What does your urinary system do?
Huh? Are you asking yourself what's a system, anyway?
A body system is a set of body parts that do a particular job. In this case, it's filtering
out excess fluid and other substances from your bloodstream. Some fluid gets reabsorbed by your
body but most gets expelled as urine. If your body weren't clever enough to get rid of some of this
stuff, you'd get sick!
How does the urinary system work?
Your body makes chemical waste products it can't use. They go into your bloodstream, then pass
into your kidneys where the excess fluid and chemical stuff your body can't use is filtered out.
As your kidneys do this work, they also make sure that your blood is just the right
combination -- not too thin or too thick, not too salty, or overloaded with excess vitamins and
minerals or wastes made by other parts of the body.
The kidneys work as they do because they contain millions of infinitesimal filters. Hundreds
of times a day the blood in your body gets filtered through these filters and the liquid and wastes
are removed. The wastes trickle down and collect in the center of your kidneys. Your kidneys are
always working and the pee is always drip--drip--dripping down through tubes called the ureters
into a stretchy pouch. This stretchy pouch is your bladder and it can stretch enough to hold a pint
of urine!
When your bladder becomes too full, it sends a message to your brain. You feel the need to pee
and start looking for a place to do it. When the time and place are right, your brain orders the
muscles around your bladder to start squeezing and for the circle of muscles at the bottom of your
bladder to open. Pee squirts out through the urethral opening in your body. Hopefully, the pee
meets the water of a toilet. Now that spells relief!
Factoids
- Ever eat kidney beans? They were named after your kidneys which are a similar shape and color!
- Your kidneys have about a million structures that filter out liquids and wastes.
- About 440 gallons of blood flow through the kidneys each and every day!
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