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I've recently had a blood test and the results displayed elevated levels of erythrocytes as well as hemoglobin. (As a result my hematocrit levels were also above average)

At my workplace there is a water cooler which also has an option to dispense carbonated water (this is just regular ol' carbonated tap water) and usually over the course of the day I tend to drink quite a lot of the stuff.

Since erythrocytes/hemoglobin deals with O2 and CO2 transport, I was wondering if my daily consumption of carbonated water is a plausible cause for the additional erythrocytes that are being pumped out?

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    $\begingroup$ Does CO2 increase in the blood when active? $\endgroup$
    – user6116
    Commented Apr 3, 2014 at 15:33

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The main regulatory input into erythrocyte production is hypoxia. The response to elevated CO2 levels in the blood (hypercapnia) is mainly to increase ventilation (i.e. more and/or deeper breaths) so that the excess can be "blown off".

I think that some carbon dioxide could pass into the bloodstream from the stomach since gases tend to be quite good at diffusing across membranes, but this would be easily dealt with by the physiological mechanism described above.

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Answer: No. How should the CO2 from you stomach get into your blood? And: Most of the CO2 is removed (by burping) from the solution in your stomach anyway due to the conditions there.

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