So, I understand that Hb has two states; relaxed and tense. From what I understand, the tense state has a lower affinity for oxygen and the relaxed has a higher. Is this because, in the tense state there are more interactions (H-bonding, hydrophobic effect, ionic interactions) due to the Bohr effect, 2,3-BPG, carbamate/carbon dioxide to name a few and there's more "obstacles" to get around in order to bind to ferrous iron, so to speak. In the relaxed state then, there are less interactions (as ionic interactions are broken to account for the switch from T state to R state) so there is more "room" for the oxygen to navigate to its binding pocket. I also understand that when oxygen binds iron in the T state, the F helix (attached to the distal histidine), shifts, pushing the heme group out of the puckered position and into a linear position, which is more favorable for binding oxygen.
Can someone help me understand this better and connect the two concepts of breaking/making ionic interactions and the change in position of the heme?