Drowning as a Negative Feedback Mechanism?

Hey Kelly, this is kind of like asking the question, what happens when you drown?

When a person is drowning, oftentimes their lungs fill up with water thereby causing the development of hypoxemia (hypo=low + ox=oxygen + emia=blood), or decreased levels of oxygen in the bloodstream. Lack of oxygen causes aerobic metabolism to stop, and the body becomes acidotic. If not corrected quickly, the lack of oxygen in combination with too much acid may lead to problems with the electrical conduction system of the heart (cardiac arrest) and lack of blood supply to the brain. Recall that in the lack of oxygen, you body can still undergo glycolysis; your body quickly tries to make ATP, but at the same time, lactic acid is formed from the fermentation of pyruvate. Since the accumulation of lactic acidosis comes from the excess of product from the glycolysis, the inhibition of glycolysis by lactic acidosis can be thought of as a negative feedback. So now due to the acid in your blood, even glycolysis no longer becomes functional.

Good Luck!