Today my 8-year-old daughter asked me how big our lungs are, which stumped me. Although I know the size of lungs, how can such an irregularly shaped organ be? Describe it to her? After thinking about it for a long time, I can only tell him that our lungs hide a “three rooms and one living room”? Now she is even more confused, let her explore by herself when she grows up!
Why do we say that our lungs have three rooms and one living room? This refers to the respiratory area in our lungs. There are about 200-300 million alveoli in an adult. Although the total area of each alveolus is very small, the total area is not small, about 100-200 square meters. Is it a proper “three rooms and one living room”?
How does the lung organize so many alveoli together and “stuff” into our lungs? Is that really wonderful? Our lung is not a piece of iron, but consists of 5 different lobes, 3 lobes on the right and 2 lobes on the left. Each lobe is divided into different segments, and each segment is divided into sub-segments, which are continuously divided. It is divided into the smallest functional unit – the pulmonary lobule. This pulmonary lobule is like a bunch of grapes, each grape is an alveolus, and the stem connecting each alveoli is the bifurcated bronchioles. Inhale the air and expel the exhaust. The reason why it is divided into different lobes, segments and sub-segments instead of forming a complete piece is that part of the lungs will be damaged and lead to the overall paralysis of the lungs. It also lays the foundation for our surgical operation. It is still possible to remove one lobe of the other lungs. Work as usual.
After talking about the structure, let’s take a look at the function of the lung. Many people think that the lung is a respiratory organ. In fact, the lung is a simple one. Our lung functions are many, including immune function and chemical defense. Function, endocrine function, and even some people have researched that the lung has a part of hematopoietic function, but these functions are some auxiliary functions. The main function of our lung is the respiratory function, which is mainly responsible for absorbing oxygen from the outside air into the blood in the body. At the same time, the carbon dioxide in the blood is excreted out of the body. A normal person breathes about 10,000L of air and emits about 360L of carbon dioxide every day.
The alveoli are surrounded by blood vessels, and when air enters the alveoli, it diffuses into the blood vessels
To complete this exhale and one breath, two functions of the lung are used, one is the ventilation function and the other is the diffusion function. The ventilation function actually measures the patency of the trachea, and the diffusion function refers to the The process of taking oxygen from the air inhaled into the lungs into the blood vessels around the alveoli. Different diseases affect different functions. For example, bronchial asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and bronchiectasis mainly affect the former. Interstitial lung disease, silicosis mainly affects the latter. Most lung diseases end up in these two factions.
The process by which air enters the blood vessels around the alveoli from the alveoli and is carried away by the blood
Lungs are non-renewable. One piece is cut short. Most of the lungs that have been damaged due to various reasons such as diseases cannot be repaired, but the function of each lobe of the lung has not been exerted. To the maximum, so if a part of the lung is broken, the other lobes will expand and enlarge to partially replace its function.