Gas Exchange: The lung (6.4)
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Notes and REviewGAS EXCHANGE NOTES |
The rESPirATORY System
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Majority of our essential nutrients we get from food and digestion of that food in the small intestine. Most waste is removed either via the kidneys, liver, or fecal matter. The one major exception is Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide.
Air, composed mostly of nitrogen, contains some oxygen and carbon dioxide in it. When you "breathe" air travels:
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Ventilation using Antagonistic Muscles
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Ventilation is the process of "breathing". But these are called
It is a good question. May people would say gravity, or pushing the air in. But you can still breathe if you are upside down... so gravity doesn't work. And no one/ thing is forcing air into your lungs. So how?
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Alveoli Structure
The alveoli are small sacs at the end of the bronchioles. These sacs contain walls a single cell thick. They contain two types of cells: Type I pneumocytes and Type II pneymocytes.
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The Alveoli and Gas Exchange
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Gas exchange occurs in the alveoli between the alveoli and the capillaries in the blood stream. Due to the single cell tick walls within both the Alveoli AND the capillaries this allows for gas exchange to occur easily.
Connecting Gas exchange and diffusion (Technical) |
Lung Cancer
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Lung cancer is the most common cancer in the world.
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Emphysema
Emphysema is a chronic disease in which the alveoli are replaced with smaller number of larger sacs with thicker walls. This causes:
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