GOD has gifted humans with two kidneys, probably in His wisdom and mercy, knew that some of His creatures may need a transplanted kidney in the course of their journey on Earth.
And yes, to answer a question a lot of our readers have at the back of their minds, but were too shy to ask, a person could live normal and healthy life, even with just one kidney- of course with some modification in lifestyle especially in terms of diet, particularly salt and water intake.
The right kidney is a few centimeters lower than the left kidney because of the massive liver above pushing it down.
They have a retroperitoneal location, meaning they are not covered by the serous membranes covering most of the organs in the abdominal cavity, and affectation of the kidneys are discomfort or pain on the backside of the person just below the posterior rib cage, not in the middle portion of the middle half of the back.
Our teacher in renal physiology had emphasized a fact, which your columnist would like to repeat that the formation of urine is NOT the main function of the kidneys.
Urine is formed as the result of the different processes undergone by the various parts of the kidneys being the major excretory organ of the human body, thus the removal of toxic waste, mostly nitrogenous in nature as well as other harmful metabolites, which may have undergone a previous initial transformation as well as detoxification by the liver.
The kidneys are also responsible for the maintenance of normal blood levels of electrolytes such as sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphates and of course water, plus to make sure that at any given time of the day and night, the ph of the blood is within the normal range of 7.38-7.42.
Most , if not all students of the health sciences know the crucial role of the kidneys in the regulation of blood pressure thru the RAAS or the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which in its simple form, explains why, if a person has hypertension, one of the major advices is to limit the intake of salt, because of its high attraction for water would increase the so-called cardiac output, amount of blood ejected by the heart in one full minute of contraction- thus, raising the blood pressure. A not –so-well-known function of the kidneys is its endocrine role in the secretion of erythropoietin.
Also known as hemopoetin and the more descriptive name, erythrocyte stimulating factor, this hormone –like substance is secreted by the kidneys when a person has hypoxia- low oxygen levels in the blood- then goes to the bone marrow to stimulate the formation of more red blood cells.
Hopefully, at this juncture, our readers can now connect why most kidney patients, whether on dialysis or not, are anemic- pale because they have less red blood cells especially its hemoglobin load.
The nephron is the basic functional unit of the kidneys; an adult has about 1.2 million nephrons in each kidney.
In diabetes mellitus, the part of the nephron that is affected is the glomerulus, which in health, is like a filter with a definite size of pores or opening which under normal conditions, and should not allow substances from the blood like sugar or glucose, proteins like albumin, to filter through and escape into the urine.