Monday, March 21, 2011

Respiration

Respiration (simply breathing) isn't something we have to think all the time. It's automatic most of the time but it's controlable to a limited amount. I read about respiration from Galenos (the entrance examination book of medicine in Finland) today. Why do we breath? I try to give you a little briefing what I remember.

We breath so that we can get oxygen, which massively boosts our metabolism. In other words: we get much more energy if we use oxygen. On the other hand, we breath so that we can get rid of carbon dioxide and other metabolic waste. Brains are very dependent on oxygen: if a brain-leading artery gets blocked, only a pause of 5 seconds in oxygen transmission can cause senselessness.

How come the air flows into our lungs? By breathing yeah, but we can't just grab those molecules in. The answer is: under pressure. As the diaphragm (the main inspiratory muscle) contracts, it expands the volume of lungs, which creates under pressure inside the lungs and the air flows from higher pressure (outside) to lower pressure (lungs).

Remember to breath folks! ;) It's essential!


13 comments:

  1. I guess everyone knows that! NOT d: but i did, lawl :3

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  2. I'm breathing I'm breathing! Followed! alphabetalife.blogspot.com

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  3. I'm sure lots of people know this and my english skills aren't good enough to go much deeper than this :P posted mainly for my own amusement and possibly for those who are interested :)

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  4. Yeah, breathing: one of the key elements of a slow lifestyle. ;)

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  5. Nice read, keep these posts coming!

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  6. Interesting and well written post,
    Thanks for this :)

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  7. I hate reading about breathing because that makes me aware of it and I start doing it manually. Like swallowing saliva...

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  8. ^ What Sam said ^
    oh, followed :3

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  9. Do you know the world record of holding your breath is at like 17 minutes? That's insane, i'm gonna try to find a video to link back

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  10. Yeh I know :D that's sick! Breath holders tend to hyperventilate before they start to get more carbon dioxide and therefore more carbonic acid out of them so that their pH rises a bit, which compensates the pH lowering while holding breath.

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