rich diet will result in more formation of urea in the urine. This is because the proteins get de-aminated in the liver with subsequent formation of urea. Even sugar can appear in a normal person after a heavy intake.

If other conditions are constant, a large intake of liquids or water - rich food increases the volume of water in the blood, hence more urine is excreted.

Urine contains 96% of water 2.5% of organic substances (urea, uric acid, creatine, creatinine, water soluble vitamins, hormones, and oxalates etc) and 1.5% of inorganic solutes (sodium, chloride, phosphate, sulphate, magnesium, calcium, iodine).
It is acidic (pH=6.0)in the beginning but becomes alkaline on standing due to decomposition of urea to form ammonia.

What happens if both kidneys fail completely?

Complete and irreversible kidney failure is called End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD). If kidneys stop working completely, our body is filled with extra water and waste products. This condition is called uremia. Our hands or feet may swell. You feel tired and weak because your body needs clean blood to function properly. Is there any solution to this problem? Let us know about artificial kidney.

Dialysis Machine (Artificial kidney)

Kidneys are vital organs for survival. Several factors like infections, injury, very high blood pressure, very high blood sugar or restricted blood flow to kidneys. This leads to accumulation of poisonous wastes in the body and leads to death. Dialysis machine is used to filter the blood of a person when both kidneys are damaged. The process is called ‘haemodialysis’.

In this process blood is taken out from the main artery, mixed with an anticoagulant, such as heparin, and then pumped into the apparatus called dialyzer. In this apparatus blood flows through channels or tubes which are madeup of cellophane. These tubes are embedded in the dialyzing fluid. The membrane separates the blood flowing inside the tube and dialyzing fluid (dialysis), which has the same composition as that of plasma, except the nitrogenous wastes.

As nitrogenous wastes are absent in dialyzing fluids, these substances from the blood move out freely, there by cleaning the blood of its wastes.

This process is called dialysis. This is similar to function of the kidney but is different as there is no reabsorption involved .The cleaned blood is pumped back to the body through a vein after adding anti-coagulant (heparin).