Anatomy for Beginners (part 5) - Take a Deep Breath -This is How the Lungs Work
Posted: Saturday, July 04, 2009
by Connor Davidson
If you are reading this you have a working set of lungs they will be going in, out, up and down without you even knowing. That is the wonderful thing about life: it happens and you don't need to think too much about it. Imagine if you had to say: "excuse me but I can't talk just now - I have to focus on keeping breathing and ensuring my heart is still beating". It just all works as if by magic.
If you, like me, hate not knowing how something works: here is how.
You breathe between 15 and 25 times per minuet (how fit you are, how much work you are doing ectra) and if you really want you can stop it. You have an active and passive control over your lungs as you can breathe normally or can actively slow or speed up breathing rate try it if you like.
Effectively the lungs role is to get rid of carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and to take in oxygen (O 2 ). The CO 2 (carbon dioxide) is a waste product of respiration and O 2 (oxygen) is needed to break down food to get the most energy. When you respire (break down food for energy) this is what happens:
Glucose (sugar) + Oxygen > > > > > > > > > > > > Carbon dioxide + Water + Energy
Or more complex:
C6H1206 +O2 > > > > > > > > > > > > > CO2 + H2O +Ec
In order to do this several structures work together to get substances into and out of the body. The main structures involved are:
- Lungs
- Trachea (windpipe)
- Alveoli (air sacs)
- Capillaries and blood vessels
- Ribs
- Intercostal muscles (muscles between ribs)
- Diaphragm
- Chest cavity
The windpipe (trachea) is forced open by the force of air entering and air leaving. The rest of the system works differently whether you inhale or exhale.
When you inhale the Intercostal muscles and diaphragm relax allowing air to flow in. The ribs also move out to increase the size of the chest cavity to allow more air in. At which point the oxygen moves out into the blood in capillaries around the little air sacs called alveoli. The oxygen is taken to the cells to carry out the above process.
However, when you exhale every thing works differently. The capillaries transport CO 2 into the air in the lungs to be removed. The air is removed by the contraction of the diaphragm forcing the air out as the lung volume is decreased less room for the air. The diaphragm is aided by the ribs which move down and in, due the Intercostal muscles between them.
So, that's a simple explanation why and how the lungs work. Stay tuned for the next part.
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More commentsVery interesting article Connor! Knowing how the lungs work is something I find beneficial seeing how I breathe every day. Thanks for sharing!Thanks for the comment.
Great explanationThanks for the comment.
Connor, very informative article. Great information written in an easily understandable way.Thanks for the comment.
Well done. Funny how the most intricate human operations have a simple explanation. I liked it a lot.Most things in science can be understood on two levels: one takes 4-7 years and cost a bomb and the other is a five minuet job.Thanks for the comment.
Very informative article with valuable tips about health. thank you very much. keep writting.Thanks for the comment.
I haven't read the other four parts of this article and didn't understand the purpose of this one.It's purpose is simple: it educates and I had fun writing it.Thanks for the comment.
Interesting article. Glad to see you posting don't think I have read you before.Thanks for the comment.
Hi Connor, thank you for this fun and informative read.Blessings! TeresaThanks for the comment.
Connor,I've been away from SW for 3 months and yours is the first article that Readers Club sent my way. Interesting as I'm The Voice Lady and I teach people how to breathe properly which 99% of the population are not doing. It is a medical fact. Most people not only don't use the diaphragm, but they don't know they have one. If they did, there would be a lot more voices like that James Earl Jones and Kathleen Turner!What people also fail to realize is that if they would learn to breathe with the support of the diaphragm, they would alleviate more of the stress in their lives because deep, supported breathing eliminates the toxins in the body. Shallow or lazy breathing, on the other hand, actually increases one's stress because of those toxins.Thanks for the topic!NancyI remember reading your bio where you talked about your involvement in voice training. Thanks for the interesting info - I like article specific and non generic comments.Oh and as always; thanks for the comment.
> The CO 2 (carbon dioxide) is a waste product of respiration and O 2 (oxygen) is needed to break down food to get the most energy.Well, when we breathe more than the norm, we cannot increase blood oxygenation, but only lose to much CO2. This causes vasoconstriction (less blood supply to all vital organs) and suppressed Bohr effect (less O2 is released in tissues). Hence, we can easily faint due to overbreathing.It is the law of respiratory physiology: the less you breathe, the more oxygen is delivered to cells.So much about CO2: the "waste" product.
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