Much in the way oceans can become more acidic as they absorb more carbon dioxide, the same can be said for blood. \u201cBicarbonate,\u201d said Larcombe in an email to TIME, \u201cis the body’s main chemical \u2018shock absorber\u2019 for keeping blood from becoming too acidic, and a rising level is an indicator of the body compensating for more CO2.\u201d<\/p>\n
But bicarbonate can do only so much, and even over relatively small stretches, higher levels of CO2 in the blood can take a toll. \u201cFrom short-term studies at moderately elevated CO2 (the sort of levels common in poorly ventilated rooms),\u201d wrote Larcombe, \u201cthat means headache, tiredness, and declines in concentration and decision-making. Over longer periods, animal studies raise the possibility of oxidative stress, inflammation, tissue calcification in the kidneys and arteries, and effects on bone.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the same time bicarbonate levels have been rising in the blood, calcium and phosphorus levels have been falling, the study found. In addition to producing higher levels of bicarbonate, the body responds to rising carbon dioxide by drawing CO2 molecules out of the blood and storing them in bones in the form of carbonate\u2014an ion composed of one carbon atom and three oxygen atoms. Phosphorus and calcium, which assist in this process, are drawn from blood into bone as well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much in the way oceans can become more acidic as they absorb more carbon dioxide, the same can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[3229,246,61,60,82],"class_list":["post-601747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-climate","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}