Think about this: you breathe over 20,000 times every day. For something done so often, how much do you know about how it works? The respiratory system, one of the organ systems found within your body, is what is responsible for allowing your body to breathe.

The human body is a very complex system. To compensate for all the functions and processes it must manage throughout the day, it constantly needs energy, which is given through the food you eat. However, to convert the food into energy, the body needs oxygen. This necessary gas is given to every cell of the body through the respiratory system.

The respiratory system extracts oxygen from the air to provide our cells the oxygen they need to live. The respiratory system can also get rid of carbon dioxide, a waste gas created by the cells after using the oxygen, when you breathe out. The process of inhaling, or breathing in oxygen, and exhaling, breathing out carbon dioxide, is called respiration. Respiration is an involuntary process, meaning the body automatically completes the task without us having to constantly think about doing it. Let’s look at the steps that the body has to make for you to breathe in and out.

Firstly, the diaphragm, a muscle underneath your lungs, flattens out to allow your lungs to expand and fill with air. When we breathe in, the oxygen from the air is forced through our nose or mouth and down to our trachea. The trachea is like a pipe: it moves the air through its tube. At the end of the trachea, the pipe splits into two new tubes called bronchi, so that air can travel to both the right and left lungs. The bronchi tubes branch out, like the leaves and stems of a plant. Each bronchi has small air sacs called alveoli at its end. These air sacs have very thin walls so they can give oxygen to red blood cells as they are passing by. This oxygen will then circulate throughout the rest of the body with the help of the circulatory system, the system responsible for transporting blood throughout the body. The alveoli also help clean out carbon dioxide, the waste gas that is produced from our blood cells. To get the unnecessary carbon dioxide out of our body, the diaphragm curves up and pushes the air out of the lungs, sending it the same way it came in. At this point, your lungs are now empty and are ready to take in more oxygen through your next breath. However, there is a small problem: the air that we breathe is very dirty. There are so many microscopic particles in the air that can damage your airways and lungs in the process of respiration. This is where your nose comes into play. Apart from being one of the only ways for air to enter the body, the nose also filters out dust and other harmful particles from the air. This filtration process is done through the hairs in your nose and mucus.
It’s amazing to see how the human body can go through so many steps almost every second of every day to provide itself oxygen. The best part is that we don’t even have to constantly remind ourselves to breathe! The respiratory system proves to show how fascinating and smart the human body is.