How the lungs supply the body with oxygen

Lungs and oxygen

Imagine your lungs to become like two big sponges inside your chest, which expand whenever you breathe in and contract when you breathe out. Air flows from your nose or your mouth through your throat, voice box and windpipe into your lungs, in which the air enters the lung tissue through branching tubes. The passages by which the air travels to your lungs are called respiratory tract or airways.

A thin lining covers your airways from the inside to help keep the air warm and moist. The most typical problem affecting the respiratory system is an inflammation of the lining brought on by an infection like a cold, however, many conditions can affect your airways and lungs. Common symptoms include:

Cough: Coughs could be acute or chronic.
Shortness of breath: Breathing difficulties are closely related to respiratory problems, but could also be brought on by heart problems or another medical conditions.
Wheezing: Wheezing may be the noise you make when you breathe through narrowed airways and is common in asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Smoking dramatically increases your risk of developing issues with your airways.

Travelling down to your intestines

Your digestive system stretches from your mouth to your back passage - using the bit containing your stomach and your bowels called your gastrointestinal tract. The main function of your digestive system would be to break down drink and food that you take in, so your body has got the protein, carbohydrates, fats, vitamins and minerals it needs.

After chewing food in your mouth, a combination of food and saliva travels down your gullet into your stomach, where it gets broken down by acidic digestive juices. When the stomach contents have become a bit more liquid, they move into the duodenum, where more digestive juices from organs called your pancreas and liver break down the liquid further make it possible for your body to extract the necessary nutrients in the small intestine.

Everything that's left over flows as a thin fluid into your large bowel (known as the colon), which absorbs most of the water contained in the fluid back to your body. Following this process you're playing 'poo', which is stored in the last little bit of your large bowel which lets you know to go to the toilet to open your bowels when it might be full.

Your liver is a large and important sponge-like organ located in the right upper a part of your abdomen and it has many functions. It 'cleans' your blood from toxins, recycles ageing blood cells helping regulate the breakdown of waste material in your blood. Drinking too much alcohol - an extensive problem around the world - can cause liver problems. If you have liver problems, or another issues with your gastrointestinal tract, you may develop one or more of the following symptoms:

Abdominal pain: Tummy pain may appear for many reasons and is one of the most important indicators that something might be going on inside your abdomen.
Constipation: Hard stools or issues with opening your bowels is a very common symptom.
Diarrhoea: Runny stools are common with bowel infections but could also occur for a lot of other reasons.
Jaundice: If you have severe liver damage or blocked digestive tubes running from your liver to your intestines, you might develop a yellow tinge in the whites of your eyes and your skin known as jaundice.
Nausea and vomiting: Feeling and being sick are common with stomach infections and liver problems, however, many other causes may be responsible. These symptoms are only a few that can indicate gastrointestinal problems.

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