Breathe Deep
Date: February 26, 2025
Breathe Deep
The first thing you did when you were born was take a big breath. With the exception of holding your breath underwater or temporarily refraining from inhaling or exhaling for a contest, you’ve kept on breathing ever since. Even if you’ve been scuba diving–you’ve found a way to keep breathing.
What Happens When You Breathe?
Notably, breathing is the most important function for staying alive. Yet, what exactly happens to your body when you breathe? According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, breathing involves two distinct phases: breathing in and breathing out. While breathing may seem like a given, it’s a bit more complex than it appears–even fantastic!
Essentially, when you inhale, air is sucked in through your nose or mouth. Your lungs expand. Air then travels down your trachea or windpipe and through your bronchial tubes. Here, it’s destined for the alveoli. (No, alveoli isn’t a pasta dish.) Alveoli are instead tiny broccoli-like-looking tree-shaped pouches that hold air.
Said alveoli temporarily house the breath.1 But more than air storage, a big exchange occurs in these little sacs. In the exchange, Party (a) Lungs bring oxygen to the table while Party (b) Blood brings carbon dioxide.
In this unorthodox trade, oxygen hops on for a ride into the bloodstream. Here, blood loaded up with oxygen travels to the left side of the heart through the pulmonary veins. The heart then pumps the oxygenated blood to the rest of the body, where it moves from the blood vessels into the cells.1 Think of the blood as an interstate route, delivering healthy bits of oxygen.
But there’s another passenger. Waiting on the interstate or bloodstream is carbon dioxide. Essentially, cells need oxygen to make the energy your body needs to work. (This is why Party A delivered oxygen.) However, when cells make that energy, they create a waste product called carbon dioxide. But carbon dioxide can’t stay in your body. It has to be removed from the blood and the body.1
Hence, waste gas travels on the highway (bloodstream), too. But, it is returning from the body’s tissues, much like a garbage collector. On its way, waste passes through the alveoli, too, but for breathing out.2 Essentially, the waste gas trades places with the oxygen. Or, as one television show related, it’s “In with Mr. Good Air; out with Mr. Bad Air.”
When Breathing Isn’t Easy Anymore
In the little time it took you to breathe in and out (maybe 20 times) reading this article, a lot happened in your lungs. Yet your breathing process likely remained fairly smooth–even uneventful. Essentially, breathing and the partnership that each party (blood, oxygen, and carbon dioxide) brings to the table work marvelously. However, sometimes breathing isn’t so simple, and occasionally breathing comes with complications.
Respiratory Therapy Roles
When the process of breathing is damaged by disease or injury, respiratory therapists work with doctors and nurses to restore it. Essentially, respiratory therapists do many things to help patients. Moreover, some of their roles include the following tasks:
- Assisting with diagnosing lung or breathing disorders.
- Evaluating patients and performing tests and studies.
- Determining appropriate therapy and treatment options with physicians.
- Collecting samples of sputum and arterial blood for analysis.
- Managing equipment and devices needed to help people who can’t breathe normally on their own.
- Manage the airway and breathing during resuscitation.
- Educating patients and families about lung diseases and breathing disorders.3
Respiratory Therapy Specialties
Further, there are specializations that respiratory therapists can specialize in. These may include:
- Neonatal or pediatric.
- Geriatric.
- Pulmonary rehab.
- Polysomnography.
- Critical care.
- Home care.
- Pulmonary diagnostics.3
Respiratory Therapy Programs
Gurnick Academy offers an A.O.S. in Respiratory Therapy Program for future respiratory therapists. Moreover, our program is designed to prepare graduates to pursue entry-level employment in the field or jobs in related fields. It’s a fantastic place to begin learning the concepts discussed above.
Are you interested in a career in Respiratory Therapy? Check out our A.O.S. in Respiratory Therapy Program today. If so, click the link here. ~
By Cindy R. Chamberlin.
Citations:
1^a, b “How the Lungs Work–What Breathing Does for the Body | NHLBI, NIH.” National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. March 2, 2022. (Accessed February 20, 2025.)
2 National Cancer Institute. “NCI Dictionary of Cancer Terms.” National Cancer Institute, Cancer.gov, 2024. (Accessed February 20, 2025.)
3^a, b Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science. “Respiratory Therapist.” College.mayo.edu. 2023. (Accessed January 29, 2025.)