Lung Health

Your lungs are a pair of organs that are part of your respiratory system. They bring oxygen into your body. And they rid your body of carbon dioxide, a waste product your cells create. Let's take a minute to learn about these organs.

This is an inflammation of your airways. It can involve your windpipe and your bronchi. These are the passageways that carry air into and out of your lungs. For some people, bronchitis can become a chronic problem.

This upper airway infection is most common in young children. It causes a barking cough and makes breathing difficult.

This is a disease that affects your mucus and sweat glands. It causes the mucus your body produces to be thick and sticky. In your lungs, sticky mucus can clog your airways. This makes it hard for you to breathe. It also provides a place for bacteria to grow. That can lead to frequent lung infections.

This is a chronic and progressive disease of your lungs. It involves the tiny air sacs, called "alveoli", at the ends of the air passages in your lungs. In healthy lungs, these sacs inflate and deflate as you breathe. But with emphysema, the walls of these sacs break down. The sacs begin to rupture. This interferes with your lungs' ability to cycle air properly.

This happens when air sacs in your lung deflate, either partially or completely. They can't fill with air. They may fill with fluid. This can happen to air sacs in just one section of your lung (which we call a "lobe"). Or, the entire lung can collapse.

This happens when a pocket of air builds up in the space between your chest wall and one of your lungs. The air pocket presses and forces air out of your lung. And when you try to breathe in, your lung has no room to hold the air. It has collapsed.

When you breathe, your blood takes in oxygen. And it gets rid of a waste gas called "carbon dioxide." When you have respiratory failure, this process isn't working like it should. You may not get enough oxygen to meet your body's needs. You may not remove enough carbon dioxide from your blood. Or, you may have both problems.

This is a life-threatening condition. It happens when you breathe in too much carbon monoxide. That's a gas that you can't see, smell or taste. As you breathe it in, it builds up in your bloodstream. It takes the place of oxygen, and is carried to all the cells of your body. These cells don't get the oxygen they need. Soon, they stop working and die.