Breathing
You may of heard people talk about how you can live without for for 2 or 3 weeks and without water for 2-3 days but try to live without air (oxygen in particular) and you’ll find out that you measure the time in minutes at most. We appear to have taken this automatic process for granted and we ignore it at our imminent peril.
Breathing starts with the creation of a low pressure within the lungs by the chest muscles expanding the diaphragm which causes air to rush in through the nose/mouth. The oxygen in the fresh air that enters the lungs then crosses into the blood and attaches to the red blood cells. At the same time as this transfer of oxygen to the blood occurs the blood surrenders carbon dioxide to the lungs where it is eventually breathed out as the muscles in chest cause the diaphragm to compress the lungs.
The oxygen transferred to the blood is used in the conversion of various forms of energy and carbon dioxide the by product of effectively using the oxygen. The reason we breath is the CO2 concentration in the lungs – reduce that too far and we can stop breathing.
Breathing is central to the existence of life and is all too often overlooked. The problems with breathing centre around inefficiency of oxygen transfer to the blood and inflammation of the lungs. Just 2 examples: example carbon monoxide blocks the oxygen receptor sites on the blood cells while particulate contamination/irritation of the lungs is the most common cause of inflammation.
This is a very simplistic explanation of the lungs and the mechanism of breathing and you’ll find more articles in the following pages.
