Learning about kidney facts, its structure, and function perhaps sounds both complicated and mundane initially.
However, these are the very basics that could help you understand the kidney disease process-of-your-interest well, and make the right choices to navigate your patient experience favourably.
We, at All Things Kidney (ATK), understand this. So here’s presenting all that you need to need to know about your Kidneys — the most resilient major organ in your body.
If you are a member of the kidney community – whether as a patient, caregiver, advocate or knowledge seeker – it is likely that you have come across the term “Glomerular Filtration Rate” or more commonly, the GFR. Perhaps you are also aware that this term broadly relates to your kidney’s functional capacity.
But do you completely understand what GFR really is?
How does your medical team clinically assess the GFR for your kidneys?
How valid is it throughout your CKD journey?
And is it always indicative of the true health status of your kidneys?
All these are some very pertinent questions that each member of the Kidney Community, especially the patients & caregivers must thoroughly know the answers to. And that is exactly what we are here to help you with, today. Continue reading “Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR)”→
Normally, Urine produced by healthy kidneys is a cocktail of toxic waste products of cellular metabolism, a host of minerals, salts, smelly organic compounds & excess water. (Find the complete normal urine composition here). These components begin to get together to form Urine once healthy kidney micro-filters “strain” our blood through themselves. These micro-filters are uber-selective with what they “let-out” into the urine. This is such that, all blood cells & “plasma” proteins remain in the bloodstream while the wastes & excesses purge themselves out.
But what makes these Kidney Micro-filters that selective against leakage of blood cells & protein in urine?
“Hello there! We are your Kidneys and we love to drink your blood! Haha!!
Image 1: Creative Illustration of Human Kidneys ; Copyright: www.allthingskidney.com
Just “Kidney”-ing!
There is a lot of interesting material written about us from the human perspective, both in print and electronic media. But we kidneys believe that adding our own perspective to such a knowledge base is critical to complete the kidney-facts repository in the real sense. So let’s begin with the absolute basics, shall we?
I have been thinking about this for a while now. How would it be, if we decided to assign a gender to our organs based on their “inherent nature”. Without hesitation, I’ll call ourkidneys, female.
Somewhat like our Mums actually! (Yeah, you read that right).
This cute, smooth, bean-shaped major organ-pair is:
“Effortlessly multitasking”
“Hygiene-conscious”
“Meticulous”
“Complex yet super-organized”
“Layered & difficult to understand at times”
“Fantastically resilient to all external stress”(up until it gets unbearable of course)
and above all
“Holds the entire organ-family from “falling apart”
All quintessential mommy traits eh?
Time to bring kidneys to the limelight for all she’s worth then?
So, watch this space for more to obtain a medically accurate understanding of this beautiful but highly underrated organ.
Unleash the power of knowing. Beat the apprehension/confusion/ignorance surrounding kidneys in health & disease.
Stay well, all of you!
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