We have to be able to control the pH of our body fluids.  If you think about it, you can think of two main ways to deal with the hydrogen ions that affect our pH:

1. attach the ion to some other molecule in your body, so that it isn't free-floating

2. get rid of the offending ion from your body

These are the two ways that our body handles it.  In the first, the molecule we attach the hydrogen ion to is called a buffer.  For the second, we actually excrete the ion to kick it out of our bodies.  These methods are explained on separate pages that you can link to from here.

© 2006 STCC Foundation Press
written by Dawn A. Tamarkin, Ph.D.