Know The Other Important Functions Of Kidney Besides Urine Excretion

We all know that kidney is the main excretory organ of the human body. But kidney performs several other functions besides that also. Today, I'm gonna tell in brief about those functions. I'll try not to go into fine details as that will be tough to understand and time-consuming at the same time.

You can check other Physiology facts by going to the link below -

• Physiology - Daily Dose.

1. Renin - Angiotensin system (RAS)

RAS plays an important role in the regulation of blood pressure in our body.

• Decreased Sodium concentration causes a decrease in the renal blood flow. In simpler terms, blood flow to the kidneys is reduced. This, in turn, causes a reduction in the glomerular filtration rate.

• Such phenomenon stimulates "Juxtaglomerular cells" which in turn secrets Renin.

• Renin causes conversion of Angiotensin to Angiotensin I. Angiotensin converting enzyme from the lungs, converts Angiotensin I into Angiotensin II. Angiotensin II causes vasoconstriction and your blood pressure increases. It also causes secretion of aldosterone.

2. Helping in the formation of red blood cells (RBC)

• Erythropoietin is a hormone which controls Erythropoiesis or the production of RBCs. Erythropoietin (EPO) is secreted by peritubular interstitial cells of the kidney.

• Decreased oxygen levels cause phosphorylation of "Hypoxia-inducible factor 1-alpha (HIF-1-alpha)." Then HIF-1-alpha and "aryl hydrocarbon receptor nuclear translocator" forms a heterodimeric transcription factor. This heterodimer enters causes formation of EPO-gene.

• EPO-gene increases EPO-mRNA formation. EPO-mRNA helps in the formation of Erythropoietin.

3. Buffer system

The increase of hydrogen ion concentration in your body is termed as acidosis (Decreased pH). The increase of bases in your body is termed as alkalosis (Increased pH). Kidney maintains body pH by following four buffer systems -

• Phosphate buffer system.

• Bicarbonate buffer system.

• Ammonia buffer system.

• Weak acid buffer system.

4. Vitamin D

The active form of Vitamin D is 1,25-dihydroxycholecalciferol (1,25-DHCC). Enzyme 1-alpha-hydroxylase causes the conversion of 1,25-DHCC from 25-HCC. This particular enzyme is secreted by proximal convoluted tubule of the nephron in the kidney.

Conclusion

You can read articles from our popular "Fun Facts" series from the links below -

• Fun Facts - Read To Get Surprised.
• Fun Fact - Sahara is not the largest desert.

Need to loose some weight. Have a look here - Loose your weight in the best way possible.

As you can see from the above data, kidney performs many important functions in our body. If you wanna know in details about these functions, feel free to leave a comment below or contact us by going here - Contact Us.

Looking For The Best Way Of Losing Weight?

So, you are looking for the best way of losing weight? I'll try to answer your question today. This is a story about my own journey as I also lost about 15kgs in the past year or so. Everything I'm going to tell you today is from my own experience. Follow them strictly and you'll lose weight in no time.

I'll start this article by saying that I'm a Physiology student. So:


I know about nutrition and other related things. Don't even try to follow any steps or procedures from a random website on the internet. Their methods will help you reduce weight but you'll lose protein also. Protein is one of the most important elements for maintaining the human body's internal milieu.

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Have to lose fat then?

So, you should lose fat to lose weight, right? That's another wrong conception. I mean, you have to lose fat to lose weight but fat is also essential for human body. The cell membrane is made up of lipids and protein. Fats:


They are nothing but a subset of lipid. So loosing too much fat can badly affect the exchange of various things (like nutrients) between blood and cell. So what should you do to lose weight then? Don't worry, I've got you covered. Let's do some math first.

• 1gm of fat = 9 calories. (Approximate)
• 1gm of protein = 4 calories. (Approximate)
• 1gm of carbohydrate = 4 calories. (Approximate)

Excess weight is mainly stored as fat in our body. So if you have to lose 1kg of fat, you need to burn approximately:

1000gm * 9 = 9000 calories.

This is also an absurd equation used by every random nutrition-related website over the internet. Your body is not an idiot. Actually, it is smarter than you think. Confused?

As you start to lose weight, your body becomes aware of that and slows down your metabolism. The decreased metabolism will also decrease the rate of your weight loss. So, you need to uptake lesser and lesser calories to lose weight at the previous rate.

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Cold water

Drink lots of water. Drink cold water if possible. Cold water acts as a negative-calorie food. Your body will have to produce heat to bring the cold water down to normal temperature. In the process to generate heat, your body will utilise nutrients. This is a small but effective way to lose fat.

No Carbohydrates, please

If you're serious about dieting, make carbohydrates a no-go in your daily routine. If you eat a lot of carbohydrates, your body will simply convert the carbohydrate into:

Ah! You guessed it, lipids. So if you really wanna go on a diet, go on a protein diet. Some commonly consumed foods that contain a lot of carbohydrates are listed below -

• Rice.
• Puffed rice.
• Potatoes.
• Sugar
• Fruit Juice. Eat direct fruit instead.
• Ice-creams.
• Bread.
• Cold drinks.

Commonly consumed foods that are rich in proteins are listed below -

• Egg white.
• Chicken.
• Pork.
• Most vegetables.

