... About Your Kidneys Print E-mail

If you've had the misfortune to have a problem with your kidneys, you will be all too aware of the important role they play in keeping your body healthy. Like all of our vital organs, they have a specific job to do to ensure that our bodies can function properly. Here we provide five key facts about these two hard-working organs.

  1. Blood Composition
  2. Filtering
  3. Blood Pressure
  4. The first ever transplant
  5. You only need one!
Blood Composition

Kidneys are vital to help your body work properly because they help balance the blood composition. They filter your blood to remove excess water and waste products, which are secreted from your kidneys as urine.

Filtering 

One-quarter of your entire blood supply passes through your kidneys every single minute. And every 24 hours, your kidneys filter around 150 litres of blood and produce about 1.5 litres of urine.

Blood Pressure

One of the most important jobs your kidneys have is to regulate your blood pressure. If they detect your blood pressure is dropping, your kidneys secrete an enzyme that makes you reabsorb more salt and water, which in turn brings your blood pressure back to normal.

The First Ever Transplant

Dr Joseph Murray carried out the first ever kidney transplant operation in 1954 on identical 23-year-old twins Richard and Ronald Herrick at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston, USA. Richard lived another eight years and Ronald, the donor, is still alive today.

You only need one!

You only actually need one functioning kidney to live a healthy life, which is why they are the most transplanted organ. However, should this one kidney lose 90% of its function, you would need to have dialysis in order to survive. Dialysis works by using a machine to replicate the blood-cleaning function of your kidneys.

Find out more...

Visit the National Kidney Federation's website at www.kidney.org.uk or call their helpline on 0845 601 0209.

 

 

 
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