Respiration And The Respiratory System - Part I

Out of the seven life processes of living things, respiration is one very important life process. In this post, I would like to discuss what respiration is, the organ system responsible for respiration and its importance.

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First of all when we say respiration what do we mean?

Respiration is the life process carried out by living things where food is broken down to release energy. The food broken down, glucose is either carried out in the presence or absence of oxygen. Respiration helps the body produce energy so that it can carry out other important activities like movement, among others.

There are 2 forms of respiration; internal and external respiration. Internal respiration is the chemical process the breakdown of food to produce energy where as external respiration has to do with the process of breathing.

The types of internal respiration comes as a result of availability of oxygen. When food or glucose is chemically broken down in the presence of oxygen, we have aerobic respiration but when it is broken down in the absence of oxygen, we have anaerobic respiration.

The process of aerobic respiration; glucose or food reacting with oxygen produces energy as main product and carbon dioxide and water as by or waste products. With aerobic respiration, there is complete breakdown of food.

Anaerobic respiration is also referred to alcohol fermentation. This is because the process occurs in yeast without oxygen to produce energy with carbon dioxide and alcohol as by products. With anaerobic respiration, food is not completely broken down.

Anaerobic respiration can occur in the muscle tissue of humans. There comes certain periods in our muscles when there's oxygen shortage or depletion due to a number of reasons. During those periods, food still has to be broken down and so anaerobic respiration therefore occurs.

If the glucose is not broken down completely, we experience muscle cramps due to the production and accumulation of lactic acid.

Because anaerobic respiration can occur in yeast and bacteria, there are some benefits.

• Anaerobic respiration helps in bread making. The bread making process involves mixing yeast, water, sugar and flour. Fermentation occurs and the the release of carbon dioxide in the mixture causes the dough to rise.

• Anaerobic respiration also aids in the production of rum.

• Anaerobic respiration aids in the production of biogas.

Let's get into the differences between aerobic and anaerobic respiration.

Aerobic respiration	Anaerobic respiration
Requires oxygen to carry out process	Does not require oxygen
Food is completely broken down	Food is not broken down completely
There's production or release of more energy	There's release of less energy
By products released are carbon dioxide and water	By products released are alcohol and carbon dioxide

Importance of respiration.

• Respiration helps the body produce heat and maintain body temperature.

• Respiration helps the body produce energy for movement of muscles.

• Respiration helps the body transport substances in and out of cells.

• Respiration helps in production of important substances in the cells like protein.

• Respiration helps the body cells transmit nerve impulses.

I've talked about internal respiration quite a lot and I think it's time I talked about external respiration.

External respiration one of the two types of respiration is the mechanism of breathing. External respiration has to do with inhalation and exhalation. There's inhalation and exhalation between the lungs which is known as pulmonary ventilation and there is also external respiration between lungs and the bloodstream.

In pulmonary ventilation, air flows into the lungs through the nose or mouth into the pharynx, then the larynx, into the trachea and finally into the lungs in a process known as inhalation. The reverse is done in a process called exhalation where the air flows back out of the lungs.

In external respiration between the lungs and bloodstream, the red blood cells carry oxygen around the body to the tissues and carbon dioxide out of the body through the lungs.

I hope my post is informative enough. I would talk about the respiratory system, it's health hazards and it's importance in my next post.

Thank you.

Reference