About
Kidney Disease
 Functions
of the Kidney
Your kidneys play an important part in keeping your body healthy.
They are about as big as a fist and weigh about five or six ounces.
The kidneys are powerful chemical factories that perform the following
functions:
* Remove
waste products from the body
* Balance the body's fluids
* Synthesize the vitamins which control
growth
* Control the production of red blood
cells
* Release hormones which regulate blood
pressure
The functions listed above are carried out by one
million functioning units called nephrons. A nephron consists
of a filtering unit of tiny blood vessels called a glomerulus
attached to a tubule. Fluid then passes along the tubule. In
the tubule, chemicals and water are either added to or removed from
this filtered fluid according to the body's needs, the final product
being the urine we excrete.
Kidney
Failure
If both kidneys cannot function, waste products and water will build
up in the body. This is called uremia.
You will have some serious health problems if you have less than
20 percent of your renal function. If your renal function
drops below 10 to 15 percent, you cannot live long without some
form of renal replacement therapy, either dialysis or transplantation.
There are two types of Kidney Failure
Acute Renal Failure is a sudden and
complete loss of kidney function. Some causes of acute renal
failure are, accidents, medicines, surgery, low blood pressure from
shock or serious infections. In acute renal failure, the kidneys
will start working again in one to four weeks with medical treatment.
Chronic renal failure is a decrease
of kidney function in both kidneys over a period of time.
The most common reasons for this are:
1.
Kidney diseases
2. Damage to
the kidney from diabetes, heart disease, drug abuse or high blood
pressure
3. Kidney infections
4. Kidney stones
or a blockage present from birth
Treatment of Kidney Disease
Some kidney diseases can be successfully treated and others progress
to advanced kidney failure.
Kidney failure is treated with a special diet, medicines, regular
dialysis treatments and, possibly, a kidney transplant. Your
treatment is based on your special needs. Age, the type of
kidney disease, state of health, and your lifestyle are a few of
the things that your doctor considers.
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