How the Acid/Base Balance is maintained in an Acid Diet?
Let us first see how the acid/base balance is maintained in an acid diet. The sequence of steps involved includes:
1) Hydrogen ions added to the blood by breaking down a meat-rich diet combine with the bicarbonate ions in the blood and form carbon dioxide and water.
2) This reaction reduces the bicarbonate concentration and the pH in the blood.
3) The decreased bicarbonate concentration in the blood reduces the amount of bicarbonate filtered in the glomerulus.
4) All of the filtered bicarbonate combines with the hydrogen ion secreted by the kidney cells in the lumen to form carbon dioxide and water.
5) Because the filtered load of bicarbonate was less than the amount of hydrogen ion secreted by the kidney cells, there is an excess of hydrogen ions in the urine.
6) The amount of bicarbonate secreted from the kidney cells into the blood was equal to the hydrogen ion secreted into the lumen and greater than the filtered load of bicarbonate from the blood, therefore, the blood has a net gain of bicarbonate.
7) This process continues to lose hydrogen ions in the urine and gain bicarbonate in the blood until the concentration of hydrogen (pH) and bicarbonate ions in the blood are restored to normal.