As we all know, the kidneys are important organs of the human body and there are two of them, located on both sides of the spine at the waist. Like twin brothers, they have three main tasks: excrete metabolic waste from the body, maintain the balance of water, electrolytes and acid-base, and produce some signaling molecules that make the body function properly (i.e. endocrine function). If these functions of the kidneys are damaged, the human body will get various diseases; if the kidneys fail completely, it is to have uremia, and if not treated in time, the person will die.
In general, the body’s intake and excretion of substances in a relative balance, that is, how much intake or absorption, how much excretion. It should be noted that the undigested part of food is excreted in the form of feces, which does not really enter the human organism from the physiological point of view. Therefore the substance that is really absorbed into the human bloodstream, its metabolites, the vast majority of which are excreted through the kidneys, and of course a small amount is excreted through the biliary tract, sweat, respiratory tract, etc.
What people eat, most of them eventually have to be excreted from the kidneys, their work is very hard, just like the city sanitation workers; therefore a reasonable diet is very important to protect the health of the kidneys and the human body.
The learning of drinking water
The most part inside the urine is water. First of all, let’s see what we should pay attention to when we drink water in general.
First, for the average healthy adult, you need to drink more than 2 liters of water a day.
There are about 150 liters of water and dissolved small molecules in the blood in the human body every day through the filtration of the glomerulus in the kidney, the vast majority of water and useful substances are reabsorbed by the renal tubules in the kidney, and the remaining waste is concentrated and discharged from the body with urine. The volume of urine in adults is usually about 1.5 liters, so some components in urine are almost 100 times more concentrated than in blood, which requires the kidneys to go through hard labor and consume a lot of energy.
It is generally believed that in order to excrete the waste produced in the body throughout the day, it takes the kidneys to produce at least 0.5 liters of urine. However, the concentration of waste products in the urine will be so much higher than normal, which not only adds to the burden of the kidneys’ concentration work, but may also have toxic effects on the kidneys. The most common and typical example is the production of certain kidney stones, which may be related to the regular over-concentration of urine.
Therefore, in order to provide enough water for the kidneys to work properly, plus the approximately 0.5 liters of water excreted daily through the skin and respiratory tract, the body needs about 2 liters of water per day, which can of course include water contained in other foods. Then, in the summer heat and a lot of exercise, etc., sweat increases, it is necessary to take in more water; generally 3 liters per day is not too much. Therefore a lot of health information preaching about drinking 8 glasses of water a day is justified.
Those who drink less water because of their habits and busy work, etc. should pay attention to the fact that your kidneys may be in a state of high workload, and the concentration of waste in urine is high, which is bad for human health and kidneys in the long run.
So will drinking more water increase the burden on the kidneys? According to the above principles, we can know that if the appropriate amount of more water, for healthy people, as long as attention is paid to the appropriate replenishment of electrolytes, generally will not increase the burden on the kidneys, but due to the reduction of the concentration burden, to a certain extent beneficial to the kidneys. Of course too much water is not necessary, and a large amount of water in a short period of time, absorbed into the blood, but also increase the burden on the heart.
Second, the amount of water to drink in time needs to be relatively evenly distributed, and at the same time to adjust according to the day and night rule and special circumstances.
Then the total amount of water to drink a day solved, the next is to drink water according to the time distribution problem.
The human body in the case of fasting, drinking water to the stomach, about 8 minutes can be absorbed into the blood, if the human body is relatively not water shortage at this time, about less than two hours, most of the water will be discharged by the kidneys to the bladder.
Therefore, if you are in a time, the day will need to drink all the water, the role of health will be greatly reduced, in the rest of most of the time the human body is still in a relatively dehydrated state, so the 8 cups of water need to be relatively evenly distributed, each drink interval is best not more than 2 hours.
Then some friends will ask: “What about at night? It is not the middle of the night, always have to get up, and is drinking water and urine, annoying!” Don’t worry, under the regulation of the human body’s biological clock, the kidneys produce urine at night at a much lower rate, so in general there is no need to replenish water at night. If the body is not dehydrated during the day, there is no need to add special water before going to bed, which will instead cause some people, especially the elderly, to urinate more at night, affecting sleep. Just after waking up in the morning, the body is in a state of relative dehydration, blood concentration, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease high incidence of time, the need to drink a certain amount of water before the morning exercise and breakfast.
In addition, the body’s metabolic waste production according to the time distribution is not uniform, such as during the New Year holidays, more social gatherings, a large intake of food, increased kidney burden, you need more water than usual to help the discharge of waste. If in a state of illness, such as a cold and fever, and the need for medication, often produce more waste, then need to drink extra water. Therefore, it is often said that if you drink more water for a cold, you will get better faster, and there is some truth to this. This will not only speed up the discharge of waste, but also replenish the extra water discharged from the skin and respiratory tract due to the increase in body temperature, and also reduce the burden on the kidneys. As for diseases such as diarrhea, not to mention that we can easily understand.
Third, the type of water to drink also need to pay attention to, it is best to boiled water, never to drink completely instead of water.
Now living conditions are better, some friends have developed the habit of drinking a lot of drinks for a long time, which is not a healthy way of life. You should know that most of the drinks contain a lot of sugar and a small amount of preservatives and other additives, and drinking a lot of these drinks can cause excess energy in the body. Some people have calculated that one bottle (0.5 liter) of some drinks is equivalent to the calories of one or two steamed buns or a small bowl of rice.
At the same time, drinking a lot of beverages will cause more waste to be eliminated from the body, and will affect the absorption of certain nutrients, which will have an impact on human health. For example, it affects the absorption of calcium, which may cause stunted growth in children and osteoporosis in adults in the long run.
Personally, it is best to drink water mainly plain water. If the local tap water quality is not particularly good, and the economy is not a problem, the quality assurance of pure water boiled before drinking, the general public is the best choice. It is not recommended to drink some kind of mineral water for a long time; and tea of appropriate concentration, is also a good choice.
In the case of a lot of sweating, you can also add some salt to your drinking water, or eat more fruit as appropriate, to replenish the loss of salt. For example, we often see on TV, soccer players in between kicks, back to the field to drink their own bottle of water, this is the nutritionist according to the situation of each athlete in the water with a different proportion of electrolytes in the water, can not be exchanged with each other. In the case of more serious diarrhea, the doctor will also give the patient some water with electrolytes, for example, there is a balanced salt solution; if the water alone or simple saline is supplemented, it will cause an imbalance of electrolytes or acid-base.