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The lungs

12 Dec 2020

By Manuri Kulatunge   On an average, 960 is the amount of breaths a healthy adult breathes in an hour. It goes on to be 23,040 breaths per day and 8,409,600 a year. Do we actually know what’s going on when we breathe? Our lungs help us breathe in and out and even help us speak. It’s part of the respiratory system that enables us to stay alive through breathing in oxygen. Our lungs sit within a very protective rib cage on the upper part of our body, just below our neck and shoulders. The rib cage, which is made up of 12 pairs of ribs on each side, acts as a cage within which there are two lungs. The right lung is a bit smaller than the left. Sitting between the two lungs is the heart. Just underneath the lungs is the dome-shaped muscle called the “diaphragm”. It is a special muscle that helps us exhale and inhale. Muscles in between our ribs called intercostal muscles too help in the process. The slimy, gooey things We breathe through our nostrils or sometimes our mouth. When we breathe through the nose, the tiny hairs inside our nose helps us filter tiny dust particles. The slimy, gooey things we find in our noses are called “mucus”. They trap bacteria, germs, dust particles, or anything else that shouldn’t go inside our body, as much as possible. Then the air goes into the pharynx. This part is commonly used for both air and food. Larynx also sits towards the latter part of the pharynx. This is where the vocal cords are enabling us to speak. After the larynx, the path divides into two. One path leads down to the trachea where the air flows in to and the second goes into the digestive system to which the food enters. Trachea or the windpipe is the next section that’s right after the larynx. This area can be identified as the throat from the outside. The cartilage formed around the trachea is what protects it from being squashed. If not for this protective cartilage, the flow of air could easily be obstructed causing deadly consequences to a person. Windpipe branches The air would then flow into the bronchi. This is what we see as the windpipe branching off onto each of the lungs. Hence, they are named as the right and left bronchi. These two tubes are made of c rings, forming a more movable and non-collapsible structure. The bronchi keeps dividing into thinner and thinner tubes, forming a pattern like a tree branching out. They become more flexible and much smaller until they reach alveoli. 600 million alveoli? Alveoli is the last place the air flows to and meets with blood. It is said there are 600 million tiny alveoli in our lungs. They look like tiny little balloons inside of each and every one of us. Once the air is inside, oxygen passes through the thin walls of the alveoli into the capillaries surrounding it. The oxygen inside the alveoli is then taken up by the haemoglobin in red blood cells and travels back to the heart and gets distributed into every part of the body. Carbon dioxide take the same route too While the oxygen is absorbed through the alveoli walls carbon dioxide is expelled back into the alveoli and then exhaled out of the body. Carbon dioxide too will take the same route and make it out of our body. Next time you breathe, stop to think about the fascinating journey that a breath of air takes to keep the very essence of our life going.

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