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What kind of human body function requires the concept of Acids or Bases?

Does human body organ has any mechanism or function requires the concept of acids or bases? I mean is there any part of human body needs acids or bases to operate? Or you can give me some website to look up by myself that will also be fine.

Public Comments

1. digestion
2. The stomach is filled with acid that is used to help digest food. Baking soda is a base. This is why if you drink baking soda and water, you will vomit and hit the toilet from six feet away. It's a very explosive reaction.
3. There are a great deal of complex mechanisms that work to maintain the pH of the blood, this requires acid and base concepts. Also, the stomach produces HCl for the breakdown of food. Differences in pH have a role in a variety of processes including cellular respiration.
4. Digestion is an important one with the stomach being acidic and the upper small intestine being quite alkline...this is primarily due to the function of enzymes which are quite specific to the condtions ( eg pH sensitive but could also be temp etc). If the pH changes in these places then the enzymes do not function as well and you are not able get as mnay nutrients out of your food as you could. I know the blood is slightly alkaline....I'm not sure of the reason here.
5. Pretty much all of life is dependant on pH in some way. A few examples in humans: -Stomach acid helps to break down food. As the food enters the intestine, it is mixed with bile, which is quite basic and serves to neutralize the acid so that the intestine is not damaged. -Macrophages use acid in conjunction with other molecules to destroy foreign particles that they engulf. -Your blood is slightly basic, at about pH 7.4. If it gets too acidic or too basic, you will get very sick. If your blood starts to get too acidic, you will feel out of breath and breathe faster to get rid of the CO2 in your blood faster, thereby bringing the pH back up. -Skin tends to be acidic, which helps prevent bacteria from growing on it.
6. Acids and Bases are the key to all redox reactions. All acids have a conjugate base when reduced and all bases have a conjugate acid when oxidized. The pH in blood changes between the lungs and the other parts of the body. That change in pH causes the oxygen to be bound into the heme in hemoglobin in the lungs and released from hemoglobin in other tissues. It also causes the HCO3- (bicarbonate anion) to be bound in the other tissue to be transported back to the lungs where the change in pH causes the reaction H+ + HCO3- -> H2O + CO2 which you breath out. There are numerous other examples including just about all nervous system functions that depend on ion flow and relative acidic or basic conditions cause the local charges that create the ions. Look in any basic biochemistry book and check out the reactions, look for any that have H+ as a component of a reaction. The most classic example would be Oxidative Phosphorylation. In that case the H+ is transported to one side of the inner mitochondrial membrane and an oxygen anion on the other. Where the two come together it generates energy sufficient to make ATP. In the macro sense, the acid in the stomach is mostly HCL and is normally around pH 1. An acid that strong can and does oxidize many biomolecules which is what is responsible for dissolving the food you eat into the necessary component nutrients that you need.
7. Digestion is the process linked with acids and bases !