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From: jak@mtgzz.UUCP (j.a.kushner)
Newsgroups: net.med
Subject: Re: carbonated beverages and urinary pH
Message-ID: <1312@mtgzz.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 24-Oct-85 14:06:07 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtgzz.1312
Posted: Thu Oct 24 14:06:07 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 25-Oct-85 03:59:14 EDT
References: <787@bbncc5.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Labs, Middletown NJ
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I am neither a n MD nor a renal physiologist, but I would venture to say that
carbonated drinks have little, if any, effect on urinary pH.

For the CO2 ingested to become HCO3-, in a reasonable amount of time, the
presence of the enzyme carbonic anhydrase (CA).  This enzyme catalyzes the
following:    H2O + CO2 --CA--> H2CO3 -->H+ + HCO3.

Assuming that this were the case and the bicarb were absorbed from the gut,
it would immediately be buffered by one of the many buffer systems in the 
blood.  If it did upset the normal pH, the first compensation would be
respiratory, where the HCO3- would undergo the reverse reaction to become
CO2, and been exhaled.  One of the major places that CA can be found is the
red blood cell, which carries out this process normally between the lungs
and the rest of the cells of the body.

My guess is that the CO2 actually leaves from one end or the other before
any considerable absorption.