Lungs are the primary respiratory internal organs in human beings and most of the other animals. Vertebrates and mammals have two lungs. In mammals and vertebrates, the lungs are located near the backbone on either side of the heart.
25 Interesting Facts about Lungs
1. Average breath
An average human being breathes 13 pints of air in a minute.
2. Shape of lungs
Human lungs are not symmetrical because as we know the lungs are on the side of the heart and the heart is at the left to centre because of it the left lung has slight depression and the right lung is slightly bigger than the left lung.
3. Lobes
Lungs have lobes, the right lung has three lobes and the left lung has two lobes and because of it they have different sizes.
4. Variation in breath
Human lungs are controlled by the brain that is why we have variation in breath. The human brain tells the lungs how much to inhale or exhale.
5. Can survive with one lung
Human beings have two lungs but humans can live a healthy life with only one lung but sometimes they feel difficulty in breathing such as at the time of exercising.
6. Lungs can float
Unlike other organs of the human body, lungs can float in water. it is because the lungs always contain liters of air even after exhaling.
7. If lungs are spread
We think that lungs are small organs of our body but it’s not true, if we spread the lungs it will cover the tennis court.
8. Oxygen used by lungs
When we breathe only 5% oxygen is used by our body and rest of the oxygen is exhaled and then again the cycle repeats.
9. Water is exhaled
When we breathe water is exhaled, and in a hour we exhale upto 17ml of water.
10. Other uses
Beside breathing, our lungs have other uses also like we get rid of 70% of waste from our lungs.
11. Location
Our lungs are directly connected to the spinal cord at our back and it is also connected to the chest bone in the front. For the protection purpose it is situated on the inside the rib-cage.
12. Oxygen route
When we breathe in, the air enters through the nose which is passed to lungs by the windpipe which connects the nose and lungs. Windpipe has branches and each branch is called a bronchus.
13. Lungs of unborn baby
Inside the womb, child lungs get filled with the fluid and as soon as the child takes birth, it takes only 10 seconds for the child to take the first breath.
14. Lungs helps in speech
Lungs not only helps in breathing but also helps in speed, as the larynx or the voice box is situated just above the windpipe thus pushing the air from lungs through the voice box and converting it to sound.
15. Average breath
An adult human being takes upto 16 breaths each minute but it varies depending upon the job we do, the activity we are undertaking and how much stress we are having.
16. Lung cancer
Major reason for lung cancer is smoking cigarettes. When a person smokes the tar gets secreted in lungs. 80 deaths caused by lungs are due to smoking cigarettes.
17. Breathing as an exercise
Deeply breathing into lungs helps to reduce stress, reduce pain and makes us relax that is why breathing is used in meditation and yoga.
18. Lungs get affected
Not only smoking cigarettes affects our lungs if we do not smoke cigarettes and do the regular exercise but we live in heavily polluted areas where we work or live, then it can affect our lungs.
19. Protection mechanism
Our lungs have their own defense mechanism they protect our body from pollution and contamination. There are some cells in our lungs which produce mucus which protects our body from dust and dirt.
20. Inhale and exhale both are important
Inhalation and exhalation both are equally important, if we do not exhale our body will retain very dangerous CO2.
21. Lungs contain blood
Our lungs contain a large amount of blood and contrary to the idea of hollow lungs, they are actually full.
22. Mucous is very important
Blood is very important to our lungs but due to the blood bacteria grows in the lungs, but the mucous produced by the lung helps to kill the bacteria in lungs and also helps lungs from getting dry.
23. Smoke or other substances
We often heard about smoke or other vapourized substances going to the brain. It happens due to the close connection between the blood vessels, lungs and brain.
24. Coughing
Many people have misconceptions about coughing as they think coughing is a problem related to the lungs but around 10 times coughing in a day is normal.
25. Healthy lungs
Many lung problems like asthma can get cured by just doing regular lung exercises.
Lungs are a very important internal organ of our body and we can not survive without the lungs, so we should try to keep our lungs healthy by just doing meditation and deep breathing.
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