How can I estimate blood pH?
1 Answer
The carbonic acid/bicarbonate buffer in Human blood regulates the pH to remain between 7.35 and 7.45 in order to prevent acidosis and alkalosis - and ultimately death due to extreme blood pH (Ellison et al. 1958).
What does that even mean?
Well, human blood should be, as stated above, between pH of 7.35 and 7.45. If it is below 7.35, then a person would have acidosis - in which their blood would be acidic and vice versa if it were over 7.45 - then the blood would be too basic.
A buffer is a system composed of a weak acid and its conjugate strong base OR a strong acid and its conjugate weak base. For example, if you had a buffer that is at a pH of 7.45 - that means if an acid is added to the mixture it would decrease in pH but then stabilize and go back to its original of 7.45. Same if a base was added then the pH would increase then stabilize back to 7.45. This is exactly how the human blood buffer works!
So to estimate the pH of blood of a healthy human being you can roughly say it is between 7.35 and 7.45!
Side note: If there is an increase in metabolism or
