Lungs

Respiratory System

Our lung is a very important part of body that used for respiratory. Our lung, divides into two lobes and the right into three lobes. If we count the length of airways that our lung has, the lungs contain approximately 1500 miles or 2,400 km, and the total surface of lung is about 70 m square in adult. Our lungs indeed have a very wide surface.

Since its sucking air every time, the lung tends to get disease more easily than any other part of our body. But why lung based diseases always diagnose in late condition/stage? This question may questioned by many people.


The answer is because of our lungs has over characteristic. Our lungs are to a certain extent ‘overbuilt’ and have a tremendous reserve volume as compared to the oxygen exchange requirements when at rest. This is the reason why many lung diseases always known when its in late stage, and this also the reason why smokers can smoke for years without having a noticeable the decrease in lung function, while the lung is damaged slowly.

The total lung capacity (TLC) differ depend on the person’s age, height, weight, and sex. Women tend to have 20%-25% lower capacity than men do. However, lung capacity can be decrease if that person is smoking. If we are norm and don’t have any lung diseases, we in average breathes around 11,000 liters of air (21% of which consists of oxygen) in one day.

Even though, there are many diseases that endanger our lungs. It is has protection system that always protect it. The protective system is mucus, mucus-secreting cells, and cells with tiny hairs called cilia or Cilium, and cells from the immune system line the airways and protect the lungs by trapping pollen, bacteria, viruses and dust to prevent them from entering the lungs.

You may interest in our other article Lung Cancer