What Does The Heart Do
The heart is a muscle that pumps blood filled with oxygen to all parts of your body. This job keeps every cell, organ, and system alive within your body. To move blood to each part of your body, your heart relies on your blood vessels. Together, the heart, blood and blood vessels make up a system called the cardiovascular system. Think of it as a delivery system. The delivery system moves blood from the heart carrying oxygen and nutrients throughout your body and also picks up waste products so that your body can get rid of them.
What Else Do Kidneys Do
Kidneys are always busy. Besides filtering the blood and balancing fluids every second during the day, the kidneys constantly react to hormones that the brain sends them. Kidneys even make some of their own hormones. For example, the kidneys produce a hormone that tells the body to make red blood cells.
Now you know what the kidneys do and how important they are. Maybe next Valentine’s Day, instead of the same old heart, you can give your parents a special card featuring the kidneys!
How Common Are These Conditions
The most common urinary issues are bladder infections and urinary tract infections . UTIs are more common in women than in men. More than 60% of women will get a UTI in their lifetime.
About half of women over 65 experience urinary incontinence, usually because of stretched muscles from pregnancy and childbirth. Kidney stones are also fairly common, occurring in about 1 in every 10 people.
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How To Keep The Excretory System Healthy
After learning how does the excretory system work, its also important to know how to keep your excretory process healthy.
1. Hydration
If you dont constantly replenish your water supply, your body reserves water for its most essential functions. Drinking plenty of water will flush your blood and remove toxins.
2. Exercise
When doing exercise, the increase of your heart rate and body temperature will cause your skin to sweat and release waste. Exercising also provides a highly oxygenated blood flow to the major organs of the excretory system.
3. Healthy Diet
Eating a varied diet packed with various sourced of nutrients will benefit the functioning of your excretory system. Processed foods often contain additives and preservatives that require more effort for your excretory system to process, so they are best avoided.
4. No Alcohol or Cigarettes
The toxins in alcohol and cigarettes gradually build up in your body as a burden for your excretory system to flush out. For this reason, it is best to avoid all harmful substances that offer no health or nutritious benefits.
How Does The Excretory System Work
Unlike other organ systems within our bodies, the excretory system is made up of a few different systems which spread throughout the body, working harmoniously to do its job. Below are details of these systems and how they work to excrete waste.
1. Urination
The urination system excretes urea from your body. Urea is produced when your body breaks down food rich in protein. It is then carried through the blood stream to the kidneys. The urea is filtered from the blood by miniscule filtering units within the kidney called nephrons. Urea, along with water and other waste substance, forms urine as it passes through the nephrons and down the renal tube.
From the kidney, the urine passes down two small tubes through to the bladder. Ureters are constantly tightening and relaxing in order to force the urine away from the kidney. Small amounts of urine are released into the bladder from the ureters. Circular muscles called sphincters help to keep the urine from leaking. Nerves in the bladder tell you when its time to empty.
2. Respiration
3. Sweating
Skin is the largest organ on the body. It protects the tissue and organs in the body and keeps the body cool through sweating. Sweating not only helps to lower body temperature, but also removes bacteria, dirt and dead skin cells from the pours, as well as excess water, salt and other wastes from the body.
4. Defecation
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Measuring How Your Kidneys Work
It is difficult to calculate the exact rate at which your kidneys work. The best measure of kidney function is called the glomerular filtration rate . The GFR can be estimated using a mathematical formula. This formula uses the level of creatinine in your blood to estimate how well your kidneys are filtering waste from your blood. It can indicate if there is any kidney damage.
The higher the filtration rate, the better the kidneys are working. A GFR of 100 mL/min/1.73 m2 is in the normal range. This is about equal to 100 per cent kidney function. Based on this measurement system, a GFR of 50 mL/min/1.73 m2 could be called 50 per cent kidney function and a GFR of 30 mL/min/1.73 m2 could be called 30 per cent kidney function.
If your doctor orders a blood test to learn more about your kidney function, an eGFR result is provided automatically, along with your creatinine results.
Your doctor may also test for other signs and conditions that may indicate you have chronic kidney disease. These may include tests for:
- protein in your urine
- blood in your urine
- high blood pressure
- diabetes.
Homeostasis And The Kidneys
The Big Idea
Homeostasis & the Kidney
- Kidneys play an important role in helping the body maintain homeostasis. They have many important functions:
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Filter harmful waste products from the blood and drain them out by urine.
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Balance the level of fluids and salts in the body.
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Control blood pressure.
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Help make red blood cells.
The Essential Questions:
- How do the kidneys help the body maintain homeostasis?
- Why is it important for the kidneys to help the body maintain homeostasis?
