Kidneys: The COOL Nerds
If your body was High School, the Brain would be Valedictorian, the Heart would be the Quarterback, the Lungs would be the Cheerleaders, the Liver would be the Cool Guy who has all the parties. But, the Kidneys would be the nerds. Yup. The ones that do all the hard work, but never actually get the credit. The little guys in the back of the room, picked last for Dodgeball, but are secretly endurance machines? That's the kidneys.
The main function of the kidneys is to filter out blood and create urine. That sounds really simple, right? NOPE! There is so much more to your kidneys. Only about the size of your palm, or a computer mouse, but there is a lot packed inside.
Blood enters the kidney from the renal artery and travels through ever-shrinking arteries until it reaches the nephron, where the dirty work actually happens. Inside the Nephron, blood starts at the Glomerular Capsule (Also called a Bowman's Capsule, easier to say!) and goes into the Glomerulus (which is even harder to say and doesn't have a nickname). The Glomerulus is made up of blood capillaries, all stuffed in the Bowman's Capsule, causing lots of folds and bends. These capillaries have very high blood pressure to allow for the filtration of the blood. The blood travels through the glomerulus and out through the Efferent Arteriole. What is filtered out from the blood is urine and travels into the Renal Tubule. The Renal Tubule has 4 parts:
Proximal Convoluted Tube (PCT) - the part closest to the Bowman's Capsule
Nephron Loop - This is a sharp descent, quick turn, and sharp ascent in the nephron, think hair pin.
Distal Convoluted Tube (DCT) - The part further away from the Bowman's Capsule
Collecting Duct - Several DCTs will join here and the tubule straightens out
That covers filtration, but re-absorption and secretion also occur within the nephron. This is where the body gets back some of the stuff that was filtered, mostly electrolytes, but also water and glucose. This re-absorption happens between the renal tubule and the peritubular capillaries (Totally Tubular!)
In secretion, the blood does re-absorption in reverse. Extra potassium, hydrogen, ions, drugs, urea, uric acid and creatine exit the blood and enter the urine.
The collecting duct connects to the renal pelvis, which leads to the ureter. The ureter leads to your bladder and then your urethra, and then the toilet (hopefully).
So that is your kidneys! They do so much, filter blood, make urine, add nutrients, subtract nutrients. Every minute, your kidneys filter 1/5th of your blood! That is more than any other organ. See why they would be perfect for dodgeball?
It is important to keep your kidneys healthy so that they can keep doing the hard work. There's lots of things that can go wrong such as kidney stones, chronic kidney disease, and urinary tract infections. Each of these can lead into very serious issues if left untreated. Some good foods to incorporate into your diet to keep your kidneys running include berries (cran, blue, and elder), dark leafy greens, like kale (not spinach, for reasons you can read here: https://sararocksnutrition.blogspot.com/2019/09/spinach-and-muscle-growth.html), and plant-based proteins, like kidney beans.
If you think you could use some help with your kidneys or other nutrition questions, I'd love to assist!
Source:
Thibodeau, Gary A., and Kevin T. Patton. Structure & Function of the Body. Elsevier, 2016.
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