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?
Not a biologist, just a normal dude. Isn’t one function of urine to flush out toxins? With them staying in the intestines could it poison the human?
That’s actually part of my question. The bowels also dump toxins overboard as well, but will they be enough to do the job?
The beargryllneys?
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.
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.
You could just tape a garden hose to your dick and run it down a pant leg. Man, I should patent this idea…
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.
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)
A cloaca still has facilities for urine to be dumped overboard, doesn’t it? My proposal is to recirculate it before dumping it overboard dry.
And what would you do with the water you’ve taken out in the drying process? Have seperate organs to seperate it (kidneys, colon) and a seperate set of organs to dump it out (pee)? That’s returning to the way we humans handle it. Or you need to stop flushing things with the water and stop eating food that contains it. Or your organism just accumulates water and explodes like a water balloon if it has no way to get out. It has to go somewhere if you ingest it.