- What happens if the kidneys stop working?
Justification for Selection of Content:
- Students previously scored poorly on standardized tests, end-of term test or any other test given in the school or district on this content.
- Misconceptions regarding this content are prevalent.
- Content is suited well for teaching via CBL and EDP pedagogies.
The Hook:
- Discuss that March is Kidney Awareness Month! Maybe do unit in March?
- Contact The National Kidney Foundation in Cincinnati Marcia Hilditch to schedule a speaker
- Different body structures are made up of the same type of cells.
- The cell is a permeable membrane.
- Kidney disease is for older people.
- There is a cure for kidney disease.
Unit Lessons and Activities:
- Discuss that March is Kidney Awareness Month! Maybe do unit in March?
- Contact The National Kidney Foundation in Cincinnati Marcia Hilditch to schedule a speaker
- Activity 3: Osmosis & Diffusion Lab 6.1.03e
Lesson 2:
- Activity 1: Cell Membrane Lab 6.2.01f
-
Hook: Rubber Egg Observations
-
Bubble Membrane Activity
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How Does Kidney Disease Affect Your Body
Kidney disease can affect you in a number of different ways. These include:
Proteinuria or protein in the urine is frequently the earliest symptom of kidney disease. You will have read, in the previous section, how the kidney works and that the kidney has about a million filters. When the kidney is healthy it allows very little protein into the urine. If these filters become leaky, small amounts of protein will leak into the urine. This is frequently an early sign of kidney trouble long before the kidney function itself begins to deteriorate.
Doctors frequently test patients urine for the presence of blood or protein, to try to detect kidney disease early. There are many causes of protein in the urine, including diabetes and glomerulonephritis. Whilst your doctor will conduct a number of special blood tests, to try to determine the underlying cause, it may be necessary to undergo a kidney biopsy, to establish the exact cause of the protein.
Patients who have very large amounts of protein in the urine, , are described as having nephrotic syndrome. Patients with nephrotic syndrome frequently have swollen legs.
Haematuria or blood in the urine can either be present in amounts that you can see or in amounts that you cannot see in which it is only detected with urine testing. Blood in the urine may not appear red but more like strong tea coloured.
How The Kidneys Work
Kidneys are a pair of organs shaped like kidney beans. In children, theyre each about the size of the childs fist.
The most important job of the kidneys is to filter liquid waste from the blood and get rid of it in the form of urine. Kidneys are part of the bodys urinary system.
Each kidney contains millions of tiny structures called nephrons. The nephrons act as filters and work continuously to perform several important functions in the body:
- Filtering waste from the body
The kidneys produce urine to carry the liquid waste and extra fluid they have filtered out of your childs body. The urine travels from the kidneys through tubes called ureters to your childs bladder, where urine is stored. When your child goes to the bathroom, urine passes out through the urethra.
- Maintaining chemical and fluid balance
The kidneys help balance the chemicals in your childs blood, such as sodium, potassium and calcium, by controlling the volume of fluid in the body.
Proper balance is necessary for other systems in the body to work well. An imbalance may affect various organ systems.
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How Do My Kidneys Work
Each of your kidneys is made up of about a million filtering units called nephrons. Each nephron includes a filter, called the glomerulus, and a tubule. The nephrons work through a two-step process: the glomerulus filters your blood, and the tubule returns needed substances to your blood and removes wastes.
Everyday Connections: Stem Cells And Repair Of Kidney Damage
Stem cells are unspecialized cells that can reproduce themselves via cell division, sometimes after years of inactivity. Under certain conditions, they may differentiate into tissue-specific or organ-specific cells with special functions. In some cases, stem cells may continually divide to produce a mature cell and to replace themselves. Stem cell therapy has an enormous potential to improve the quality of life or save the lives of people suffering from debilitating or life-threatening diseases. There have been several studies in animals, but since stem cell therapy is still in its infancy, there have been limited experiments in humans.
Acute kidney injury can be caused by a number of factors, including transplants and other surgeries. It affects 710 percent of all hospitalized patients, resulting in the deaths of 3540 percent of inpatients. In limited studies using mesenchymal stem cells, there have been fewer instances of kidney damage after surgery, the length of hospital stays has been reduced, and there have been fewer readmissions after release.
How do these stem cells work to protect or repair the kidney? Scientists are unsure at this point, but some evidence has shown that these stem cells release several growth factors in endocrine and paracrine ways. As further studies are conducted to assess the safety and effectiveness of stem cell therapy, we will move closer to a day when kidney injury is rare, and curative treatments are routine.
