thanks a lot.
2007-02-13 17:53:19 · 5 answers · asked by Anonymous in Science & Mathematics ➔ Biology
I am an MD. I wondered about this too and I did not find out the answer until I went to medical school. There are several reasons, but the best one is that since oxygen is a gas, it can't be stored in any sizable quantity in the body. Furthermore, the electron transport chain of aerobic metabolism is very slow and cumbersome. However, your muscles have to produce huge amounts of force in a very short time to maximize survival of the organism. So how do you reconcile these two opposites? The body has many ways of reconciling this but the main way is anaerobic metabolism, which is the burning of glucose in the absence of oxygen. It is a lot less efficient but it is a whole lot faster. However, the biproduct is lactic acid, which is very acidic. This "poisons" your blood with acid, which reacts with and destroys your bicarb ions in your serum. Your body then must breathe much, much harder to blow off your gaseous CO2 in order to keep your blood pH close to normal. Your liver converts the lactic acid back to glucose and sends it back to the muscles, and you do not stop hyperventillating until essentially all of your lactic acid is metabolized back to glucose. There are several other factors involved as well, but this is the gist of it. I hope this helps.
2007-02-15 13:13:01 · answer #1 · answered by Sciencenut 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
during strenuous activity, your body consumes more oxygen then it is getting. thus there will be a lack of oxygen and the body incurs an oxygen debt. your tissues then switch from aerobic respiration to anaerobic respiration.
after strenuous activity, you pant so that your body can take in more oxygen to pay off the oxygen debt and return respiration back to normal.
2007-02-14 01:57:31 · answer #2 · answered by rfedrocks 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Whenever we're doing something exhausting,our body uses oxygen..but when the output exceeds the input,our body makes like a debt,and panting is how it pays the oxygen it "loaned".
i'd copy the text from the book,but i think it'll be more easier to understand it this way...kehkeh...
2007-02-14 02:34:01 · answer #3 · answered by Griever 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
im not a dog...and I don't pant. i wouldn't know why you would? Woof Woof! Oops, was that me?
2007-02-14 01:57:35 · answer #4 · answered by Mr. Sir 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well in MY case it is because I am FAT!
I can hardly paint my toenails!
2007-02-14 02:00:45 · answer #5 · answered by BubbleGumBoobs! 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