How much lungs do we have

You can increase you lung capacity with regular exercise. If stretched out, the total surface area of lungs would be about the same size as half a tennis court. There are about million lung sacs alveoli in your lungs. If you stretched all of them out, they would be about the size of four and a half wheelers parked next to each other. Your lungs are important for talking and singing. Above your trachea wind pipe is your larynx your voice box , which contains your vocal cords.

That's why it's possible but by no means ideal to live with just one lung. When you inhale, your lungs expand to hold the incoming air. How much air they hold is called lung capacity and varies with a person's size, age, gender and respiratory health.

The maximum amount of air an average adult male's lungs can hold is about six liters that's the same as about three large soda bottles. There's some math involved to get to that number, but basically, it's adding up air from a normal breath, extra air you can force in, additional air you can force out after regular exhaling and the air that's left in the lungs after all that. Every day, you breathe in just over 2, gallons of air—enough to almost fill up a normal-sized swimming pool.

That's a lot of air. It's the amount needed to oxygenate approximately 2, gallons of blood pumped through your heart daily. Because lungs are constantly exposed to the external environment, they need some protection from dust, germs and other unwanted matter.

That's where mucus comes in. Your bronchial tubes are lined with cilia they're like thin little hairs that carry mucus up into your throat to trap those yucky intruders until you cough, sneeze , clear your throat or swallow to get rid of them. The diaphragm is the chief muscle of breathing. You have two lungs, but they aren't the same size the way your eyes or nostrils are.

Instead, the lung on the left side of your body is a bit smaller than the lung on the right. This extra space on the left leaves room for your heart. Your lungs are protected by your rib cage, which is made up of 12 sets of ribs. These ribs are connected to your spine in your back and go around your lungs to keep them safe. Beneath the lungs is the diaphragm say: DY-uh-fram , a dome-shaped muscle that works with your lungs to allow you to inhale breathe in and exhale breathe out air.

You can't see your lungs, but it's easy to feel them in action: Put your hands on your chest and breathe in very deeply. You will feel your chest getting slightly bigger. Now breathe out the air, and feel your chest return to its regular size. You've just felt the power of your lungs! From the outside, lungs are pink and a bit squishy, like a sponge. But the inside contains the real lowdown on the lungs! At the bottom of the trachea say: TRAY-kee-uh , or windpipe, there are two large tubes.

These tubes are called the main stem bronchi say: BRONG-kye , and one heads left into the left lung, while the other heads right into the right lung. Each main stem bronchus say: BRONG-kuss — the name for just one of the bronchi — then branches off into tubes, or bronchi, that get smaller and even smaller still, like branches on a big tree.

The tiniest tubes are called bronchioles say: BRONG-kee-oles , and there are about 30, of them in each lung. Each bronchiole is about the same thickness as a hair. At the end of each bronchiole is a special area that leads into clumps of teeny tiny air sacs called alveoli say: al-VEE-oh-lie.

There are about million alveoli in your lungs and if you stretched them out, they would cover an entire tennis court. This oxygen passes across a membrane, called the alveolar-capillary membrane, into the bloodstream. At the same time, the carbon dioxide that has collected in the bloodstream during its travels around the body enters the alveoli.

From there, it is breathed back out into the atmosphere during exhalation. Special cells in the alveoli produce a compound known as pulmonary surfactant. It is composed of lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates.

Surfactant has both hydrophilic and hydrophobic regions. Hydrophilic regions are attracted to water, and hydrophobic regions are repelled by water. Each alveolus is like a plastic bag that is wet inside. If there were no surfactant, the bag would collapse in on itself, and the internal sides would stick together. Surfactant prevents this from happening to the alveoli. Pulmonary surfactant carries out its role by reducing the amount of surface tension.

By doing this, it reduces the effort necessary to inflate the alveoli. This is why babies who are born preterm have trouble breathing, referred to as infant respiratory distress syndrome RDS. If the lungs detect a rise in acidity, they increase the rate of ventilation to expel more of the unwanted gas. Filtering : The lungs filter small blood clots, and they can remove small air bubbles, known as air embolisms, if they occur.

Protective : The lungs can act as a shock absorber for the heart in certain types of collision. Protection from infection: Certain membranes within the lungs secrete immunoglobulin A.

This protects the lungs from some infections. Mucociliary clearance : The mucus that lines the respiratory passages traps dust particles and bacteria. Tiny hair-like projections, known as cilia, move these particles upward to a position where they can be coughed out or swallowed and destroyed by the digestive system. Blood reservoir : The lungs can vary how much blood they contain at any moment.

This function can be useful, for example, during exercise. The amount of blood the lungs can contain can vary from to 1, milliliters ml. The lungs interact with the heart and can help the heart function more efficiently. Respiratory diseases can affect any part of the respiratory system, from the upper respiratory tract to the bronchi and down into the alveoli.

Diseases of the respiratory system are common. Every year, there are millions of cases of the common cold in the United States. COPD usually results from the damage that tobacco smoking causes to the lungs. Asthma involves an obstructive narrowing and swelling of the airways and the production of excess mucus. This triggers shortness of breath and wheezing. Triggers include :. It can happen as a result of :. Infections can occur at any point in the respiratory tract. These may be described as:.

Upper respiratory tract infection : The most frequently contracted is the common cold viral. Others include laryngitis , pharyngitis, and tonsillitis.