Skip to main content. How Your Kidneys Work. For example, kidneys: Help remove waste and excess fluid Filter the blood, keeping some compounds while removing others Control the production of red blood cells Make vitamins that control growth Release hormones that help regulate blood pressure Help regulate blood pressure, red blood cells, and the amount of certain nutrients in the body, such as calcium and potassium.
How is your kidney health? Use our online curriculum to get individualized information for your stage of kidney disease. Enter Kidney Pathways. Here's how kidneys perform their important work:. The kidney and urinary systems help the body to eliminate liquid waste called urea, and to keep chemicals, such as potassium and sodium, and water in balance. Urea is produced when foods containing protein, such as meat, poultry, and certain vegetables, are broken down in the body.
Urea is carried in the bloodstream to the kidneys, where it is removed along with water and other wastes in the form of urine. Other important functions of the kidneys include blood pressure regulation and the production of erythropoietin, which controls red blood cell production in the bone marrow.
Kidneys also regulate the acid-base balance and conserve fluids. Two kidneys. This pair of purplish-brown organs is located below the ribs toward the middle of the back.
Their function is to:. The kidneys remove urea from the blood through tiny filtering units called nephrons. Each nephron consists of a ball formed of small blood capillaries, called a glomerulus, and a small tube called a renal tubule.
Urea, together with water and other waste substances, forms the urine as it passes through the nephrons and down the renal tubules of the kidney. Two ureters. When you're asked to give a urine sample during a doctor's visit, the results reveal how well your two kidneys are working. For example, white blood cells in the urine can be a sign of an infection. Pee also is a way for your body to keep the right amount of water.
Did you ever notice that if you drink a lot, you pee more and the pee is pale yellow? That's because your body is getting rid of extra water and your pee has more water in it than usual. Let's talk more about how the kidneys filter blood. When blood goes through the kidneys, water and some of the other stuff that is in blood like protein, glucose, and other nutrients go back into the bloodstream, while the waste and excess stuff is taken out.
Urine is what is left behind. But what is it exactly? Once pee is produced, it travels from the kidney to the bladder, where it's stored until you need to go to the bathroom.
The bladder expands as it fills; when it's full, nerve endings in the bladder wall send a message to the brain that you need to pee. When you're in the bathroom, ready to go, the bladder walls contract and the sphincter a ringlike muscle that guards the exit from the bladder to the urethra relaxes.
The urine then flows from the bladder and out of the body through the urethra. For boys, the urethra ends at the tip of the penis.
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