What is the term for decreased carbon dioxide in the blood?

Answer 1

The body will stop breathing, and falling oxygen levels will cause unconsciousness.

The breathing reflex is driven by detected CO2 levels in the blood. If the level is too high, breathing rate will increase - as far as gasping for breath.

If the CO2 level falls too low, the breathing reflex is satisfied and stops. This does not mean the person is unable to breathe, but they just feel no need to.

This is a cause of drowning; people who hyperventilate to "flood the lungs with oxygen" are actually dropping their CO2 level, and can fall unconscious while underwater. By the time metabolism raises the CO2 level far enough to engage the breathing reflex, the person is deeply unconscious and cannot surface.

In actuality, normal O2 levels in the blood are only a few percent under saturation, and extended heavy breathing does not increase this amount significantly. The lowered CO2 levels do make it more comfortable to hold the breath, at least initially.

Answer 2

blood with low oxygen content is brought through the pulmonary circit (pulmonary meaning lungs) into contact with the thin tissue of the alveoli, and diffusion causes the low concentration of O2 in this blood to be replaced with O2 from within the alveoli, and the CO2 to be transferred from its area of high concentration in the blood to the alveoli, where it is exhaled.

Answer 3

Rapid breathing or hyperventilation will flush C02 from the body and lower it's concentration in the blood.

Answer 4

The lungs exchange carbon dioxide for oxygen in the blood.