One of your body's most important tasks is to maintain a status called homeostasis, which means "steady state." Your brain and cells work together to control temperature, salt content and acidity very tightly. Sodium bicarbonate is a chemical the body uses to help prevent respiratory acidosis by preventing blood acidity change.
Sodium Bicarbonate
Even though you have sodium bicarbonate in your blood, the sodium portion of the chemical and the bicarbonate portion of the chemical aren't attached to one another. Sodium bicarbonate is a salt, meaning it separates into pieces, called ions, in water-based solutions like blood. The part of sodium bicarbonate most critical to helping you maintain homeostasis and prevent respiratory acidosis is the bicarbonate portion.
Bicarbonate Chemistry
Bicarbonate is a negatively charged particle, or ion, with the chemical formula HCO3. It's both a weak acid and a weak base, but in the body, it acts only as a base. If your blood becomes too acidic for one reason or another, bicarbonate reacts with the excess acid, forming the chemicals carbon dioxide and water. You can exhale carbon dioxide, and water is a normal component of blood, so bicarbonate eliminates the excess acid.
Respiratory Acidosis
You can actually make your blood too acidic through your respiration rate, explains Dr. Lauralee Sherwood in her book "Human Physiology." Carbon dioxide acts like an acid in the blood, so if you stop breathing for a short period of time -- whether intentionally or unintentionally -- carbon dioxide starts to build up in the bloodstream. This increases the acidity of the blood. Increase in acidity of the blood due to breathing is called respiratory acidosis.
Misconceptions
Just because sodium bicarbonate helps your body to prevent respiratory acidosis doesn't mean you can or should consume sodium bicarbonate. While the chemical is common in households -- it's simply baking soda -- your body doesn't rely upon sodium bicarbonate in the diet as a source of sodium bicarbonate in the blood, explains Dr. Gary Thibodeau in his book "Anatomy and Physiology." You neither need nor benefit from increased consumption of sodium bicarbonate.
Expert Insight
Because your body naturally adjusts the acidity -- called the pH -- of the blood to an optimal level, in general, you don't need to worry your breathing pattern is going to cause acidosis. The brain regulates breathing unconsciously, and increases or decreases respiration rate in order to prevent the blood from getting too acidic or too basic. You can even adjust your breathing rate in order to mitigate the effects of acidosis from other sources, including medications, explains Dr. Sherwood.
References
- "Human Physiology"; Lauralee Sherwood, Ph.D.; 2004
- "Anatomy and Physiology"; Gary Thibodeau, Ph.D.; 2007
