Acid-base Balance (Nursing)

00:01 pH is going to affect all of the functional proteins as well as biochemical reactions that are going to occur in our body.

00:09 So therefore, it's very important that we regulate our body's pH.

00:15 The normal body pH in our arterial blood is about 7.4.

00:21 So our blood is slightly alkaline.

00:24 Our venous blood in our interstitial fluid have a slightly lower blood pH of about 7.35.

00:35 Inside our intracellular fluid compartment, the pH is a little closer to normal at a pH of 7.

00:44 Alkalosis or alkalemia is a disorder in which our arterial pH rises above 7.45.

00:55 Conversely, acidosis or acidemia, as when our blood pH is going to drop below 7.35.

01:05 Small amounts of acidic substances are going to enter our body by way of our food all the time.

01:11 However, most of the acid or H+ produced in our body is actually produced by by-products of metabolism.

01:21 So for example, phosphorus-containing proteins are going to break down, and release phosphoric acid into our extracellular fluids.

01:31 Also, during anaerobic respiration, we're going to get an increasing amount of lactic acid from glucose.

01:40 Fatty acids and ketone bodies are going to form acids from fat metabolism.

01:46 And also H+ is liberated from the carbon dioxide as it's converted to bicarbonate in our blood, in our bicarbonate buffer system.

01:58 We'll discuss this a little bit later.

02:02 So the concentrations of our hydrogen ions are going to be regulated sequentially by three mechanisms.

02:11 First, and the most rapid or fastest and our first line of defense are going to be chemical buffer systems that are found in our body.

02:21 Secondly, we have our brainstem respiratory centers, which are going to act very soon after the chemical buffers within about one to three minutes.

02:33 Finally, the most potent, but the one that takes the most time are the renal mechanisms.