I have wondered many times how a human would fare if the kidneys dumped urine into the start of the large intestines somewhere about the appendix instead of into a bladder to be sprayed out. I’m assuming water would be reabsorbed and slower to process out, primarily through sweat and evaporation from the lungs, and maybe diarrhea, though it may be that other waste products, such as salts or ureas may be absorbed into the large intestines instead of being ejected, though I have no idea if it would, or if it would be ejected as intended. Do we have any biologists here that could give insight on if combining both waste paths into one would be advisable?
Am doctor, you are essentially asking about a fistula (abnormal communication) that would allow urine and bowel to mix. This would allow for communication of gut bacteria to then invade the urinary system which would then easily cause a kidney infection which would then seed the blood resulting in bacteremia. Bacteremia is bad, like you die from infection unless you are on IV antibiotics and get the source under control bad. As an example, colovesicular fistula is a communication between the colon and bladder which often results in bad infections and needs to be surgically repaired. Hope this helps.
Ok but why cant I have a secondary urethra grafted in that runs in my leg down to a nice discreet exit on my ankle so I can take a sneaky wee when Im out and about.
You could just tape a garden hose to your dick and run it down a pant leg. Man, I should patent this idea…
Then you’d be right back where you started for my purposes, still losing moisture unnecessarily.
I dont care about your purposes, I work in the sun day in, day out. I drink several litres of water and have to go into a hotbox of a portaloo to take a piss. Its like a shit and blue liquid scented sauna and I hate it.
I can totally see that, though what if the body was able to adapt to the new configuration and keep the gut bacteria in its place, but the urine still flowed into the bowels for reprocessing? What else would the large intestines pick up aside from water and maybe salt?
There’s not much in urine except water, maybe a little bit of sugar if you’re diabetic. I don’t think this would be a beneficial adaptation. I’m pretty sure that if this was advantageous, it would have been adapted way earlier in our evolution.
Also girls should pee after sex to flush out the pipes. I can imagine that the works might get clogged up if dudes didnt pee out of the same tube they ejaculate out of.
Consider, for a second, what would happen if and when the pressure in the colon exceeded the pressure in the bladder, and a urethra connected the two: fluid in the colon would backfeed into the urinary tract. The kidneys would ultimately be exposed to intestinal flora.
The prevalence of UTIs even with the “air gap” of separate waste streams tells me that this would be an extraordinarily bad idea, at least with our current biology.
If we had evolved in a more arid environment, there might be some advantage, but if we had, we would have a significantly different system to maintain homeostasis: it would have to be significantly more resilient to bacterial contamination than our current system.
Can confirm, there is a condition that removes the air gap causing a pretty much continuous UTI. (Colovesical fistula: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/colovesical-fistula#treatment-and-management)
I have Crohn’s disease and therefore already pee out of my a$$ on a regular basis.
0/10 would not recommend.
(obv. not exactly what OP is asking but i imagine it feels the same)
Then you’ll basically have a cloaca, and perhaps you’ll ended up like bird and reptile which can’t seem to hold their shit and also have watery shit. One of the great things about mammals is they’re able to hold their (relatively) dry shit until they found a safe place to dump it.
The kidneys already recover water and salt. Google the loop of Henley.
What we pee is what our body considers in excess. We intake a lot of our water from food, so we need a way to expel that. Peeing is much nicer than bloating and constant Diarra.
True, though as is, we still need to take in water due to a shortfall in what we do take in. That said, I’m also wondering if my proposal would also result in other waste products being recirculated and building up in the system, causing their own complications.
You are asking for kidney stones. There’s a chemical reason you want plenty of water to dilute your waste, that is avoid precipitation
Edit https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precipitation_(chemistry)
