Why Do We Breathe?

By Ainsley Lovrien

     Every part of your body needs oxygen. Every function of your body needs oxygen. Eating your food, digesting, moving your muscles, or just thinking are examples of bodily functions that are required to have oxygen. When these processes happen, carbon dioxide is produced as a waste product. Your lungs job in this system, is to provide these processes with oxygen and to get rid of the waste gas, carbon dioxide.
     Your brain is getting constant signals from your body which detect the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your blood. The brain then send signals to the muscles involved in breathing and adjust your breathing rate depending how much activity you spend doing throughout the day.
     When you are active, your breathing can increase up to 40-60 times a minute to cope with the extra demand. The delivery of oxygen to your muscles also speeds up, so they can do their job efficiently. The increase in your breathing also makes sure there’s no build up of carbon dioxide in your bloodstream.
     Healthy lung tissue is springy and elastic so your muscles need to expand your chest and draw air into your lungs. Signals from the respiratory centre in your brain travel down nerves to your diaphragm and other muscles. The diaphragm is pulled flat, pushing out the lower ribcage up and out. This expands the chest and draws air into the lungs.
     Air is pulled through you nose or mouth, which another 15 to 25 times, and finally into thousands of smaller airways until the air reaches the air sacs.
     Although breathing is usually automatic, you can control it if you want to. Breathing is important to us while living our lives.