An average person has two kidneys with one on each side of the body. The kidney on the left hand side of the body is just below the spleen and is the largest of the two. On the right hand side of your abdomen, the other kidney is located just below the diaphragm. Due to their locations, the kidneys both move down on inhalation. You can find the position of your kidneys by putting your hands on your hips, your kidneys are near to where your thumbs are placed.
There are some cases where the kidney positions are slightly different and either or both of them can be found slightly lower than normal. While this is not typically a problem, it may cause some pain to pregnant women.
The kidney is approximately 11 to 14 cm in length, six cm wide and four cm thick and has many different functions such as:
• Waste excretion - excreting various waste products from the body.
• Regular blood pressure - regulation on blood pressure, long-term, mainly depends on the kidney. It cannot detect blood pressure but it can deliver the correct ions to balance it out.
• Acid-base homeostasis - along with the lungs the kidneys help maintain pH around a stable level.
As the kidneys are located so close to other organs, kidney pain can often be mistaken for other parts of the body. Women may feel ovulation and menstrual pain and others may have bladder discomfort. All of these symptoms come from similar areas and can therefore be falsely recognized.
