How Parts of the Lung Work

The various parts of the lung work together to enable you to breathe. Breathing brings oxygen from the environment into your body and keeps you alive.

When air is inhaled in through the nose and mouth, it goes through the windpipe (also known as trachea) and into the lungs. From the windpipe, the air moves through two large passageways, called the bronchi.

A complicated system of much smaller tubes or bronchioles branch out from your bronchi to carry oxygen to the working parts of the lungs i.e., the millions of air sacs or alveoli. These small sacs (like tiny folded balloons) have very thin walls that are full of blood vessels.

The walls are so thin that the oxygen in the air can pass through them to enter your bloodstream and travel to cells in all parts of your body.

When you inhale, you are inhaling oxygen which is the “fuel” that creates energy. When you exhale, you are exhaling the end-product of your body cells’ work – carbon dioxide.

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