As your parents age, they are more susceptible lung disease. Many elderly people experience difficult breathing as they age. Understanding how their lungs work helps caregivers establish better ways to assist.
Lung disease refers to any disease or disorder in which the lungs do not function properly. Lung disease is the third leading killer in the United States, responsible for one in seven deaths. Some lung diseases include: Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), pulmonary fibrosis, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia and lung cancer.
How the Lungs Work
Lungs are organs in the chest that allow your body to take in oxygen from the air. They also help remove carbon dioxide (a waste gas that can be toxic) from your body. The lungs' intake of oxygen and removal of carbon dioxide is called gas exchange. Gas exchange is part of breathing. Breathing is a vital function of life; it helps your body work properly.
The respiratory system is a group of organs and tissues that help you breathe. The main parts of this system are the airways, the lungs and linked blood vessels, and the muscles that enable breathing.
The airways are pipes that carry oxygen-rich air to the lungs and carbon dioxide, a waste gas, out of the lungs. The airways include:
- Nose and linked air passages called nasal cavities
- Mouth
- Larynx, or voice box
- Trachea, or windpipe
- Tubes called bronchial tubes or bronchi, and their branches
Air first enters the body through the nose or mouth, which wets and warms the air. (Cold, dry air can irritate the lungs.) The air then travels through ther voice box and down the windpipe.
The windpipe splits into two bronchi that enter the lungs. A thin flap of tissue called the epiglottis (ep-i-GLOT-is) covers the windpipe when you swallow. This prevents food or drink from entering the air passages that lead to the lungs.
Except for the mouth and some parts of the nose, all of the airways have special hairs called cilia that are coated with sticky mucus. The cilia trap germs and other foreign particles that enter your airways when you breathe in air. These fine hairs then sweep the particles up to the nose or mouth. There, they're swallowed, coughed, or sneezed out of the body. Nose hairs and mouth saliva also trap particles and germs.