The Respiratory System

Yoga is breath and movement. It makes sense to understand breathing, both from the scientific and yoga viewpoint.

Click on the image to zoom in.

• Air goes in through mouth, nose
• Passes through the larynx and trachea (two separate tubes)
• Enters chest cavity and is split into more and smaller tubes called bronchi
• Bronchi have 600 million small, spongy sacs attached called alveoli
• Oxygen passes into the alveoli, then is diffused through the capillaries into the arterial blood

The alveoli release oxygen into the the arterial blood and take in carbon dioxide to return back out through the respiratory system.

This is a nice annimation video showing how the diaphram pumps the air in and out of the lungs.

Here is the same function seen from the back.

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