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What Body Systems Do The Kidneys Work With
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What Do The Kidneys Do
Your kidneys are two bean-shaped organs and are usually about the size of your fist. They are located a little below your rib cage and to the left and right of your spine. Your kidneys are powerful chemical factories and have the following jobs:
- Clean your blood of waste products and extra water
- Help control blood pressure
- Keep bones healthy and strong
- Help make red blood cells
- Keep the balance of minerals in your blood
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How Do The Urinary And Circulatory Systems Work Together
The urinary and circulatory systems work together mainly in the unit of the kidneys. The kidneys are a part of the urinary system, but they are also able to help regulate the circulatory system by filtering the blood and allowing it to become more regulated.
The blood enters the urinary system after traveling through the body. This is one of the last stops that it makes before it is circulated back to the heart where it will begin its journey again. It enters into a special part of the kidneys that allows the pH levels to become balanced blood pressure is lowered with the addition of renin in the kidney area.
The kidneys must be able to function properly in order for the circulatory system to function properly. Likewise, the circulatory system must be functioning properly in order deliver the blood to the kidneys where filtering occurs. Kidneys may have decreased function due to infections or diseases, but when kidneys stop working completely the circulatory system will also stop working. There are special procedures, such as dialysis, that allow the blood to continue to be filtered outside of the body without the need for the kidneys to be functioning completely.
How Is Chronic Kidney Disease Detected
Early detection and treatment of chronic kidney disease are the keys to keeping kidney disease from progressing to kidney failure. Some simple tests can be done to detect early kidney disease. They are:
It is especially important that people who have an increased risk for chronic kidney disease have these tests. You may have an increased risk for kidney disease if you:
- are older
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Who Can Help Me With A Urinary Problem
Your primary doctor can help you with some urinary problems. Your pediatrician may be able to treat some of your childs urinary problems. But some problems may require the attention of a urologist, a doctor who specializes in treating problems of the urinary system and the male reproductive system. A gynecologist is a doctor who specializes in the female reproductive system and may be able to help with some urinary problems. A urogynecologist is a gynecologist who specializes in the female urinary system. A nephrologist specializes in treating diseases of the kidney.
Everything You Need To Know About The Urinary System
Your body is composed of hundreds of systems working together to keep you healthy and strong. One of these systems, the urinary system, operates like a plumbing system. Your kidneys, ureters, bladder, and other components work together to produce, store, and eliminate urine from your body.1 Its a pretty straightforward process, but is essential for your bodys maintenance of day-to-day life. In this article, well explore everything you need to know about the urinary system and its associated diseases.
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Each Body System Works With The Others
Each individual body system works in conjunction with other body systems. The circulatory system is a good example of how body systems interact with each other. Your heart pumps blood through a complex network of blood vessels. When your blood circulates through your digestive system, for example, it picks up nutrients your body absorbed from your last meal. Your blood also carries oxygen inhaled by the lungs. Your circulatory system delivers oxygen and nutrients to the other cells of your body then picks up any waste products created by these cells, including carbon dioxide, and delivers these waste products to the kidneys and lungs for disposal. Meanwhile, the circulatory system carries hormones from the endocrine system, and the immune systems white blood cells that fight off infection.
Each of your body systems relies on the others to work well. Your respiratory system relies on your circulatory system to deliver the oxygen it gathers, while the muscles of your heart cannot function without the oxygen they receive from your lungs. The bones of your skull and spine protect your brain and spinal cord, but your brain regulates the position of your bones by controlling your muscles. The circulatory system provides your brain with a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood while your brain regulates your heart rate and blood pressure.
How Does The Excretory System Interact With Other Systems
excretory systemurinarysystemsystemsystem
. Similarly, it is asked, how do the excretory and integumentary systems interact?
Excretion and homeostasis The main function of the integumentary and excretory system is to excrete waste. The integumentary system does it by excreting sweat, and the excretory system does it by excreting urine. The excretory system helps keep the body fluids at a constant level.
Subsequently, question is, what systems are in the excretory system? The Excretory system is responsible for the elimination of wastes produced by homeostasis. There are several parts of the body that are involved in this process, such as sweat glands, the liver, the lungs and the kidney system. Every human has two kidneys.
Then, how does the excretory system work with the immune system?
The immune system works to get rid of any bad pathogens that enter your body and the excretory or urinary system removes the liquid waste from your body. The muscular system helps move body fluids like blood and lymph through the body and, therefore, helps the immune system get its cells around the body.
What are the major organs of the excretory system?
Organs of excretion make up the excretory system. They include the kidneys, large intestine, liver, skin, and lungs. The kidneys filter blood and form urine. They are part of the urinary system, which also includes the ureters, bladder, and urethra.
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