RESPIRATION

RESPIRATION 

Breathing—you do it all the time, actually you’re doing it right now. But you hardly ever think about it, unless you suddenly can’t breathe; then, it becomes very clear that you have to breathe in order to live. 

But why is breathing important? 

Your body needs oxygen in order to get energy from the foods you eat. Breathing makes this process possible. 

The respiratory system is responsible for taking in oxygen and releasing carbon dioxide. 

RESPIRATION AND THE RESPIRATORY SYSTEM

The words breathing and respiration are often used to mean the same thing. However, breathing is only one part of respiration. 

RESPIRATION is the process by which a body gains and uses oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide and water. 
 and it is divided in two parts:

•First one is breathing, involving inhaling and exhaling.

•Second part is cellular respiration, involving chemical reactions that release energy from food.

Breathing is made possible by your respiratory system. 

The respiratory system is the group of organs that take in oxygen and get rid of carbon dioxide. 

The nose, throat, lungs, and passageways that lead to the lungs make up the respiratory system. 

Next Figure shows some parts of the Respiratory System. 

Breathing

When you breathe, air is sucked into or pushed out of your lungs. However, your lungs have no muscles of their own. Instead, breathing is done by the diaphragm 

The diaphragm is a dome-shaped muscle beneath the lungs. When the diaphragm contracts and moves down, you inhale. The chest cavity’s volume gets larger. At the same time, some of your rib muscles contract and lift your rib cage. As a result, your chest cavity gets bigger and a vacuum is created. Air is sucked in. Exhaling is this process in reverse. 

•Air travels to the lungs through the nose or mouth, then the pharynx, larynx, trachea and bronchi. In the lungs, the bronchi branches into many many bronchioles, which branch into millions of alveoli.

The alveoli are bunches of tiny air sacks inside the lungs.

When you breathe in, they fill with air.

Breathing and Cellular Respiration
In cellular respiration, oxygen is used by cells to release energy stored in molecules of the sugar glucose. Where does the oxygen come from? 

When you inhale, you take in oxygen gas. This gas moves into red blood cells and is carried to tissue cells. The oxygen then moves out of the red blood cells and into each cell. Cells use the oxygen to release energy. During this process, carbon dioxide (CO2) and water are made. Car- bon dioxide is exhaled from the lungs.

Chemical reaction of cellular respiration process that happens in the alveoli is as follows:

Vocabulary 3rd Term: RESPIRATION

1.     Respiration: in biology, the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between living cells and their environment; includes breathing and cellular respiration

2.     Respiratory System
: a collection of organs whose primary function is to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide

3.     Pharynx: the passage from the mouth to the larynx and esophagus

4.     Larynx: the area of the throat that contains the vocal cords and produces vocal sounds

5.     Trachea:  the tube that connects the larynx to the lungs

6.     Bronchus: one of the two tubes that connect the lungs with the trachea

7.     Alveolus:  any of the tiny air sacs of the lungs where oxygen and carbon dioxide are exchanged

8.     Photosynthesis: the process by which plants, algae, and some bacteria use sunlight, car- bon dioxide, and water to make food

9.     Chlorophyll:  a green pigment that captures light energy for photosynthesis

10.  Cellular respiration: the process by which cells use oxygen to produce energy from food

11.  Stoma:  one of many openings in a leaf or a stem of a plant that enable gas exchange to occur (plural, stomata)

12.  Transpiration: the process by which plants release water vapor into the air through stomata

13.  Emphysema: destruction of the alveoli for gas exchange which causes extreme shortage of breath

14.  Asthma: a condition in which your airways narow and swell, producing extra mocus, making breathing difficult.

15.  Bronchitis: inflammation of the mucous membrane in the bronchial tubes. It typically causes bronchospasm and coughing.

16.   Flu (INFUENZA): a highly contagious viral infection of the respiratory passages causing fever, severe aching, and catarrh, and often occurring in epidemics.

17.  Common cold: is a viral infection of the upper respiratory system, including the nose, throat, sinuses, eustachian tubes, trachea, larynx, and bronchial tubes.

 18.   Lung cancer is the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells that start off in one or both lungs; usually in the cells that line the air passages. The abnormal cells do not develop into healthy lung tissue, they divide rapidly and form tumors.