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CHAPTERKidney Disease
E
veryone who has ever watched boxing knows there is one part of
the body it is against the rules to punch—the lower back where the
kidneys are located. The kidneys are vulnerable because in the center
of each kidney are fi lters called nephrons that are very fragile. They
fi lter the blood, thus keeping the acid-alkaline pH of the blood bal-
anced and removing toxins that could cause toxemia (blood poisoning).
The networks of blood vessels that encircle each nephron—they are
microscopic and number in the millions—fi lter out water, urea, glu-
cose, minerals, and enzymes from the blood. Most of these compounds
are reabsorbed into the main bloodstream. What’s left behind—excess
water, salt, urea, and uric acid—is excreted as urine.
If water, salt, urea, and a small amount of uric acid were all that the
kidneys had to remove from the blood, kidney failure would be
unknown. However, to prevent death from toxemia, which is to say,
excessive levels of acid, the kidneys fi lter out the kind of highly toxic
acidic waste they weren’t designed to handle.The Kidney’s Role in Filtering Acidic Wastes
There are many different kinds of acids coursing through the blood
that are left to the kidneys to dispose of. There is the mercury, lead,
iron, cadmium, and aluminum from immunization shots. (The polio
vaccine contains twenty-eight compounds foreign to the body, includ-
ing formaldehyde, an embalming fl uid.) The vaccine immunization