You are hiking in the mountains on a warm summer day. As you are walking up a st

Question

You are hiking in the mountains on a warm summer day. As you are walking up a steep incline, your leg muscles are working pretty hard. They need to produce a lot more ATP than usual in order to propel you upward. Your breathing becomes deeper and more rapid as you work to bring in more air. You also notice that you are getting warm and starting to sweat. You have water with you and decide to stop for a water and snack break. Your snack consists of a power bar that contains a good mix of carbs, proteins, and lipids - just what your body needs! As you sit and replenish your nutrients and water, you marvel at the beauty of your surrounds and feel a sense of appreciation that your body is healthy and able to adjust its activities to meet your ongoing needs. Answer the following questions based on this scenario:

1. (30 points) Oxygen is needed for ATP production by your muscles and carbon dioxide is produced as a byproduct. Explain how the respiratory system works to move air into and out of the body, so that oxygen can be delivered to your muscles and carbon dioxide can be removed from the body.

a. Describe a regulatory mechanism that would explain why your breathing became deeper and more rapid while you were hiking.

b. How and why would your blood pH be affected if your respiratory system couldn't adjust the amount of air flow to accommodate the increased ATP production by your muscles?

Explanation / Answer

The inhale oxygen enters the lungs and reaches the alveoli. Oxygen in alveoli passes into the blood in capillaries similarly the carbon dioxide passes from blood to the alveoli which is exhaled. Burning of oxygen takes place in the form of oxyhaemoglobin( oxygen bind with haemoglobin present in blood) . Now deoxygenated blood travels from lungs through pulmonary veins to hurt and hurt pump this oxygenated blood to the rest of the body. When oxygenated blood reaches to the tissue, where amount of carbon dioxide is greater than oxygen results into breakdown of oxyhaemoglobin and formation of carboxyhemoglobin. Breakdown of oxyhaemoglobin results in release of oxygen at tissue. The released carbon dioxide is carried out to hurt in form of carboxyhemoglobin and bicarbonates. Pulmonary veins takes deoxygenated blood to the lungs where dissociation of carboxyhemoglobin and bicarbonate takes place resulting in formation of carbon dioxide is carried out by exhalation.

a. When climbing you exhale carbon dioxide, a waste product of respiration more than the normal rate. And respiratory system must provide more oxygen to the blood. To fulfill this requirement of the body sympathetic nerve increase the rate of breathing.

b. With an increased ATP production, more amount of carbon dioxide is produced in body which email a fast breathing to eliminate from body. Respiratory system couldn't increase the breathing then more carbon dioxide in blood decreases the pH and become acidic.

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