L as in Lungs
The primary function of your lungs is
to transport oxygen from the air you breathe into your bloodstream while taking
away carbon dioxide, which is released into the air when you exhale.
Most vertebrate animals (animals with spines) have two lungs.
Your left and right lungs aren’t
exactly the same. The lung on the left
side of your body is divided into two lobes while the lung on your right side
is divided into three. The left lung is also slightly smaller, allowing room for
your heart.
From the outside, lungs are pink and
a bit squishy, like a sponge. But the
inside contains the real lowdown on the lungs! At the bottom of the trachea, or
windpipe, there are two large tubes.
These tubes are called the main stem bronchi, and one heads left
into the left lung, while the other heads
right into the right lung.
Each main stem bronchus then branches off into tubes, or bronchi, that get
smaller and even smaller still, like branches on a big tree. The tiniest tubes are called bronchioles,
and there are about 30,000 of them in each lung. Each bronchiole is about the a special area
that leads into clumps of teeny tiny air sacs called alveoli. There are about 600 million alveoli in your lungs and if you stretched them out, they would
cover an entire tennis court. Now that's
a load of alveoli! Each alveolu
has a mesh-like covering of very small blood vessels called capillarie.
These capillaries are so tiny that the cells in your blood need to line up
single file just to march through them!
Can you live without one lung? Yes you can!
It limits your physical ability but doesn’t stop you from living a
relatively normal life. Many people
around the world live with just one lung.
People who have a large lung capacity
can send oxygen throughout their body faster.
You can increase you lung capacity
with regular exercise.
When resting, the average adult breathes around 12 to 20 times per minute.
An average person breathes in around 11,000 liters of air everyday.
The study of lung diseases is known
as pulmonology.
As well as other parts of your body and your general health, smoking is bad
for your lungs. Smoking can cause lung
cancer among other diseases affecting the lungs.
Asthma is a common disease that affects the lungs. Asthma attacks happen when your airways
narrow after being irritated. The narrow
airways make it hard for you to breathe in air.
Pneumonia is a dangerous disease that makes it harder for your lungs to absorb oxygen from the air you breathe.
Other lung diseases include
emphysema, tuberculosis and bronchitis.
You can keep your lungs healthy by
breathing the right way with NIMBLE!
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