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Good cholesterol, bad cholesterol

Another term that is being overused to fool the general public. There's no such thing as good or bad cholesterol. It is either good lipid or bad lipid. Lipids act as carriers of cholesterol in the blood. Cholesterol with "High Density Lipoprotein (HDL)" as its carrier:

Can move rapidly and doesn't cause any problem. Cholesterol with "Low or Very Low Density Lipoprotein (LDL or VLDL)" as its carrier, can't move quickly and causes blockage of arteries and veins. As a result, atherosclerosis is developed and the person suffers from a heart attack. A certain ratio should always be maintained. Some HDL containing foods are -

• Fatty fish like Sardine and Salmon. (Good source of essential fatty acids)
• Beans and legumes.
• Nuts.

The role of dietary fibre -

Dietary fibre (also known as roughage) is that part of plant food human body can't digest. Dietary fibre creates filling of a fulfilment of the stomach. This, in turn, minimises your desire to further eat any food. And that's how you consume fewer calories. Dietary fibre also helps in mass peristalsis and bulk formation - both of which help in the formation of stool and thereby preventing constipation as well. Some common food items which contain dietary fibre are -

• Guava. (Not an apple but a guava a day keeps the doctor away)
• Legumes.
• Wheat.
• Barley.
• Oat.

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Sleep well

You'll lose fat if you sleep less. This is also a misconception. Growth hormone (Somatotropin) is produced while we're sleeping. Growth hormone helps to burn fat. So, sleep as per your body's requirement.

Exercise

You don't have any time to go outside to run or do other exercises. That's absolutely fine you know. Just buy a skipping rope and do skipping for just 5-10 minutes a day. Your pace will generally increase over time and you'll burn a lot more fat.

Junk Food

Seriously? Are you expecting me to say anything regarding this segment? Stop eating junk foods even if don't wanna lose weight.

Challenges you'll face while losing weight rapidly

• You'll feel less energetic throughout the day.
• You may have constipation.
• Formation of gallstones - this is a serious one.
• Dizziness.
• Irregularities in the menstrual cycle.

My Transformation

    From this                                     To this.

 

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If you're still not satisfied and want me to make you a diet chart, feel free to contact by email -
Daily Dose's Email

Read more from our site - Snakes Have Two Peni*es
Read more from our site - Sahara Is Not The Largest Deseret

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Did you find my help useful in finding the best way of losing weight?

Link Between Iron Deficiency Anemia And Hearing Loss?

Recent studies by a group of researchers suggest that there might be a link between iron deficiency anemia and disabling hearing loss.

Some Statistics

Hearing Problems - According to data from WHO, the prevalence of disabling hearing loss is the highest in South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan etc) in the whole world. If an adult's hearing loss crosses 40 decibels (30 d for children) in the better hearing year then it is termed as "disabling hearing loss."

Anaemia - According to data from WHO, 65.5% preschool-age children, 48.2% pregnant women, 45.7%  non-pregnant women are suffering from some sort of anaemia in South-East Asia. Iron-deficiency continues to be the main reason behind anaemia.

Are they linked?

A group of researchers recently performed a study in the USA to find if there was any link between them. They did come up with some shocking results. A total of 305,339 adults aged between 21 to 90 were studied by scientists from Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. They specifically collected data about:

Hearing problems caused by damaged bones of the inner ear or impaired auditory nerve pathway.

The real cause

They found that the prevalence of hearing loss was up to 82% higher in those having iron-deficiency anemia. They also offered a possible theory to support this data:


Iron deficiency reduces blood volume and thereby blood flow to several parts of our body decreases. Ischemic damaged caused by decreased blood flow to the labyrinthine artery may affect its blood carrying capacity to the inner ear and thus resulting in hearing loss.

Authors - Kathleen M. Schieffer, Cynthia H. Chuang.

Source - JAMA Otolaryngology—Head & Neck Surgery by American Medical Association.

Yoshinori Ohsumi - Nobel Prize Winner In Physiology Or Medicine, 2016

No matter how many awards are there for encouraging new discoveries and innovations, the Nobel Prize is still the biggest achievement one can get.

Nobel Prize still matters

Every year, the Nobel Prize is awarded for outstanding contributions in Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace, Economic Sciences and "Physiology or Medicine." Each prize is worth:

Almost $1.2 million (or, nearly 8 crores INR). But the Prize is more than just the money. It's the fruition of one's hard work. You can read more about the Nobel Prize here in Wikipedia.

Although I know the names of those who got the Nobel Prize this year, I can only talk about the "Physiology or Medicine" segment as I'm a Physiology student.

The man you see in the above picture Yoshinori Ohsumi. He is a Japanese scientist. As you already know from the title of this post, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in "Physiology or Medicine, 2016." You'll find little bit details about his work below with links to his research papers.

Know about his research

He demonstrated the process of Autophagy or Autophagocytosis in yeast cells. Mutant yeast cells without Carboxyboxypeptidase Y, Proteinase A and B were used to describe the mechanism of vacuolar proteolysis. Culture mediums free from any protein and nutrient were used to incubate and grow them. After few hours, the vacuoles were completely packed by some spherical bodies. The spherical bodies:

They were termed as "autophagic bodies." These bodies were found to have mitochondria, rough endoplasmic reticulum, ribosomes, similar to that of cytosol. So, these bodies seized the cytosol from the vacuoles.

What's Autophagocytosis then?

As you all know, autophagocytosis:

It is the natural process of the cell to destroy non-functioning components. In this case, the vacuoles became non-functional for the absence of proteins (Nitrogen, amino acids) and other nutrients in the culture media. As a result, they were destroyed by those autophagic bodies.

You'll find many articles on the internet describing this process with a lot more detail. But I wanted to make you understand in simpler terms. Was I successful? Let me know in the comments below.

Click his name for his research papers and publications - "Yoshinori Ohsumi."