Human Lungs

Without lungs what would you be?

The lungs are a pair of organs that helps with breathing found in your thorax or chest, that sit side by side and are protected by your ribs.
The job of the lungs is to replace the carbon dioxide in our bloodstream with oxygen, by taking it from the air around us.
Although the lungs look identical, they are different as the right has three lobes and is a little larger than the left ,which only has two lobes.
Lungs are a spongy tissue which contract and expand, and a single lung is about 1.1kg (2.4 pounds) in weight.
Bronchi and bronchioles are tubular shaped branches that transport the air from the windpipe, or trachea, in the lungs, and if these ‘branches’, from both of the lungs, were placed side by side, the distance covered would reach approximately 2,400km (1,500 miles) in length.

At the end of the bronchioles are groups of air sacs called alveoli, and humans have between 300 and 500 million of them in their lungs.
It is possible for people to live with only one lung, and whilst their function maybe a little limited due to the amount of air that can be inhaled and exhaled at any one time, they can generally lead a normal life.
It takes about 10 seconds for a newborn baby to inflate its lungs and take its first breath, and a typical human breathes 15 to 25 times a minute.
A common lung disease is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) with the main symptom being shortness of breath, which is most commonly caused by smoking, and can’t be cured but quitting smoking, healthy diets and cleaner air are some of the treatments.
Cancer, asthma, pneumonia, emphysema, bronchitis, apnea and lung poisoning are all common lung diseases or problems.

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