped in a layer of fat and strong outer tissue. The outermost layer is a tough connective tissue layer called the renal fascia.

Central pelvis

Urine collects here, and is then sent to the bladder. The pelvis, which is shaped somewhat like a funnel that is curved to one side, is almost completely enclosed in the deep indentation on the concave side of the kidney, the sinus.

Renal cortex

The cortex is the outer part of the kidney. It contains the glomerulus and convoluted tubules.

The renal cortex is surrounded on its outer edges by the renal capsule, a layer of fatty tissue. Together, the renal cortex and capsule house and protect the inner structures of the kidney.

Renal medulla

This layer of the kidney absorbs water, making urine more concentrated. The renal medulla is split up into a number of sections, known as the renal pyramids. Blood enters into the kidney via the renal artery, which then splits up to form the interlobar arteries.

Left ureter

This is one of two tubes that carry urine down to the bladder. There are two ureters, one attached to each kidney. The upper half of the ureter is located in the abdomen and the lower half is located in the pelvic area. 

Nephrons

The kidneys contain tiny blood-filtering units called nephrons. Each nephron contains a glomerulus, a bundle of blood vessels surrounded by a capsule. As blood passes through the glomerulus, waste and excess water ooze into the capsule and are carried away by a tubule (tiny tube). Any useful substances, such as glucose, are absorbed by capillaries, while the waste is carried away to form urine.

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Your two kidneys filter and clean the blood by removing toxic chemicals like the heart, the kidneys are at work every second of every day, producing a continuous flow of clean blood.

As blood circulates it picks up waste substances produced by the body’s cells. These would poison you if they were not removed from the body. The kidneys extract the toxins and excess water from the blood and process them to make urine. As well as cleaning the blood, the kidneys also release hormones, stimulate red blood cell production and keep the body’s water content balanced.

They release more urine if you have drunk a lot and less if you are dehydrated.

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The iliac crest of the male pelvis rises higher than the iliac crest of the female pelvis, and there is a greater distance between the anterior superior iliac spines of the female pelvis when compared to the male pelvis. This usually gives women a curvier appearance in the hip region, as compared to the average male. The female pelvic cavity is also going to be shallower, whereas the male pelvic cavity is deeper.

Although the female pelvis is wider than the typical male pelvis, these bones are thinner and lighter than the denser, rougher bones of the male pelvis.

The pelvic brim of the female is generally larger than the male’s inlet, which facilitates childbirth. The male inlet is smaller and heart-shaped, and a trick to remembering that is to remember the following phrase: the way to a man’s heart is through his pelvis!

The sacrum of the female is shorter, wider, and has a greater curve, whereas the male sacrum is thinner, longer, and is less curved. The coccyx bone of the male curves more toward the front of the body in comparison to the female’s coccyx.

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