What happens when you breathe- Lovego Weekly report

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What happens when you breathe

We talked about many tips to live a better life when battle with COPD. This week, let’s return back and see what happens when we breathe:


Air enters through our mouth or nose, the epiglottis opens to allow the air into our windpipe, and the air travels through the bronchi into the bronchioles, which look like the branches on an upside-down tree, getting smaller the farther into your lungs they go. (The bronchi and bronchioles together are often referred to as bronchial tubes.) At the end of each of these branches is a cluster of microscopic air sacs called alveoli that look like bunches of tiny grapes or soap bubbles. Each little sac — there are about 300 million of them in a healthy lung — is covered in small blood vessels. When you inhale, the blood in the pulmonary capillaries is high in carbon dioxide and low in oxygen. The oxygen in the air you breathe in is absorbed from your air sacs into your blood, and the carbon dioxide in your blood is transferred into your air sacs. You then expel the carbon dioxide from your body when you exhale. And your blood carries its new load of oxygen to your heart, your brain, and the rest of your body. (This process, known as the gas exchange, because it’s the exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide, is illustrated in above picture.) All this takes only a fraction of a second, and your body does it all on its own, an average of 15 to 25 times every minute while you’re resting. That’s because your medulla, hypothalamus, and cortex send and receive signals from your lungs and special cells throughout your respiratory system that continually monitor oxygen and carbon dioxide levels. And when you hold your breath, your brain sends a signal to your lungs ordering them to start breathing again.


Your central nervous system has a variety of specialized cells that monitor the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood. These cells send signals to your brain when the levels are out of balance. Some of these cells are located in your aorta, the largest artery in your body, which begins at your heart. Some are located in your carotid arteries, the arteries on either side of your neck that supply oxygen to


your brain. Still others are located in your brain stem. The cells in the brain stem pay particular attention to the carbon dioxide level in the fluid that encompasses your brain and spinal cord. If too much carbon dioxide is in this fluid, your lungs receive a signal to increase the rate of breathing and to take in deep breaths. When the carbon dioxide level drops to an acceptable level, your breathing rate returns to normal.

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