Author
Linda Tietz, Alpha1 Germany eV, as published in Alpha1 Journal 2/2022.
„Without thinking about it, a healthy person breathes in and out 12 to 18 times per minute.“
„"A human lung consists of two lobes. But did you know that the right lobe is slightly larger than the left? This is because the left lung needs to make more room for the heart in the chest cavity and is therefore smaller. The right lung also has three lobes, while the left lung has only two. Without even thinking about it, a healthy person breathes in and out 12 to 18 times per minute, taking in about half a liter of air. That's an incredible 10,000 to 20,000 liters of air per day, or roughly 20,000 breaths daily. One-fifth of the air we breathe is oxygen. By the time we reach 21, our lungs will have inhaled enough air to easily fill 3.5 million balloons. An adult's lungs have a diameter of about 15 cm and a length of about 26 cm. They are the third heaviest organ after the skin (approx. 14 kg) and the liver (approx. 1.4 kg)." (kg) it weighs approximately 1.3 kilograms. The inhaled air is transported through the bronchi, this incredibly branched system of tubes, into the lungs. Here, 300 million air sacs, called alveoli, are essential because they are the only place where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. Each alveolus measures only 0.2 cm², yet their sheer number of 300,000 results in a total surface area of approximately 80 square meters – roughly the size of a three-room apartment in Germany. To ensure our body gets the maximum benefit from the inhaled oxygen, the alveoli release the oxygen into microscopic blood vessels called capillaries. In return, the capillaries release carbon dioxide back to the alveoli, which we then exhale. If all the capillaries in a single human lung were lined up end to end, they would stretch for about 1,600 kilometers. That's approximately The route from Berlin to Barcelona. And, fittingly for winter, here's a little tidbit: the air speed when sneezing through the nose is 165 km/h, and during cold and flu season, we inhale an average of 10,000 bacteria and 100,000 viruses in just one hour. Suddenly, masks take on a whole new meaning.
Linda Tietz
Sources:
more-air.at/current/wonder-lung-facts-about-the-respiratory-organ
www.apotheken-umschau.de/mein-koerper/lunge-und-atemwege/
www.focus.de/gesundheit/ratgeber/zehn-fakten-zur-lunge-forschung_id_2787916.html
