OVERVIEW OF THE KIDNEYS ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY
Everyone wants a long life. We all want to see our grand children. if possible, our great grand kids. However, it is tough to accept the fact that long life comes with a price to pay. This price is healthy living.
The diseases of the kidney is one which is greatly suffered by individuals of all age brackets. It knows not kids and adults. Attract is, and it will come with its own wrath.
When i was still a nursing student, i was posted to Federal Medical Center Umuahia, Abia state to gain experience. Guess what i noticed.. I saw that the most frequently suffered disease was Acute and Chronic kidney disease. Though i did not check the the statistics to know the specific percentage of adults and children suffering from this dreadful disease, it could be said that this disease is the number 1 most occurring disease, followed by hypertension and diabetes.
It is very important to take note and be very careful of what what we eat and drink and how often we eat these foods. Wishing for long life and good health does not only stop there. In other to truely achieve this, works and discipline needs to be upheld.
I would not want my first post in this community to be about diseases and illness, however, i will first talk about the anatomy of the kidney, and also the physiology of urine formation.
This is just an overview, i would not go too deep to explain or call terminologies. it is basically for the readers to understand the subsequent posts i will make about the diseases of the kidney.
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE KIDNEY?
There are many articles out there that talks about the structure and shape of the kidney. one thing that is very common about these description is that the kidney is a bean shaped organ.
What is an organ? you may ask. different cells (epithelial cells) in the body forms a tissue (kidney tissues) yeah? well different tissues join together to form an organ (the kidneys). it do not just stop there - different organs come to form a system (urinary system), and different systems comes together to form we as humans. Basically, you can say that we are all minerals, salts, chemicals, nutrients, and elements.
Each human has a pair of this bean shaped organ, each located at the sides of the vertebral column, at the posterior abdominal wall. the weight and size differs but on average, it weighs about 150 grams.
This bean shaped organ is responsible for many functions that has to do with water regulation in the body. It is protected by an outer capsule, an inner cortex, and a middle medulla and an inner. each of these structures has their different make up and functions. it is important to know that the kidneys lie below the diaphragm, and not in the thoracic cavity (above the diaphragm).
its functions includes:
The kidney is a very vital organ that aids in homeostasis.
Urine formation is the basic function of the kidney.
Excretion of waste products is another function
Production and secretion of hormones is also a function of the kidneys.
Microscopically, the kidneys contains a Nephron which is the basic site for urine production in the kidney. This nephron is essentially a tube that is closed in one end by the glomerulus (bowmans capsule) and open in the other (collecting duct).
imagine a funnel that has a filter in its cup-shaped head, with a long intertwined tube. that is basically how the nephron is. it is literally a filter to remove vitamins and minerals and also excrete waste into the processing urine.
There are different structures that aid this process. 5 to be exact.
Glomerular capsule
Proximal convoluted tubules
Distal convoluted tubules
Medillary loop of henle
Collecting duct
not to forget,
- The efferent and afferent arterioles.
Arterioles are basically small arteries that connects with the capillaries. The capillaries then connects with the venules to join the vein.
HOW DOES THE NEPHRON MAKES URINE?
I said i dont want to go deep, but well, it cant be helped.
Blood from the afferent arterioles enters into the glomerular capsule. This capsule is cup-shaped and it contains a filter called the glomeruli. this filter filters the blood to get the water from it. it does not allow big particles like the blood cells to pass through it. This is why it is a problem when a person has haematuria. The filtrate goes down the next floor where the proximal convoluted tubules is king. Here, the king takes back what belongs to the body. every important nutrient, vitamins or minerals that escaped will be recaptured and sent back to prison. lol, just kidding. sent back to the bloodstream. the same thing happens in the loop of henle. the loop absorbs more water and vitamins then push it to the next phase.
Next, the filtrate is allowed to go down the chain. The distal convoluted tubules comes into action to secret the unwanted wastes of the body. i would call this tubule the garbage man of the kidneys. haha. after the discarding of waste into the urine, it will go down to the collecting duct. many of this collecting ducts join to form the renal pelvis which forms the ureters and voom, a pathway for the mighty urine is created into the bladder. it is stored temporarily in the bladder, and from there, it goes out through the urethra as urine.
RECAP
We were able to talk about the kidneys, where we said that it is a bean-shaped organ that is responsible for urine formation and excretion of waste. though it is inside the body, it still has its own protection.
urine formation is a process carried out by the nephron - the functional unit of urine formation which has other structures that aid in this process.
I the subsequent posts, i will talk about the diseases of the kidney.
All information provided in this post are from the lectures received in class when i was still a student. the researcher did their works, and i paid to get this information when i was in school. Now, i am here to share it to everyone so they could update their knowledge.
Thank you for reading.
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