While having to battle life threatening diseases like COPD and Asthma we always need to be prepared and that preparation includes many, many items of information to help our battles be successful.
Those of us with Wheezingaway.com, COPD Travels and CrossDove Writer continually and dutifully work toward helping raise awareness among others about these two diseases of COPD and Asthma because “without breath we are without life itself”.
Those with COPD and/or Asthma have the duty to learn and know the language of these dreadful lung diseases.
With that idea we discuss some of what we call ‘must know words’ of life with COPD/Asthma – and today we talk the word ‘Alveoli’.
‘Alveoli’ is the microscopic air sac-like structures found at the ends of the smallest airways in the lungs and are responsible for facilitating the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
Notable Fact of Alveoli – each alveoli is just one cell thick or about the same thickness as the wall of a soap bubble and there are more than 300 million ‘alveoli’ in a set of normal healthy lungs. If you laid all the airways and air sacs of healthy lungs flat on the ground they would cover over 100 square yards.
While ‘Alveoli’ are so small, their numbers are great and they handle one of the most important exchanging the incoming oxygen for the much needed removal of carbon dioxide.
When your air sacs or ‘Alveoli’ do not perform properly you will at times get air trapped in your ‘alveoli’ which makes it harder for you to exhale the air you took in and get the carbon dioxide out – when this happens you may feel a full or tightness in your chest.
When you air sacs or ‘alveoli’ become damaged or even destroyed, this will leave fewer ‘alveoli’ to get the oxygen into the blood while taking the carbon dioxide out. The decrease in efficiency of this gas exchange will make you feel short of breath.
So while airways get your air down into the lungs, know that the most important piece of your lung puzzle is the ‘alveoli’ for its ability to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide within each and every breath you take.
In your own individual battle with COPD and/or asthma be sure to learn and understand the words of importance in understanding what is going on within these battles – today one of those words was ‘alveoli’.
As always – if you or anyone you know have any symptoms involving lung and breathing functionality, and they linger over and over while disrupting a lifestyle – then please ask questions and get it checked out.
Remember always that without breathing a person is without life itself.
With that I bid to all – smiles, prayers, blessings and steady breathing – Mr. William.
(Copyright@2015, CrossDove Writer)
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(Information gathered from various books and internet sources discussing COPD, Asthma and other lung diseases)
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