Functions:
Along with lungs, trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, alveoli, alveolus and capillaries all together work to give you oxygen which is inevitable thing for living. All the cells in the body need oxygen every minute of the day. Oxygen passes from walls of each alveolus to the capillaries and from capillaries to the red blood cells and through their blood vessels to the heart. The heart then sends oxygenated blood to the all body parts. You do it all the day, every day and every second, even you are not aware of it, and without thinking and without doing anything, your lungs just do it for you!
Diseases:
As it is twenty four by seven hours working organ, there are various disease conditions which affect lungs, which are from simple to the severe disease conditions. These disease conditions include Pneumonia which is very common; it is a bacterial infection of lung, acute bronchitis, acute respiratory distress syndrome, asthma, bronchiectasis, bronchiolitis, chronic bronchitis, COPD, emphysema, influenza, lung cancer, pulmonary hypertension, pulmonary fibrosis or cystic fibrosis etc. These are various disease conditions which affect your lungs may result in breathing difficulty or changes in breathing pattern or breathing sound.
Interesting Facts:
The surface area of human lung is equal to a tennis court. In order to more efficiently oxygenate the blood, the lungs are filled with thousands of branching bronchi and tiny, grape like alveoli.
