As Oroville Hospital’s lead nephrologist, Dr. Subil Go is used
to people having absolutely no idea what he does. Even if one
explains that nephrology is the branch of internal medicine that
deals exclusively with the functioning of the kidneys, that
doesn’t necessarily help too much. “I think a vast majority of
patients don’t even know what a kidney is—there’s a huge vacuum
of not knowing—versus a brain or a heart,” said Go. “When it
gets to parts of the body such as the liver, the spleen, the
kidneys, it’s much more nebulous.” So, let’s start with a brief
rundown of what the kidneys—that pair of bean-shaped, toxin-
filtering organs located in the abdominal cavity on either side
of the spine—actually do. “The kidney is basically a filtration
organ. It cleans out waste products from the body and helps with
the elimination of toxins,” Go said. “It makes urine as the
vehicle for eliminating toxins.” The kidney also plays other
important roles in the proper functioning of the human body,
such as “hormone function—