During an hypoxic episode hemoglobin provides immediate adjustment
that protects tissues of highest metabolic rate, such as brainstem nuclei
in control of autonomic functions.  This is the Bohr effect as described
in one textbook:

“Primitive organisms rely on diffusion through their
environmental media to provide the oxygen needed for their
metabolism and to remove the carbon dioxide produced.

The active metabolism of mammalian tissues remote from the
atmosphere is possible because of a mechanism which
provides constant delivery of oxygen and removal of carbon
dioxide.  The magnitude of this task may be appreciated from
the fact that a man oxidizing 3000 Cal. Of mixed food per day
uses about 600 liters of oxygen (27 moles) and produces about
480 liters of carbon dioxide (22 moles).

Through the action of hemoglobin, oxygen is abstracted from
the air, carried within a few seconds to the most distant parts of
the body, and delivered to the tissues at a pressure only slightly
less than that which it existed in the atmosphere.

The CO2 produced daily by the tissues becomes H2CO3, an acid,
in an amount equivalent to 2 liters of concentrated hydrochloric
acid; yet all this acid normally pours from the tissues, through
the blood, and out of the lungs with a change in the pH of blood
of no more than few hundredths of a pH unit.”

White A, Handler P, Smith EL (1968) Principles of Biochemistry, fourth edition. New
York: McGraw-Hill.  P 758 –  Chapter 32.  Chemistry of Respiration
Baltic Cruise
Jun 17 - Jul 5 2006

Arrival in Frankfurt

Copenhagen   >>>
-----------------------------
Viking Museum

With the group

Departure

Setting sail

Gdansk, Poland

Vilnius, Lithuania

Riga, Latvia

To Sweden

Stockholm

To Finland

Helsinki

Tallin, Estonia

St. Petersburg
See also:

http://en.wikipedia.org
/wiki/Bohr_effect

And, for future
reference:

http://www.museion.ku
.dk/

and

http://www.nbi.dk/NBA/
walk.pdf
<<< 000 >>>


          . . .
Lectures on board