• Question: If you have 1 kidney would you die younger? sorry, it's because i have 1 kidney

    Asked by glama786 to Alastair, Hywel, Keith on 24 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Keith Brain

      Keith Brain answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      People with one kidney are expected to have a normal lifespan. That’s one of the reasons why it’s ethically reasonable to allow someone to give a kidney away (for example in a “living related donor” transplant).

      Our kidneys are made up of small functional bits called “nephrons”, and each kidney contains lots more of these than we need. This is called having a high “physiological reserve”. So, one kidney functions fine. The main problem is that people with one kidney can run into problems if the one remaining kidney is damaged, because they don’t have a spare.

    • Photo: Hywel Vaughan

      Hywel Vaughan answered on 24 Jun 2010:

      As far as I know glama people with 1 kidney are expected to have as long a lifespan as they would have had with two 🙂 As long as you look after the one you have, you should be fine 😀

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