Learn a lesson about why and how we breath!

The processes of breathing and gaseous exchange are very important in the maintenance of life. Health science emphasizes living in a clean atmosphere to have safe lives.Read on to learn how and why we breathe.

Lungs and breathing:

Cells need oxygen and they produce carbon dioxide as a waste product. The importance of breathing is to get oxygen into the body and remove the carbon dioxide.

Location of the Lungs:

The lungs are found in the thorax which is the part of your body protected by the rib cage. The lungs are two (the left and right) and are pink in color because of the dense capillary network around them. The trachea divides into two bronchi, one going to each lung.  The bronchi split progressively into smaller tubes called bronchioles. The bronchioles finally end at small bag called alveoli where the exchange of gases takes place. Just below the lungs is the diaphragm which separates the thorax from the abdomen.

Ventilation-the process of breathing:

The movement of air into and out of the lungs is called Ventilation

Breathing in; The rib muscles and diaphragm contract to cause the ribs move outwards and upward and the diaphragm to move downwards. Thus increasing the volume of the lungs and lowering the pressure in the lungs. This causes air from the atmosphere to rash into the lungs.

Breathing out; the rib muscles and diaphragm relax to cause the ribs move downwards and inward and the diaphragm moves inwards and upward.  These movements decrease the volume of the lungs and increase the pressure in them. The high pressure forces air out of the lungs.

Gaseous exchange in the alveoli

The work of the lungs is to transfer oxygen to the blood and to remove waste carbon dioxide from it. To do this job the lungs contain millions of alveoli where gaseous exchange takes place.  Oxygen combines with haemoglobin in the red blood cells to form oxyhaemoglobin.

The alveoli are the ideal surface for gaseous exchange because they:- (i) have a very large surface area, (ii) have a moist membrane (lining) for dissolving gases, (iii) have thin walls for easy/quick gaseous exchange, and (iv) have a dense net work of blood capillaries which supply them with blood.

Gaseous exchange at the cells

Blood from the lungs is rich in oxygen; it is carried to other body cells which need the oxygen. When blood reaches the cells, oxygen is released from the oxyhaemoglobin in the red blood cells and diffuses into the body cells. At the same time, carbon dioxide from the cells diffuses into the blood plasma to be carried back to the lungs.

From this right up, it can be deduced that;

1)      Man obtains oxygen from the air and passes carbon dioxide into air, thus the medium of gaseous exchange is air.

2)      The need for oxygen is to allow respiration take place in cells.

3)      The need to breathe out is to remove carbon dioxide a waste product which can cause health problems to our lives.

NB: let’s take all efforts to live in a clean environment which does not expose us to dangerous substance which can be inhaled and cause disease/infections to us.