Chat Club: Heart and Lungs

Air supply buddies, the heart and lungs sit together in your chest cavity, one lung on either side of the heart, almost encasing it, protecting it. Good thing, too, because they are integrally linked together. One cannot function without the other. Think about it.

Both lungs and heart sit on the diaphragm, a domed muscle that seals off the chest cavity (your upper chest) from the abdomen (stomach area). Additionally, the heart, lungs, and diaphragm are protected by the sturdy ribcage surrounding them. Intercostal muscles attach the organs to the sternum (the breastbone in front) and the vertebrae (your spine) in back. This keeps everyone is their proper place. Snug. For more protection, and to stabilize the lungs, each lung is enclosed in two tissue layers. The inner layer attaches to the lung’s surface, the outer layer to the chest cavity and diaphragm. Between the layers is lubricating fluid, allowing the layers to compress and expand without damage to the lungs. You really do have a remarkable body.

Breathing works like this: the diaphragm contracts, pulling the lungs downward. The intercostal muscles contract, causing the ribcage and lungs to move upward, thus allowing air to be drawn into the lungs.

Big deal, who cares? And why does it matter? You should care because if you don’t move your ribcage, your lungs and heart compress, making it harder to breathe. Muscles tighten; they become hard to stretch out. The lungs shrink from lack of use, and breathing becomes difficult. And you age. You lose the function of what you do not use. Use it or lose it. Breathing (hello air) assists muscle contraction and expansion, or, growth and atrophy. This would be the reason that you want to be conscious of how you breathe and how much your ribcage expands and contracts.

Muscles need air to function, and to assist the body to move. Without adequate air, they don’t work well, they don’t develop, they don’t grow stronger, they produce pain. Yes indeed. Pain. A body that has trouble moving soon stops moving. It’s the law of inertia: something in motion stays in motion in the same way that something still stays there. It becomes too much effort to get it going again.  Which is why people who breathe upper respiratory, which is to say, very shallow, have a difficult time taking deep breaths for any length of time.

There are, of course, specific techniques for constricting the flow of air to the muscles, but those are specific to fitness training, not survival. That isn’t this discussion. This is about moving more on a regular basis, becoming aware of it, and knowing the reason why. This is about education.  That’s Aging Intelligently.