“Every breath you take triggers a complex process that keeps you alive.
In just a few seconds, your lungs:
- Pull oxygen into your body
- Deliver it to your bloodstream
- Remove carbon dioxide from the blood through the lungs and is exhaled.
Every cell in your body needs oxygen to live. The air we breathe contains oxygen and other gases. The respiratory system’s main job is to move fresh air into your body while removing waste gases.
Once in the lungs, oxygen is moved into the bloodstream and carried through your body. At each cell in your body, oxygen is exchanged for a waste gas called carbon dioxide. Your bloodstream then carries this waste gas back to the lungs where it is removed from the bloodstream and then exhaled. Your lungs and respiratory system automatically perform this vital process, called gas exchange.
Your heart is the engine of your body whereas your lungs are the transmission of the body. One system can’t live without the other. Meaning, the heart cannot live without the heart just like the car can’t work with an engine but no transmission.”
The American Lung Association (https://www.lung.org/lung-health-diseases/how-lungs-work)