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respiratory-system-surprising-facts.html

Gasp! 11 Surprising Facts About the Respiratory System |

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Gasp! 11 Surprising Facts About the

Respiratory System
By Joseph Castro - Live Science Contributor March 14, 2014

PAGE 1 OF 2:

PAGE 1

Surprise!
(Image credit:Leonello Calvetti|Shutterstock)

The respiratory system is made up of several organs and structures,

including the lungs, windpipe, diaphragm and alveoli. It is responsible for
taking in oxygen and expelling carbon-dioxide waste.

Here are 11 surprising facts about the respiratory system.

You lose a lot of water just by breathing.

(Image credit: Embarrassed man image viaShutterstock)

Breathing allows you to take in the oxygen your cells need and expel
carbon-dioxide waste. But when you exhale, you also breathe out a lot of
water.

How much water do you lose from breathing?

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When at rest, humans exhale up to 17.5 milliliters (0.59 fluid ounces) of

water per hour, according to a 2012 article in the journal Polish
Pneumonology and Allergology. But you lose about four times that
amount when you exercise, the study said.

Some people can hold their breath for more

than 20 minutes.
(Image credit: Dreamstime)

The average time an adult can hold his or her breath is between 30 and
60 seconds. This limitation has more to do with the buildup of blood-
acidifying carbon dioxide than the lack of oxygen, which your body
stores in muscle proteins called myoglobin.

But free divers — people who practice the sport of diving underwater
without using equipment like scuba gear — have different techniques,
such as hyperventilation, to decrease the concentration of carbon
dioxide in the blood, allowing them to hold their breath for remarkably
long times. Denmark's Stig Severinsen currently holds the Guinness
World Record for the longest free dive — in 2010, he held his breath
underwater for 22 minutes.

The lungs are the only organs that can float

on water.
(Image credit:Lungs diagram via Shutterstock)

Each of your lungs contains about 300 million balloon-like structures

called alveoli, which replace the carbon-dioxide waste in your blood with
oxygen. When these structures are filled with air, the lungs become the
only organs in the human body that can float on water.

In fact, medical examiners use the so-called "lung float test" during
autopsies to determine if a baby was stillborn (died in the womb). If the
lungs float, the baby was born alive; if the lungs don't float, the baby was
stillborn. This method is accurate 98 percent of the time, according to a
2013 study in the International Journal of Legal Medicine.

Sneeze particles may not travel as fast as

people think.
(Image credit: CDC/James Gathany)

In the past, modeling studies have estimated the velocity of a sneeze at

112 mph (180 km/h). On the popular Discovery Channel series
"MythBusters," hosts Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage recorded a
maximum sneeze velocity of 39 mph (63 km/h).

However, a 2013 study in the journal PLOS ONE found that a sneeze's
maximum velocity is even lower than the rates determined on
"MythBusters." Using a high-speed camera and LED lights, the
researchers found that their study participants only sneezed up to 10
mph (16 km/h).

The common cold can be caused by

hundreds of different viruses.
(Image credit:Woman with coldvia Shutterstock)

The common cold is by far the most prevalent respiratory-system illness,

and may be the most common illness known today. It is the leading
cause of doctor visits, as well as missed days from work and school,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the
United States alone, there are more than 1 billion cases of the common
cold each year.

A cold is often thought to be synonymous with "rhinovirus," the virus that

most frequently causes this type of illness. But there are actually more
than 200 viruses that can cause a cold, including the human coronavirus
and the respiratory syncytial virus.

The lungs and windpipe were important

symbols in ancient Egypt.
(Image credit:Leonello Calvetti|Shutterstock)

In humans and other animals, the lungs and windpipe must work
together to provide the tissues and cells of the body with oxygen. The
ancient Egyptians understood the importance of this cohesion for
survival, and created a hieroglyph that depicts the lungs attached to the
windpipe, to symbolize the unity between upper and lower Egypt that
was necessary for the country to be strong and healthy.

Because pharaohs were responsible for ruling over the two lands, the
lungs-windpipe hieroglyph is often found on artifacts belonging to
pharaohs, including clothing, furniture and jewelry.

Elephants have a unique respiratory

structure.

(Image credit: Elephant imageShutterstock)

In the respiratory system of mammals, a thin sheet of tissue called the

pleura wraps around the lungs and lines the chest cavity. The area
between the layers of pleura is known as the pleural space, or pleural
cavity, and it contains pleural fluid, which provides lubrication as the
lungs expand and contract.

Unlike all other mammals, the pleural cavity of elephants is filled with
tough connective tissue. This unusual structure allows elephants to
snorkel and withstand the differences in pressure above and below
water, without rupturing the blood vessels in the lining of their lungs,
according to a 2001 article in journal Respiration Physiology.

Chest movement during breathing isn't the

result of air movement.

(Image credit:Workout photovia Shutterstock )

When you breathe in, our chest swells; when you breathe out, our chest
collapses. But these chest movements are not actually the result of air
filling up or exiting the lungs.

During inhalation, the diaphragm — a thin sheet of dome-shaped muscle

that separates the chest and abdominal cavities — contracts and moves
down, increasing the space in the chest cavity. At the same time, the
muscles between the ribs contract to pull the rib cage upward and
outward. During exhalation, the exact opposite happens.

Asthma was once treated with

psychotherapy.

(Image credit: Dreamstime)

Modern science has shown that asthma is a chronic lung disease that
causes the airways to become inflamed and narrowed. It's a physical
illness that can be exacerbated by psychological factors.

Between the 1930s and 1950s, however, people thought the roots of
asthma were psychological. Therefore, treatments for asthma focused
mainly on psychoanalysis. Therapists even interpreted a child's
asthmatic wheezing as a suppressed cry for his or her mother, according
to a 2005 article in the journal Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental
Health.
Horses only breathe through their noses.

(Image credit: Alexia Khruscheva,Shutterstock)

For humans, breathing through the mouth comes naturally and easily.
The same is true for many other mammals: Dogs, for example, pant to
cool off.

Horses, however, only breathe through their nostrils. They have a flap of
tissue that forms a tight seal over the oral cavity, which prevents them
from breathing through their mouths, even in respiratory distress. When
they eat and swallow food, that flap closes off the nasal cavity and opens
up the oral cavity, allowing food to go down the pharynx (the upper part
of the throat.).

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