How Well Do You Know
Your Kidneys?
o What's the main job of your kidneys?
o Get rid of waste
o Keep you hydrated
o Control your temperature
o Your kidneys have a lot of work to do. They
remove waste and extra fluids from your
body. They also keep your levels of salt and
potassium in check. And they make
hormones that help with blood pressure and
making red blood cells.
Each of your kidneys is about the size of:
o A kidney bean
o A fist
o A football
o Your two kidneys are shaped like beans,
and each is about the size of your fist.
They're located at the bottom of the rib
cage on either side of your spine.
o About how much blood do your
kidneys filter every day?
o 1 gallon
o 50 quarts
o 200 quarts
o Your kidneys sift through enough blood to fill
a large bathtub every day. After the body
takes what it needs, the kidneys turn the
waste and extra water into urine -- usually
about 2 quarts' worth a day.
o You can live with one kidney.
o True
o False
o Thousands of people donate kidneys each
year and stay healthy afterward. In fact,
it's the No. 1 most common organ
donated in the world. You can give a
kidney to a friend, family member, or even
a stranger.
o Some people are born with one kidney. If
one is missing, damaged, or removed,
your other one can grow larger to
become nearly the size of two kidneys.
That helps it do the job of both.
o Kidney stones are usually the size of a
tennis ball.
o True
o False
o Kidney stones form when there's too much
of a certain substance (like calcium) in your
urine. They can stay in your kidney or travel
down the urinary tract, where you'd pee it
out.
o Kidney stones are different shapes and sizes.
As painful as they can be to pass, the stones
can be as tiny as a grain of sand or as big
as a pearl -- or rarely a golf ball. You may
be more likely to get a kidney stone if other
people in your family have had them.
o Which of these is a common cause of
kidney disease?
o Diabetes
o High blood pressure
o Both
o High blood pressure can hurt small blood
vessels in the kidneys, making it harder for
them to do their job. If you have diabetes,
unused blood sugar can damage your
kidneys. Taking some blood pressure drugs –
specifically, ACE inhibitors or ARBs -- can help
protect your kidneys from disease.
o Which of these could be a sign something
may be wrong with your kidneys?
o Constipation
o Peeing a lot
o A barky cough
o Early on, people with kidney disease usually
don't have symptoms. But as things get
worse, a change in bathroom habits -having to go more or less -- can be a sign
you have a problem. You may also feel tired,
have muscle cramps, lose your appetite, and
have swollen hands or feet and dry, itchy
skin.
o What do you need if your kidneys stop
working?
o A kidney transplant
o Dialysis
o Either one
o When your kidneys completely stop working,
your body fills up with wastes, fluids, and
toxins. You either need a new kidney, or to
go on dialysis -- that’s when a machine acts
as an artificial kidney, cleaning your blood.
You may need dialysis daily or a few times a
week.
o When you're dehydrated, your urine is
usually:
o Clear
o Dark yellow
o Pinkish
o Not drinking enough water and other fluids
can lead to dehydration. That can damage
your kidneys and even cause kidney stones.
Take a look when you go to the bathroom: Is
your urine clear to light yellow? It should be if
you're drinking enough liquids.
o Which medicines are more likely to hurt your
kidneys?
o Antidepressants
o Certain painkillers
o Vitamins
o Because it's your kidney's job to filter your
blood, too much of anything in your
bloodstream can be bad. Certain pain
medicine -- like aspirin, ibuprofen, and
naproxen -- can damage your kidneys,
especially if you take too much, too often.
Don't take more than the recommended
dose on the label.
o Drink plenty of water. And talk to your doctor
if you use the drugs more than once in a
while.