How Water Improves Kidney Function

How Water Improves Kidney Function

As you may have learned by now, water is a critical ingredient to keeping your body healthy. And one of the primary functions of the body can have much less health problems simply by drinking more water.

Kidney infections and kidney stones are a very common illness in the United States. These conditions are quite painful, and sometimes the solutions for them are even worse. When kidney infections or kidney stones get too bad, doctors will often elect to operate in order to fix the worst of the problems. These operations are quite painful, and sometimes you're faced with months of painful recovery depending upon what procedures are being done.

You can however, actually prevent and sometimes cure both kidney infections and painful kidney stones simply by increasing the amount of water you drink each day.

Water is used by every single part of the body, including your muscles, fat tissue and bones. When the body is not getting enough water for it's needs, it will try to stockpile as much as it can to keep everything functioning - even if it means everything will function below normal capacity, and cause additional health problems in the end. The body does this as a survival mechanism.

Now, when there isn't enough water in your body, your body will release less water at less intervals. This means the body will not create nearly as much urine as normal. And the kidneys suffer greatly when urine is not passing through them.

You see, your kidneys filter out wastes and toxins from your body. And the urine which is created and passed through the urinary system is made to remove those toxins from the body. When there isn't much urine being produced, the toxins sit around in your kidneys. And these toxins and wastes fester. They create infections, they crystallize into hard stones which are painful. And sometimes these infections and stones can become life threatening.

The simple act of drinking more water each day can prevent or solve all of these problems. By giving your body enough water, kidney infections and stones don't have time to develop because there's a continuous flush of toxins, wastes and bacteria from your body. If you already have an infection or stones developed, extra water can help flush those from your system as well.

How much water you should drink really depends on your health level, how hot or dry the climate is that you live and work in, how much exercise you get, and whether you're obese or not. If you have an existing problem with kidney infections or stones, you should try to drink at least one gallon of water each day to help flush out the current problems. Once you're healthier, you may be able to drink an average of about 1/2 to 1/3 gallon a day, but again this will depend on your lifestyle and where you live.

One easy way to know if you're getting enough water to keep your kidneys healthy, is to see what color your urine is. If your urine is dark to medium yellow, you're not likely getting enough water. Healthy bodies which get plenty of water tend to have almost clear urine. So keep increasing your daily water intake until your urine is either clear, or as close to clear as you can get it.

Go Back to Nutrition Articles