Respiratory and breathing??

Snowii · Oct 23, 2008

Hyperventilation is basically breathing too quickly or deeply.

Breathing through paper bags is to increase carbon dioxide levels. Your body wants to get rid of carbon dioxide and the amount of carbon dioxide in your body determines how fast you breathe. So the breathing rate is determined by the amount of CO2 rather than the oxygen levels.

So your expelling to much, to rapidly...so the idea of breathing into a bag is "rebreathing" the exhaled air slowing down breathing and this can bring the CO2 levels to normal, or restore that lost gas.

I looked it up in my notes.

txnursingqt · Oct 23, 2008

Thanks for your help.

Today we had lecture on this and I understand it more. I missed the question on a lab quiz.

My teacher said that when you rebreathe air you are increasing your rate of breath. He said that when CO2 increases your rate of breath increases and essentially this is what happens when you rebreathe air.

Man, do I have a headache from lecutre today!

Snowii · Oct 24, 2008

I'm confused too... so you're increasing your breathing EVEN MORE?

That's not the way I understood it... :eek:

I would think if you increased your breathing even more when you hyperventilate you would pass out or die or something lol.

I will definitely ask my teacher.

Sorry I was wrong :sofahider

EDIT: Wait! Rate of breath is not the same thing as how fast you're breathing right?

txnursingqt · Oct 24, 2008

I'm confused too... so you're increasing your breathing EVEN MORE?
That's not the way I understood it...
I would think if you increased your breathing even more when you hyperventilate you would pass out or die or something lol.
I will definitely ask my teacher.
Sorry I was wrong :sofahider
EDIT: Wait! Rate of breath is not the same thing as how fast you're breathing right?

I think that is where I was getting confused too. You were right in your answer, it is just that RATE is what increases because you have too much CO2 and need to get rid of it.

polka-dot, RN · Oct 25, 2008

Whenever you are dealing with oxygen levels or CO2 levels, remember that the "need to breathe" is controlled by CO2 levels in your body, not oxygen levels. The chemoreceptors detect changes in pH and PCO2...you have to remember that PCO2 levels and free H levels are coupled:

If PCO2 is high, then H+ is high

If PCO2 is low, then H+ is low

If H+ is low, then pH is high

If H+ is high, then pH is low

This is the basis for a lot of the homeostasis questions relating to the control of respiration...did your teacher give you the chemical equation that shows how carbon dioxide relates to carbonic acid, free hydrogens and bicarb? That's very helpful too (and comes up again later on in fluid and electrolyte balance) so if you would like a diagram let me know and I'll email you a PDF that we used in class.

When dealing with hyper and hypoventilation, the basics are:

In hyperventilation, you are breathing in EXCESS of your CO2 needs, and your PCO2 drops below normal....you are "breathing off" too much CO2. So, you have low PCO2 and thus fewer free Hydrogens to bind to the chemoreceptor...so your rate drops. So...when someone is hyperventilating they are breathing off too much CO2...if you have them breathe into a paper bag (re-breathe) they are going to raise their CO2 levels to normal.

In contrast, in hypoventilation, you are not breathing off enough PCO2, so your PCO2 goes up (along with your free Hydrogens). Those excess Hydrogens bond to chemoreceptors and the body's response is to increase respirations.

I'm not sure if that is helping or if I even answered your question...but if you can get down the whole relationship between CO2 and H and pH in the body then you can essentially figure out most of it using your handy critical thinking skills!

I feel for you....no other test made me feel like I got hit by a truck the way the respiratory test did. After the test, I skipped lab that day and went home and went to bed!

Good luck!!!

txnursingqt · Oct 25, 2008

Whenever you are dealing with oxygen levels or CO2 levels, remember that the "need to breathe" is controlled by CO2 levels in your body, not oxygen levels. The chemoreceptors detect changes in pH and PCO2...you have to remember that PCO2 levels and free H levels are coupled:
If PCO2 is high, then H+ is high
If PCO2 is low, then H+ is low
If H+ is low, then pH is high
If H+ is high, then pH is low
This is the basis for a lot of the homeostasis questions relating to the control of respiration...did your teacher give you the chemical equation that shows how carbon dioxide relates to carbonic acid, free hydrogens and bicarb? That's very helpful too (and comes up again later on in fluid and electrolyte balance) so if you would like a diagram let me know and I'll email you a PDF that we used in class.
When dealing with hyper and hypoventilation, the basics are:
In hyperventilation, you are breathing in EXCESS of your CO2 needs, and your PCO2 drops below normal....you are "breathing off" too much CO2. So, you have low PCO2 and thus fewer free Hydrogens to bind to the chemoreceptor...so your rate drops. So...when someone is hyperventilating they are breathing off too much CO2...if you have them breathe into a paper bag (re-breathe) they are going to raise their CO2 levels to normal.
In contrast, in hypoventilation, you are not breathing off enough PCO2, so your PCO2 goes up (along with your free Hydrogens). Those excess Hydrogens bond to chemoreceptors and the body's response is to increase respirations.
I'm not sure if that is helping or if I even answered your question...but if you can get down the whole relationship between CO2 and H and pH in the body then you can essentially figure out most of it using your handy critical thinking skills!
I feel for you....no other test made me feel like I got hit by a truck the way the respiratory test did. After the test, I skipped lab that day and went home and went to bed!
Good luck!!!

Thanks that really helped. We had lecture over this on Thursday and this was the very first time in all of A&P I or II that I was like what the ???? My teacher is wonderful and he tests from his notes and I really don't ever even have to read my book, but this is one chapter that I am going to have to do some reading to comprehend. I appreciate you taking the time to explain in more detail. :bowingpur

Snowii · Oct 28, 2008

Gotcha... :yldhdbng: