Lowered blood pressure delivers less oxygen to the body’s cells. When the cell experiences decreased oxygen levels in the blood, the cells resorts to plan B, anaerobic metabolism. All cells in the body have the ability to exist without oxygen. Ordinarily, oxygen is used in the cell primarily it is needed to convert glucose to energy (ATP). Since the blood pressure is inadequate to get oxygen to all the cells, the cells go to Plan B, anaerobic metabolism.

Anaerobic metabolism is a temporary measure, not unlike someone holding their breath and jumping into a pool. The cell is able to burn energy, but instead of CO2 being produced as a waste product (like smoke in fire), the cell produces lactate. Lactate by itself isn’t such a big deal given that it is put into the blood, converted to glucose in the liver, and back to the cell it goes. Lactate doesn’t store well, and accumulates in the blood stream and eventually turns into lactic acid. An acid is a compound that collects hydrogen ions. Increased lactic acid will drop the patients pH, eventually eating away at the patients’ cell membranes. Further, a drop in pH will result in the red blood cells having a decreased affinity to oxygen (which means even less oxygen would be transported to the cells). As the pH drops even more, the exchange between sodium and potassium becomes affected, resulting in the cell tending to retain potassium. If the potassium and sodium can’t exchange, the cell has no way perform it’s actual function. This lack of function will lead to organ failure. Another problem that develops from a drop in pH is an increase in intracellular fluid volume. This increased retention of water causes the cells swell, leading to some of the cells exploding from overhydration.

Lysosomes are membrane-enclosed organelles that contain an array of enzymes capable of breaking down all types of proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates, and lipids. Lysosomes function as the digestive system of the cell, serving both to degrade material taken up from outside the cell and to digest obsolete components of the cell itself. In their simplest form, lysosomes are visualized as dense spherical vacuoles, but they can display considerable variation in size and shape as a result of differences in the materials that have been taken up for digestion. As the patient’s pH drops, the lysosomes are released from cells leading to lysosomes eating whatever it comes in contact with. Now that these cells lack a ‘stomach’, the cells ability to burn glucose either in an aerobic or anaerobic environment are impaired.