Introductions: Your kidneys are bean shaped organ, each about the size of your fist. They are located near the middle of your back, just below your rib cage. Kidneys work as filters that filter waste products and extra water from your blood and produce urine as a result. The average adult passes between 0.8L and 2.6L per day, depending on the fluids a person consumes. The tiny units inside your kidneys, called nephrons, are the actual filtering unit. Every kidney has about a million nephrons. Most kidney diseases attack the nephrons, altering their ability to filter blood and produce urine.

Kidney failure means that the kidney will lose one or more of the following functions:

1. Filtering ability

Normal nephrons act as barriers for large molecules such as proteins and red blood cells. Losing this ability means that protein and/or red blood cells are likely to be detected in urine.

2. Concentrating ability

After filtering, kidney will reabsorb almost 99% of the filtrate back to the blood to retain body water. Loosing this ability means that the body will loose more water. Clear signs for this are the increased frequency of urinations and diluted urine.

3. By-products removing

A major task for the kidneys is to help the body getting rid of metabolism waste products. This is such as the Urea and Creatinine. Urea is a by-product of protein while creatinine is a by-product of muscle energy metabolism. These two compounds are usually present in the urine at high concentrations. Having them at low level in urine means that they are not filtered and they are kept in blood.

Directions: