Guide To Lactic Acidosis Symptoms

Extreme Fatigue

Extreme fatigue can be a symptom indicative of lactic acidosis. Lactic acidosis, we know, is a condition directly associated with the production of cellular energy throughout the body. The best way for the cells to produce usable energy is a process that requires an adequate amount of oxygen. The cells have a backup method of energy production when oxygen is scarce in the tissues. This backup process does produce cellular energy, but it does not do as good of a job as the normal energy production process. Lactic acidosis in an individual indicates their tissues are deprived of a sufficient amount of oxygen because it is a byproduct of the backup energy production process. Even with the activation of this backup process, there is still an energy shortage. Fatigue is a feeling of tiredness or sluggishness due to the body adaptively responding to the low energy conditions. The body modulates and distributes cellular energy to the essential tissues of vital organs by taking it away from tissues not essential to survival. The redistribution of energy in the body as a part of this process is what produces the feeling of fatigue in affected individuals.

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Headache

A headache can be a symptom in an individual affected by lactic acidosis. Lactic acid is a byproduct of a process that makes energy for the cell that is typically only activated when tissues are in a state of oxygen deprivation. Mitochondria are the organelle inside of a cell responsible for metabolizing glucose into usable cellular energy. Oxygen deprivation causes an impairment in the transport chain the mitochondria use in this process. This type of impairment occurs most often in the cells that make up the brain tissues and muscular tissues around the body since they have a higher demand for oxygen than other tissues. When some mechanism causes oxygen deprivation in the brain like excessive exercise or an underlying medical condition, the cells have to produce energy without it. The process the cells use to accomplish this causes an increased level of lactic acid as a byproduct. The lactic acid can accumulate in the affected individual's blood as a result. The higher acidity of the blood causes the blood vessels around the brain to constrict, reducing blood flow and oxygen delivery further. Vessel constriction and oxygen deprivation cause the affected individual to feel a headache.