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Comment by DoreenMichele

The majority of calcium ions within the cell are bound to intracellular proteins, leaving a minority freely dissociated. When calcium is added to or removed from the cytoplasm by transport across the cell membrane or sarcoplasmic reticulum, calcium buffers minimise the effect on changes in cytoplasmic free calcium concentration by binding calcium to or releasing calcium from intracellular proteins. As a result, 99% of the calcium added to the cytosol of a cardiomyocyte during each cardiac cycle becomes bound to calcium buffers, creating a relatively small change in free calcium.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calcium_buffering

I raised and homeschooled two kids and watched a lot of when dinosaurs ruled the earth type stuff. That's my source for the idea that a store of calcium was critical for allowing life to leave the ocean and I've tried repeatedly to search for additional info on this and can never find it.

I have no problem imagining that calcium is essential for buffering pH in land mammals and that free calcium ions simultaneously are tightly regulated and not directly used to move that number for the blood in short time frames. That actually fits perfectly well with my mental models that cellular acidosis is a more fundamental problem that fuels acidosis of bodily fluids.

If anyone has any good sources that might clarify this relationship for me, that would be cool.

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