Hatha Yoga/Chapter 7

The Organs of Respiration include the lungs and the air passages resulting in them. The lungs are two in number, and occupy the pleural chamber of the thorax, one on each aspect of the median line, BloodVitals insights being separated from each other by the guts, the better blood-vessels and the larger air tubes. Each lung is free in all instructions, except at the root, which consists mainly of the bronchi, arteries and veins connecting the lungs with the trachea and heart. The lungs are spongy and porous, and their tissues are very elastic. They're lined with a delicately constructed but sturdy sac, known because the pleural sac, one wall of which closely adheres to the lung, and the other to the interior wall of the chest, and which secretes a fluid which allows the inner surfaces of the partitions to glide simply upon one another in the act of respiration. The Air Passages consist of the interior of the nostril, pharynx, larynx, windpipe or trachea, and the bronchial tubes.

When we breathe, we draw within the air by way of the nose, wherein it is warmed by contact with the mucous membrane, which is richly equipped with blood, and after it has passed by means of the pharynx and larynx it passes into the trachea or BloodVitals SPO2 windpipe, which subdivides into numerous tubes referred to as the bronchial tubes (bronchia), which, in flip, subdivide into and terminate in minute subdivisions in all the small air areas within the lungs, of which the lung's include tens of millions. A author has said that if the air cells of the lungs have been unfold out over an unbroken floor, they'd cover an space of fourteen thousand BloodVitals insights sq. ft. The air is drawn into the lungs by the action of the diaphragm, a great, sturdy, flat, sheet-like muscle, stretched throughout the chest, separating the chest-box from the abdomen. The diaphragm's motion is sort of as automatic as that of the center, though it could also be transformed into a semi-voluntary muscle by an effort of the desire.

When it expands, it will increase the dimensions of the chest and lungs, and the air rushes into the vacuum thus created. When it relaxes the chest and lungs contract and the air is expelled from the lungs. Now, earlier than contemplating what happens to the air within the lungs, let us look somewhat into the matter of the circulation of the blood. The blood, as you know, is driven by the guts, through the arteries, into the capillaries, thus reaching each part of the body, which it vitalizes, BloodVitals insights nourishes and strengthens. It then returns by way of the capillaries by another route, the veins, to the heart, from whence it is drawn to the lungs. The blood starts on its arterial journey, vivid red and rich, laden with life-giving qualities and properties. It returns by the venous route, poor, blue and dull, being laden down with the waste matter of the system. It goes out like a fresh stream from the mountains; it returns as a stream of sewer water.

This foul stream goes to the proper auricle of the guts. When this auricle becomes stuffed, it contracts and forces the stream of blood by way of an opening in the appropriate ventricle of the guts, which in turn sends it on to the lungs, the place it is distributed by millions of hair-like blood vessels to the air cells of the lungs, of which we now have spoken. Now, allow us to take up the story of the lungs at this point. The foul stream of blood is now distributed among the millions of tiny air cells in the lungs. A breath of air is inhaled and the oxygen of the air comes involved with the impure blood via the skinny partitions of the hair-like blood vessels of the lungs, BloodVitals insights which walls are thick sufficient to carry the blood, but thin sufficient to admit the oxygen to penetrate them. When the oxygen comes in contact with the blood, a type of combustion takes place, and the blood takes up oxygen and releases carbonic acid gasoline generated from the waste products and poisonous matter which has been gathered up by the blood from all components of the system.

The blood thus purified and oxygenated is carried back to the guts, again rich, crimson and vibrant, and laden with life-giving properties and qualities. Upon reaching the left auricle of the heart, it is pressured into the left ventricle, from whence it's again forced out by means of the arteries on its mission of life to all parts of the system. It is estimated that in a single day of twenty-four hours, 35,000 pints of blood traverse the capillaries of the lungs, the blood corpuscles passing in single file and being uncovered to the oxygen of the air on both of their surfaces. When one considers the minute details of the method alluded to, he's misplaced in wonder and admiration at Nature's infinite care and intelligence. It will be seen that unless contemporary air in sufficient quantities reaches the lungs, the foul stream of venous blood cannot be purified, and consequently not solely is the body thus robbed of nourishment, however the waste products which ought to have been destroyed are returned to the circulation and poison the system, and loss of life ensues.