Respiratory acidosis

The Backed-Up Drain in Your House

Imagine your kitchen sink has a drain pipe that carries wastewater out to the street. Your kitchen produces waste continuously (like your cells making CO₂), and the drain pipe carries it away (like your lungs breathing it out). Now imagine the pipe gets clogged with grease buildup (like mucus in asthma), or the pump that pushes water through breaks (like weak breathing muscles), or someone accidentally blocked the pipe with a cloth (like a brainstem that forgot to signal 'breathe'). Water backs up into the sink and surrounding pipes, getting dirtier and stinkier the longer it sits (CO₂ and acid pile up in your blood). The backed-up water makes the whole system acidic and toxic (acidemia damages the brain and heart), and if you don't unclog the pipe or fix the pump, eventually the whole system floods and fails (respiratory failure, coma, death).