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BREATHING: HOW THIS SIMPLE ACT CAN INFLUENCE YOUR PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING
BREATHING: HOW THIS SIMPLE ACT CAN INFLUENCE YOUR PHYSICAL AND EMOTIONAL WELL-BEING
Breathing occurs day and night, nonstop. We can survive for a certain amount of time without food, but we can't go without breathing for more than a few minutes.
Did you know that all living beings need energy to survive, and that this energy comes from food? Our bodies obtain energy from food through the process of cellular respiration, which occurs in the mitochondria, with the participation of oxygen obtained from the environment.
THE glucose is one of the main "fuels" used by living cells for respiration. Observe what happens in our cells:
Glucose + oxygen gas --> carbon dioxide + water + energy
It is this type of phenomenon that occurs non-stop inside living cells, releasing the energy that guarantees the activity of our organs through the work of the cells.
Breathing can be understood from two aspects:
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The mechanism by which the chemical energy contained in food is extracted in the mitochondria and used to keep the organism active is cellular respiration;
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The set of processes of exchange between the organism and the external environment that allows the obtaining of oxygen gas and the elimination of carbon dioxide.
We will study respiration from this last perspective. We will therefore see how oxygen is absorbed from the atmospheric air and reaches our cells; and how carbon dioxide produced during cellular respiration is eliminated from the body.
The respiratory system
The human respiratory system is made up of the following organs, in sequence: nose , pharynx , larynx , trachea , bronchi and lungs .
During breathing, two types of movement occur: inhalation and exhalation. During inhalation, atmospheric air enters the lungs through the nose; during exhalation, the air present in the lungs is expelled into the external environment.
Air enters our body through two cavities in the nose: the right and left nasal cavities. They are completely separated by a structure called the nasal septum; they communicate with the outside through openings called nostrils and with the pharynx through the choanae. The nasal cavities are lined internally by nasal mucosa. This mucosa contains a cluster of hairs near the nostrils and produces a viscous secretion called mucus.
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