The Respiratory System
By: Kadence Trosper
The preview
The respiratory system is the system that carries oxygen and carbon dioxide through your body. carbon dioxide and oxygen do have to enter and leave your body, so how does you body do it? Well, inside your lungs are things called bronchioles which have little tiny grape-like clusters on them called alveoli. When you breath in, the alveoli gets filled with oxygen. When your blood circulates through your body, it goes around these alveoli and collects the oxygen inside and dumps off the carbon dioxide that was inside your blood. Then when you exhale the carbon dioxide that was in the alveoli, leaves.
First Step
The nasal cavity is the first pathway that air enters your body. When you inhale your air goes into the nose which is also called the nasal cavity. Inside your nose are tiny hairs and mucus that helps trap the nasty stuff such as pollen that was in the air.
Next is the... Pharynx
The pharynx is the next step. Air, food, and liquids enters this tube. Inside of your pharynx is an epiglottis. Your epiglottis is a little flap that lets food and liquids go one way and air to go another. So when the food or air goes down, your epiglottis folds down to let air go up and into the next step which is your larynx.
Larynx and Trachea
Your larynx is the next step that takes place after the pharynx. The larynx is fold of tissue that are connected to your vocal cords. When air passes through your vocal cords, they vibrate to make the sound of your voice. After the air goes through your larynx, it goes to your trachea. The Trachea is a tube that gets air to your lungs. Also inside your trachea is mucus, which traps all the bad things in the air to make the air clean.
Next is...
Next is the bronchi, which are two tubes that come off of your trachea to let air pass equally into the left and right lung. The bronchi continue to branch off into smaller and smaller tubes. The smaller tubes are called bronchioles. On each of these bronchioles are alveoli. As I said earlier, alveoli are tiny circles at the end of each bronchiole. These are the things that make up the lungs. Alveoli are what helps sxchange carbon dioxode and oxygen.
The Lungs
The lungs are the last step. They are a bunch of alveoli that are put together to form grap-like clusters. When you inhale, oxygen moves through the membrane of the alveoli and into the membrane of the capillaries to the blood. In the blood, the oxygen is picked up by a molecule in the blood called hemoglobin, and is then taken to the rest of your body cells. In your lungs, the wstes and carbon dioxide travels through the membranes of the capillaries and goes into the alveoli. Then when you exhale, all of those wastes and carobon dioxide leave your body.
How Do You Inhale and Exhale?
Well, under your lungs is a muscle that is called the diaphragm. The diaphragm is a muscle that contracts. When it contracts, it actually contracts down so that is how you inhale. When it relaxes, it goes back to its normal spot so that means that you are exhaling when it contracts.
Diseases
Even though your respiratory system is a good thing, there is bad things that can happen inside or take place in the respiratory system. One thing is that inside of you there is a bunch of bacteria and other stuff, but things like viruses, microorganisms, and bacteria can cause infections that can hurt any of the organs in the system. Another thing is, when the tubes of your bronchi get irritated, they swell and cause mucus to build up. This disease is called bronchitis because it happens in the bronchial tubes.
People who smoke are putting them self at a high chance of getting lung cancer. Even if you inhale cigarette smoke then you are out at a higher risk. There are things called carcinogens that can cause uncontrolled growth of cells in the lungs, this is lung cancer.
Lung Cancer Pictures - Symptoms Photos images and Pictures of Lung Cancer
Some More
Another disease that occurs in the respiratory system is emphysema. Emphysema is when the alveoli that make up the lungs get bigger. When the cells in alveoli swell up and become red, an enzyme is released causing the walls of the alveoli to break apart. After this occurs, the alveoli can't push and air out of the lungs so there will be no oxygen moving through the blood stream. The last one is asthma. Asthma is a disease that a lot of kids nowadays may have. Asthma is when the bronchial tubes contract too quickly and you will have to take in a medicine to relax the tubes.