00:01
All right, this question is asking about hormones.
00:03
So let's just identify what those are first.
00:06
Hormones are chemical messengers in your body.
00:11
And they are secreted by endocrine glands, and they send messages to other systems within your body to tell them what to do.
00:19
And specifically, this is asking about hormones that deal with blood pressure, blood volume, and kidney function.
00:32
And the reason that it asks about these is because all of these three things, things are regulated by hormones that travel to your kidney, which is what the chapter's about, at least a lot of the chapter, because kidneys are the excretory organs used by mammals.
00:49
And so the kidney is responsible for a couple main functions.
00:54
First of all, osmotic balance, which is your balance of water and electrolytes like sodium and potassium to make sure you have the correct concentration of those, to make sure you don't retain too much water and drown yourselves or that you don't get rid of too much water and dehydrate yourself.
01:10
Kidneys control osmotic balance.
01:15
And kidneys are also very important in maintaining your blood pressure to make sure your blood flows at a strong rate.
01:24
It's not too low.
01:25
It's not too high, but it keeps it at a homeostatic state that is optimal for being alive.
01:32
And so what happens is your kidneys functional units are called nephrons.
01:41
And hopefully you've read about them up to this point...