Objective: is Bicarbonate and effective buffer for blood?
Background information.
Let’s say you drink orange juice or Mountain Dew or any very acidic soda. What happens the acidity of your body? What if you drink cans and cans or said soda? Does your body ever become acidic? Milk is basic, so what happens if you drink lots and lots of milk? Will your blood ever become basic?
In fact your body stays with in a very narrow range of pH regardless of how much actual acid or base you drink and if the pH of your blood changes even slightly you are in big trouble.
Your body uses buffers to maintain the pH of your blood. You constantly taking in foods that are acidic/basic. As you exercise your blood fills temporarily with a higher concentration of CO2 (CO2 is acidic when mixed with water. Kind of like acid rain.) So your body must work tirelessly to balance acids and bases. Interesting fact, lung function can be measured by measuring the pH of your urine! If your lungs can not remove acidic carbon dioxide effectively then your kidneys will have to work harder to remove acidic carbonates therefore altering the pH of your urine. Crazy! Delicate balance between lungs exuding CO2, kidneys filtering out HCO3-1 and all the acidic foods we are taking. Yet our pH remains constant. Great example of equilibrium.
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