Respiratory System

We need energy for life--for all of our daily activities.

Our respiratory system is responsible for supplying
oxygen to our body. We need oxygen to get energy from
the food that we eat. In fact, we need oxygen to carry out
all of the chemical processes that are constantly going on
in our bodies. Our respiratory systems obtain oxygen
from the air and pass it to our blood which then carries it
to our entire body.

The following are some internet resources and activities

to help you learn more about your respiratory system.

Lungs

Smoking makes it harder for our lungs to absorb oxygen.

1. Lungs provide a place for what important aspect of breathing?

2. What are pleurae?

Your Respiratory System

Insects don't have lungs; they breathe differently than most other animals. They have
tubes inside their bodies that carry oxygen to their organs.. These tubes open up at
holes called spiracles along the sides of the insect's body.

1. Why do we need to breathe?

2. What role does your diaphragm play in breathing?
3. What keeps food from going down our windpipe?
4. Spread out flat, about how much space would all the airsacs in the lungs of an adult
cover?
5. What role do red blood cells play in respiration?
6. Every minute about how much air do you breath in?
7. How are plants our partners in breathing?

Oxygen Delivery System

We need more oxygen to give us more energy when we are running or exercising. This
is why we breathe so hard during these activities, and our heart beats faster in order to
get that oxyen to the various parts of our body.

1. What is the job of your diaphragm?

Inspiration and Expiration

When we are tired or inactive for a long period of time, our breathing slows down and
becomes more shallow. When our breathing slows down, we, of course, take in less
oxygen. But if our bodies need some more oxygen for energy, we yawn. Yawning brings
extra oxygen into our lungs which gives us more energy and may help keep us awake.
Yawning may also be triggered by a build up of carbon dioxide in our lungs. When we
yawn, we take in an extra large amount of oxygen and then expel the carbon dioxide.

1. What is inspiration?
2. What is expiration?

Larynx and Trachea

Normal air is about 21% oxygen.

1. Where are your vocal chords and how do they help you make sound?
2. What is the purpose of the C-shaped rings of tough, rubbery, cartilage that are in your
trachea?

Breathing

The key to a long life, said vaudeville entertainer Sophie Tucker, is simple enough:
"Keep breathing."

1. How many breaths have you taken since the day you were born? (Remember this is an
estimate!)

Gross and Cool Body

Babies get hiccups alot more than adults.

1. What makes us hiccup?

2. Why do we keep hiccupping?
3. What are some ways to try and stop hiccups?
4. Do unborn babies hiccup?

Gross and Cool Body

The mucus in our noses is made by tiny glands and goblet cells found in the walls of our
noses.

1. What is the purpose of the mucus in your nose?

2. What is this mucus made of?
3. What are boogers made up of?
4. Do men or women have more hair in their noses?

Respiratory System Amazing Facts

How long can you hold your breath? One minute? Two minutes? Two minutes is a long
time for a human to hold his or her breath. Some divers in the South Pacific who dive for
pearls can stay underwater and hold their breath for about two and a half minutes.

1. Which lung is bigger--your right or your left?

2. What is the highest recorded sneeze speed?
3. About how much water do we lose per day through breathing?

Asthma

When you blow up a balloon, you are filling it full of carbon dioxide.

1. What is asthma?
2. What happens during an asthma attack?

Emphysema

Bronchitis is an infection of the main air tubes in the lungs which are called bronchi.
They may become swollen which narrows the space inside for air to pass through. Extra
mucus in the lungs is also produced. People with bronchitis cough to try to clear the
mucus, and they have trouble breathing because of the narrowed passages.

1. What is emphysema?
2. What is it usually caused by?
3. What does emphysema do to the air sacs of the lungs?
4. Can emphysema be cured? Why or why not?

Pneumonia

A cold is an infection of the linings of the nasal cavity and other parts of the respiratory
system caused by viruses.

1. What is pneumonia?
2. What can it be caused by?
3. Despite a widespread cessation in smoking over the past several decades, there has been
no significant decline in death rates from lung cancer among former smokers, according
to a new study (Epidemiology 1999;10:500-12).
4. The study looked at the impact of stopping smoking on death rates in a group of 51 343
men and 66 751 women from California who were enrolled in the American Cancer
Society's original cancer prevention study in 1959 and followed for 38 years.
5. The study compared the age adjusted death rate, expressed as deaths per 1000 person
years, among all participants who had smoked cigarettes in 1959 but who had stopped
smoking by 1997 with the death rate of people who had never smoked during the same 38
year period. The study found that stopping smoking did not translate quickly or directly
into reduced rates of death from lung cancer. For example, the death rate from lung
cancer among men increased from 1.558 to 1.728 for smokers and from 0.127 to 0.133
 for never smokers. The death rate from lung cancer among women increased from 0.208
to 0.806 for smokers and from 0.094 to 0.116 for never smokers.
6. The results show that over the period studied there was no important decline in either the
absolute or relative death rates from lung cancer for cigarette smokers compared with
never smokers, despite a substantial cessation of smoking. Indeed, the relative risk of
lung cancer remained essentially constant among men and increased markedly among
women, despite the fact that lung cancer is the disease most strongly linked with cigarette
smoking and is the one that should be most affected by cessation over a long period of
follow up.
7. The researchers said that the results help explain why there has not been a substantial
decline in the death rate from lung cancer among older American men and why death
rates from lung cancer among American women are on the rise.
8. "The excess mortality risk associated with smoking can be avoided by never smoking and
can be reduced among smokers only by becoming a long term former smoker," said the
study's lead author, Dr James Enstrom of the University of California, Los Angeles.
9. He said that in a longer follow up period, the smoking related death rates of former
smokers and never smokers might eventually converge as a consequence of smoking
cessation. The results of other studies, however, indicate that adult smokers who gave up
smoking before developing any ill effects cut their risk of lung cancer dramatically,
according to Richard Peto of Oxford University.
10. If people started smoking young and managed to stop before reaching middle age they
would reverse most of their risk of dying from complications related to smoking, Dr Peto
said. Even in middle age, smokers who stopped avoided most of their risk of death from
tobacco related diseases. People who stopped smoking before reaching middle age
avoided almost all of the risk. A study published by Dr Peto and colleagues in the BMJ
(1994;309:937-9) found that those who stopped smoking before they reached middle age
subsequently avoided almost all of the excess risk that they would otherwise have had but
even those who stopped smoking in middle age were at substantially less risk than those
who continued to smoke.