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Breathing behaviour regulates pH
through proper exhalation (ventilation)
of carbon dioxide (CO2). In
fact, pH plays a major role in the distribution of oxygen itself. Proper exhalation of CO2, at
rest, is only about 12 to 15 percent of the total CO2 arriving in
the lungs. The remaining 85 to 88
percent of the CO2 is retained in the blood, and is absolutely
vital to pH regulation. Exhalation of
more than this relatively small amount of CO2, results in a CO2
deficit in the blood and other body fluids, a deregulated respiratory
chemistry known as hypocapnia. Traditional common sense has misguided us into believing that
CO2 is poisonous. This
superstition needs to be replaced with the facts. Hypocapnia is the result of overbreathing behaviour,
the mismatch of breathing rate and depth.
Its consequence is an increased level of pH, or respiratory alkalosis, which may have profound immediate and
long-term effects that trigger, exacerbate, and/or cause a wide variety of
emotional, perceptual, cognitive, attention, behavioural,
and physical deficits that may seriously impact health and performance. Although the fundamental importance of CO2
in body chemistry regulation, pH and electrolyte balance, is common knowledge
to any pulmonary or acid-base physiologist, it remains virtually unknown by
most healthcare practitioners, health educators, breathing trainers, and
laypeople. Hypocapnia may be the result of nervous system, cardiovascular
(e.g., low blood pressure), respiratory (asthma), and metabolic disorders
(e.g., diabetes), including challenges such as drugs, hormone changes (e.g.,
in pregnancy), altitude, heat, lung irritants, severe exercise, and
others. In many of these cases,
hypocapnia plays an adaptive role, where it serves to compensate for pH
deregulation, such as in the cases of lactic acidosis during severe exercise
and ketoacidosis in diabetes. Hypocapnia is most frequently, however, the result of learned overbreathing behaviour, behaviour dictated by the biological principles of
learning, which include motivation, emotion, perception, memory, and
attention. Behavioural hypocapnia is hypocapnia
as a consequence of learned behaviours. It points to the powerful role of breathing
in self-regulated health and performance, where its effects are typically
identified as “unexplained,” or simply go unrecognised altogether. Click here to learn about the physiological changes
associated with hypocapnia. Click here to learn more about symptoms and deficits and acute
effects associated with hypocapnia. Copyrighted by Behavioral
Physiology Institute, |