What do the kidneys do?

Your body breaks down food and water and produces waste as a part of daily living. The job of your kidneys is to get rid of those waste products. Each kidney has about a million tiny filters that clean the blood and make urine. Each filter is called a glomerulus. Urine is made up of waste products dissolved in water. Because your body needs to keep certain elements in the blood, such as blood cells and protein, normal glomeruli (plural of glomerulus) do not allow protein or blood to leak from the blood into the urine.

Kidneys also help control many other body functions, including blood pressure, how much blood you make, calcium balance and bone health and the balance of several chemicals in the blood including potassium.

Kidney diseases can prevent kidneys from doing their job. Problems such as: not removing waste products, allowing blood or protein to leak into the urine or too much potassium in the blood are effects of kidney disease.