can anyone give me some info/facts on the respiratory system?

Answer 1

I am a registered respiratory therapist and will be glad to answer your questions if I can. I am not a physician therefore not allowed to diagnose but will give my opinion. Click on my avatar to contact me. Jan

Answer 2

Lungs evolved in backboned animals to enable them to breathe air. Bony fish have a floatation device known as a swim bladder. It is an air filled sack which the fish uses to maintain neutral boyancy. Because it is a gas exchange membrane, some fish began using it to extract oxygen from the atmosphere. Freshwater lakes are small compared to the ocean and can warm up, depleating the oxygen in the water. Fish able to gulp air had a distince advantage. The most extreme example is something known as a lungfish. It is a fish with gills but can drown if it can't get to the surface every half hour. If its pond dries up, it burrows into the mud and uses its primitive lung to breathe until the next rainy season.

Mammals have highly developed lungs and a very efficient way of breathing. The diaphram is a muscular sheet in the abdomen and can be pulled up and down. This is how air is pumped into and out of the lungs. Muscles in the ribcage help the process, but it is the diaphram which does most of the work. Cold blooded creatures with lungs do not have muscular diaphrams. A running lizzard can't breathe and has to stop and pant often. Birds have air sacks in their chests and abdomens which casn supply their lungs with fresh air even as they exhale. This is necessary because powered flight requires quite a lot of oxygen.

In a clean environment, lungs are one of the least likely organs in the body to suffer disease. In America, lung disease is common and it is almostly entirely due to cigarette smoking. Cigarette smoke contains carcinogens which can interact with genetic material and cause mutations in the cells lining the lung. Most mutations die, but if a certain sequence of events takes place, lung cancer is the result. The probability of this sequence happening is increased if it takes place over time, and most lung cancer ocurrs in people who have have been smoking for decades. Lung cancer is very fatal because it is usually malignant and well established by the time it is diagnosed. The lungs don't have nerve endings, so there is no pain associated with the growth of tumors. Besides the risks of cancer, most smokers eventually aquire emphacema. This is a scarring and thickening of the lung lining, which makes it difficult to breathe.

Besides cigarettes, the only other significant cause of lung cancer is exposure to asbestos. Asbestos is a fluffy , fubrous mineral widely used as insulation, since it doesn't burn. The fibers can break into millions of tiny needles however, and when inhaled embed themselves in the lung. Because the lungs have no nerves, the irritation goes unnoticed. Decades later, a rare form of cancer can develop. Asbsetos is now widely known to be dangerous and exposure is minimal.

The remainder of serious lung diseases falls into the category of genetic defects and biological agents. Cystic fibrosis is one such genetic defect and causes the lungs to fill with mucous. The mucous must be removed to prevent suffocating. Physical therapy helps, but unfortunately the disease progresses to the point where this ineffective.

Tuburculosis is a bacterial infection which can become fatal if active and untreated. Many bacterial lung infections are examples of a naturally rare microbe which is encouraged to multiply and become disease forming. Many healthy adults carry tuburculosis bacteria in their lungs, but not having to endure starvation or extreme conditions keeps the bacteria in a benign state. If the bacteria begins to multiply it must be treated with antibiotics. The goal of most treatements is to kill the bacteria entirely, but many patients stop taking pills the moment they begin to feel better. The tuberculosis is still alive, and worse, might have aquired a resistance to the medication. This means the administration of another antibiotic should the disease re-appear. This scenario is repeated and today some strains of tuberculosis are resistant to every known antibiotic.

Polio is now very rare, but was once common before vaccines were developed. This virus causes neuromuscular damage, paralyzing its victims. Besides crippling people, polio could also affect the muscles in the diaphram and chest. The "iron lung" was a cylindrical, pressurized vessel that some polio victims had to live in. It regurarly exerted a vacuum on the chest, which then filled with air.