Respiratory System-Anatomy & Functions 2024

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Inhalation and Exhalation

Inhalation and exhalation are how your body brings in oxygen and gets rid of carbon dioxide. The process gets help from a large dome-shaped muscle under your lungs called the diaphragm.

When you breathe in, your diaphragm pulls downward, creating a vacuum that causes a rush of air into your lungs.

The opposite happens with exhalation: Your diaphragm relaxes upward, pushing on your lungs, allowing them to deflate.

How Does the Respiratory System Clean the Air?

Your respiratory system has built-in methods to keep harmful things in the air from entering your lungs.

Hairs in your nose help filter out large particles. Tiny hairs, called cilia, along your air passages move in a sweeping motion to keep the passages clean. But if you breathe in harmful things like cigarette smoke, the cilia can stop working. This can lead to health problems like bronchitis.

Cells in your trachea and bronchial tubes make mucus that keeps air passages moist and helps keep dust, bacteria and viruses, and allergy-causing things out of your lungs.

Mucus can bring up things that reach deeper into your lungs. You then cough out or swallow them.

Respiratory System Diseases

Respiratory infections are common illnesses. Children are especially likely to get them. They can affect your upper or lower respiratory tract.

Upper respiratory infections include:

• The common cold
• Epiglottitis, a swelling of the top part of the trachea that sits at the back of your throat
• Laryngitis, inflammation of your voice box. You might become very hoarse or lose your voice altogether.
• Pharyngitis, otherwise known as a sore throat
• Sinusitis, an infection of your sinuses

Lower respiratory infections include:

• Bronchitis, an infection of your lungs that causes coughing and a fever
• Bronchiolitis, a lung infection that usually affects children
• Chest infection
• Pneumonia

Respiratory infections are caused by viruses or bacteria entering your system. They’re contagious, spread by sneezing, coughing, or touching things contaminated with germs.

You may have heard about RSV, which stands for respiratory syncytial virus. It’s a common upper respiratory virus that usually isn’t serious, but it can cause problems for older people and small children.

Influenza, or the flu, isn’t considered an upper respiratory virus, even though it can cause symptoms like coughing, a sore throat, and a runny nose. That’s because the flu virus affects more than one system in your body.

Common diseases of the respiratory system include:

• Asthma. Your airways narrow and make too much mucus.
• Bronchiectasis. Inflammation and infection make your bronchial walls thicker.
• Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This long-term condition gets worse over time. It includes bronchitis and emphysema.
• Pneumonia. An infection causes inflammation in your alveoli. They might fill up with fluid or pus.
• Tuberculosis. Bacteria cause this dangerous infection. It usually affects your lungs but might also involve your kidneys, spine, or brain.
• Lung cancer. Cells in your lung change and grow into a tumor. This often happens because of smoking or other chemicals you’ve breathed in.
• Cystic fibrosis. This disease is caused by a problem in your genes and gets worse over time. It causes lung infections that don’t go away.
• Pleural effusion. Too much fluid builds up between the tissues that line your lungs and chest.
• Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Your lung tissue becomes scarred and can’t work the way it should.
• Sarcoidosis. Tiny clumps of inflammatory cells called granulomas form, often in your lungs and lymph nodes.