01 Drinking and drainage mechanism
First of all, the design of our human body is very delicate. Under normal conditions (without disease), our human body has a perfect system to regulate the amount of water intake and the amount of water discharged from the body. The regulation of water content of
mainly involves these organs of the human body:
- osmotic pressure receptors in the brain hypothalamus and drinking water center
In the hypothalamus of the brain, there is a chemoreceptor called osmolarity. They can feel the salt content in our blood. When the salt content is too high, they will tell us that the drinking water in the brain produces a feeling of thirst, reminding our body to drink water, and people will want to drink water. , Find water to drink.
When we take in enough water, the salt concentration in the blood decreases, then after the osmotic pressure sensor feels, the feeling of thirst will disappear, and people don't want to drink water.
If you drink too much water, the salt concentration will continue to decrease. At this time, our osmotic pressure sensor will inform our pituitary gland to reduce the secretion of a hormone, thereby increasing the amount of urine discharge.
The hypothalamus is a very small brain. A structure, but it has an important role. Our body temperature, food and drinking water center are located here. In experiments, scientists have found that as long as the drinking water center of the hypothalamus is destroyed, animals (including humans) will not drink water, regardless of No matter how dehydrated the body is, I won’t feel thirsty, and I don’t want to drink water. When the current is used to stimulate this part, the animal will drink water continuously.
- pituitary gland
pituitary gland is our main body of hormones, which can secrete a variety of hormones. Among them is a hormone called " antidiuretic hormone "
diuretic, as the name suggests, is to promote urine excretion, and "antidiuretic" is to prevent urine excretion. The pituitary gland uses antidiuretic hormone to influence the amount of urine produced by the kidneys.
When drinking too much water, the secretion of antidiuretic hormone decreases, so the amount of urine production will increase, helping to excrete excess water in the body.
If the water intake is insufficient or the food is too salty, the secretion of antidiuretic hormone will increase, and the urine formed by the kidney will decrease, leaving water in the blood vessels. (This is also one of the reasons why eating too salty often leads to high blood pressure)
- Kidney
Kidney is an important organ that drains water from our body. Every day we have to excrete about 1600-2000ml of urine. At the same time, there are a lot of waste products, such as uric acid, creatinine and other wastes in the human body.
Renal urine output is affected by antidiuretic hormone.
Diabetes insipidus patients drink dozens of liters of water every day and urinate dozens of times.
When the hypothalamus and pituitary gland are diseased, the secretion of antidiuretic hormone is problematic, and the patient will urinate constantly and go to the toilet dozens of times a day. To avoid dehydration, patients need to drink water constantly.
skin is also an important organ that regulates our body's moisture. When the weather is hot, you will sweat a lot to remove the heat from your body. At the same time, you will lose a lot of water and your urine output will decrease.
- respiratory system
breathing will also discharge a certain amount of water. But it is not as large as urine and sweat.
02 Will drinking more water increase the burden on the kidneys?
We have already seen before that the human body has a strong and perfect water regulation mechanism.
As long as there is no problem with your body, when you take in a certain amount of water, your brain will automatically prevent you from taking water. At the same time, your body will also mobilize various systems to help you drain the excess water.
The function of the kidney is extremely powerful, and it only needs to use 30% of the power, which is enough to meet the daily needs of the human body.begging.
This is also the reason why people can live normally after removing a kidney. This is also the reason why kidney disease is often not discovered until the late stage. Even if a large number of kidneys are damaged by pre-stage disease, the residual function of the kidney can still meet the needs of the human body.
Therefore, due to strong functional reserves, normal people, drinking more water will not increase the burden on the kidneys, and will not lead to kidney failure.
03 water poisoning
So, what about water poisoning that I often hear about?
This means that in a short period of time, the intake of water exceeds the amount of discharge, resulting in a decrease in the concentration of salt ions in the patient’s blood, causing hyponatremia and hypokalemia, and the patient’s nausea, fatigue, lack of energy, dizziness, Symptoms such as muscle weakness and difficulty breathing.
This disease is relatively rare in clinical practice, because our kidneys have a strong drainage capacity. This disease is mainly seen in two situations:
(1) After sweating a lot in summer, we will feel thirsty and drink a lot of water at this time. However, sweat will also excrete sodium, potassium ions and (this is also the reason why sweat is salty, and the salt we eat is sodium chloride). If you drink a lot of boiled water suddenly, the concentration of sodium and potassium ions in your blood will be further reduced, causing water intoxication.
Therefore, summer sports, outdoor work, work, it is best to drink sugar and salt water, which can not only replenish water, but also replenish the body's lost sodium and potassium ions, sugar
(2) The second case is patients with brain damage . As we said before, there is a drinking center in our brain. When the disease affects this area, the patient will continue to drink water. There are also some patients with mental illness. This situation can also occur. I had a patient with obsessive-compulsive disorder before, and she would drink water non-stop.
04 In some cases, it is necessary to limit the daily water consumption
At that time, some patients need to limit the daily water consumption.
is most common in patients with heart failure. Heart failure is an abbreviation for heart failure, which is a disease that causes systolic and diastolic dysfunction in patients due to various reasons. The patient's heart function is not good. If the water intake is too much, the blood volume will increase. In order to push more blood, the heart will be more burdened, which will further deteriorate the heart function.
Excess water can’t be discharged out of the body and can cause edema
when the kidney function has deteriorated, such as renal failure patients. At this time, the function of the kidney has been devastated, and the ability to form urine has been extremely reduced. In this case, it is necessary to limit water intake. Because patients with kidney failure can no longer form urine and excrete water by themselves. Excess water and toxins in the body can only be excreted by dialysis.
After reading this article, everyone should have a certain understanding of the drainage mechanism of our human body. Therefore, as long as your kidneys are functioning normally, drinking more water will not increase the burden on the kidneys, and it will also help to discharge waste from our body.
For gout patients, drinking plenty of water can promote the excretion of excess uric acid in the body, which is also good for the kidneys (because hyperuricemia can also damage the kidneys)
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