In: Anatomy and Physiology
How should blood osmolarity (concentration) change after drinking a large volume of pure water?
How do the kidneys respond to this change in terms of rate of urine production and urine specific gravity?
1) If you drink a large volume of water, blood osmolarity or concentration will reduce because due to taking a high volume of water, blood volume will increase. As you can see in the below picture. Before water taking, blood volume was 1 L and 20 particle was there but after taking water, blood volume becomes 2 L and particle remain the same and they get more space so the concentration is low after taking water.
2) High blood volume can increase BP so the kidney will try to maintain the blood concentration. To maintain concentration, Water reabsorption will be less in the kidney so that the excess amount of water can remove from the body so urination will be more.
Urine specific gravity is a parameter that indicates the concentration of the urine. So if your kidney release more water urine will be low concentrated so the urine specific gravity will be below the normal that is 1.010.