Melaleuca Lung Study / AUNZ / September 2018

THE INTRICATE INTERLACING OF YOUR LUNGS

Like all systems in your body, the respiratory system is miraculous in its design and function. Each breath draws in essential oxygen from the surrounding atmosphere and pulls it deep into your lung tissue. Here, large passageways branch into increasingly smaller and more intricate structures. Eventually, air is funneled into microscopic channels ending in specialised alveolar sacs that are surrounded by a complex network of interlaced capillaries. The surface of these little spherical bellows is where gas exchange takes place. The average human has about 700 million of these sacs, but due to their size, they can be easily and irreversibly damaged if exposed to the wrong elements.

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