Gas Exchange in the Human Body

Anatomy and Physiology: Gas Exchange

The act of breathing is an involved one—multiple structures across multiple systems are involved, and yet, like ______, we take it somewhat for granted. I'd wager that we take all of our involuntary actions for granted. Breathing, blinking, smelling, tasting, our heart beating, our stomach digesting—most of us never stop to think how lucky we are that this stuff happens without a hitch. But I digress. Back to breathing. Do me a quick favor: breathe in once, nice and deep, and then exhale. Done. Okay, good. In the maybe two seconds it took for you to complete that action, your respiratory system was hard at work turning that deep breath into usable oxygen and nutrients for the rest of your body. Pretty wild, huh.

Breathing, blinking, smelling, tasting, our heart beating, our stomach digesting—most of us never stop to think how lucky we are that this stuff happens without a hitch. But I digress. Back to breathing. Do me a quick favor: breathe in once, nice and deep, and then exhale. Done. Okay, good. In the maybe two seconds it took for you to complete that action, your ______ system was hard at work turning that deep breath into usable oxygen and nutrients for the rest of your body. Pretty wild, huh.

The lungs (purple structures within the ______ cage) are organs that act as the site for gas exchange