- [Narrator] Now that we've gone through all the dual
functionality, it's time to go through some disorders
or problems.
Probably one of the more common things to think about
with respiratory problems is asthma.
Now asthma is going to be a contraction of the bronchi
that is not typical.
A lot of times, we refer it to as a spasmodic contraction
of the bronchi.
Now, these spasmodic contractions could be caused
by various allergic responses.
Could be allergies to a plant, to an animal, to a chemical.
There are a lot of things that can trigger an asthma
reaction from a human.
Now controlled by bronchodilators, corticosteroids,
there's various different ways that medically, you can
help to reduce the impacts of asthma.
The problem is that there's not one size fits all.
It all depends on the person, the age, and really
what works for them.
Emphysema.
Now in the case of emphysema, the alveoli, those tiny
little air sacks in your lungs, are permanently impaired.
They might be destroyed, they might be coated,
they might be damaged.
Something has happened where those air sacks, those alveoli
are not going to function.
Now even though they might be there, the person
with emphysema might feel breathlessness.
Because they just can't catch their breath and the fact
that there's less area for gas exchange.
Because of all the damaged alveoli, there's not as much
surface area for gas to exchange between.
Now quite often, emphysema is caused from smoking.
Because all the different chemicals in cigarette smoke
can get to the lungs, causing damage to the alveoli,
blocking them or destroying them.
Bronchitis.
Inflammation of the bronchi.
Well the bronchi are going to flare up.
Swell up.
That can cause a problem with the air getting through
the bronchi.
Now it might be acute, short-lived.
It might be chronic, happening over and over
for longer durations.
A lot of times, bronchitis is brought on by smoking,
air pollution.
It can also get brought on by a pathogen as well.
So anything that causes the inflammation of the bronchi.
Cystic fibrosis.
Now cystic fibrosis is inherited.
It can get passed along from generation to generation.
What ends up happening in cystic fibrosis is the mucus
in the lungs is unusually thick.
And by being unusually thick, it starts to slow down
and prevent normal airflow.
Well if the air coming in and out is slowing down,
is being trapped, a lot of times it ends up causing
an increase in pulmonary infections.
Well pulmonary is lungs.
So you have more lung infections than typical.
Now other organ systems can be affected as well as
the respiratory system.
Now if we look at more of the upper respiratory track.
So when we say upper respiratory, we're talking nasal
cavities, oral cavity, the throat.
Can cause colds or the flu.
Could be caused by a virus, (mumbles), some viral infections
here that will obviously not work for antibiotics.
So any cold or flu caused by a virus, you simply have
to wait it out.
You just wait seven to 10 days and it hopefully clears up.
Now there are some anti-viral medications meant to
help it along.
But more often than not, colds and flu, just kind of
let it take its course.
Your body's going to be fighting it and trying
to remove it.
Pneumonia.
Now in the case of pneumonia, this isn't necessarily
an upper respiratory infection.
It can start as one, but this can then move down into
the lung itself.
You can have bacterial pneumonia or viral pneumonia.
And pneumonia can be quite deadly if it's not cared for
or not observed.
Now more often than not, pneumonia if it's viral,
a lot of times, bed rest, maybe you might have some
certain kind of medications to help open up the airways.
But you can't really take medication to get
rid of pneumonia.
In the case of bacterial pneumonia, a lot of times
antibiotics are quite helpful.
Tuberculosis.
Now tuberculosis is a bacterial infection.
Everybody's like hey, great, no problem.
Antibiotics.
Yes and no.
Because some strains of tuberculosis, the person
actually has to be an antibiotic regiment for an entire
year to get rid of it.
Tuberculosis isn't one of those things that's just
regularly and easily removed.
So the remnants, what's left behind, are these
bacterial infection-based scars.
So a lung is now having scars on the inside.
If you end up with scars in your lungs, wherever
the scars are, they're not functional for gas exchange.
And what's kind of almost a little scary
about tuberculosis is it doesn't have to be active.
You don't have to have symptoms to have tuberculosis.
Tuberculosis might simply stay dormant for years
and years and years.
And all of a sudden one day jit ust reactivates.
It could be a very stressful event.
Maybe your immune system was very compromised
at that point.
But something all of a sudden triggered it to reactivate.
So how do you diagnose it?
A lot of times a chest x-ray will tell.
But there's also a tuberculin skin test.
So one of the two or both together might provide
for a positive diagnoses.
I put down antibiotics for the treatment.
Well antibiotics for the treatment because it's
a bacterial infection.
Lung cancer.
Now lung cancer is one of those cancers that's very hard
to detect.
Because for most cancers, if you can catch it in the
early stages, stage one, stage two.
Medicine has gotten pretty good at getting rid of them.
Helping with the five-year survival rates.
But lung cancer sits inside the lungs and a lot of times,
the growth of cancer of lungs just mimics a smoker's cough.
You might have a little harder time breathing.
You might get a little more cough, a little more phlegm.
But it's this abnormal cells growing and growing
and growing.
Eventually it can get bad enough where it can reduce
your air flow.
It might even totally impede the air flow to a certain
part of the lungs.
Well if you impede the air flow, the gas exchange decreases.
A decrease in gas exchange can be very quickly identified
through the blood flow.
And about a third of all US cancer deaths are actually
from lung cancer.
Just because it's so hard to find in the early stages,
because of where it's located and how it mimics other types
of infections.
Now figure 90% of cases are associated with smoking.
That doesn't mean the person was a smoker.
It means that they're associated, could be the smoker.
Could be from second-hand smoke.
Radon gas.
Or asbestos.
Now a lot of times, most places don't have asbestos anymore.
Radon gas?
It can always be a potential question but anything that's
a newer build usually has been tested and has special
venting methods to get rid of radon gas.
Special ways of venting outside the structure prevent
the issues.
So lung cancer.
Large amount though.
Because it's associated with smoking.
So here's a picture comparing a normal lung on the left.
That's letter A.
To your cancerous lung, letter B.
Besides the coloration, notice the difference.
Yeah, look at all the open spaces.
All the broken aveoli in the cancerous lung.
And besides the parts that are broken, they've got these
areas of huge dense amount of cells.
If they're all densely filled cells, there's no room
for oxygen and carbon dioxide exchange.
Alright so pneumothorax.
Pretty much pneumothorax is a fancy name for
a collapsed lung.
So quite often, a pneumothorax is because something
is penetrated into the lung cavity.
If you penetrate that membrane over the lungs,
the lung itself simply deflates.
It shrivels on down.
And unfortunately, you cannot re-inflate the lung yourself.
I don't care how hard you inhale.
I don't care how hard you suck that air in and try
to push the lung open.
The only way to re-inflate a lung is to seek
medical help.
So how do you treat it?
Pull air out of the cavity.
As you pull air out of that pleural cavity, the space
between the ribs and the lung, it'll slowly pull
the lung back to its original shape.
Where it's held almost in place against the
exterior wall.
All because that double membrane, that pleural membrane
helps to create this kind of pressure to pull against
the rib cage.
So pneumothorax.
Then we have congestive heart failure.
Well in the case of congestive heart failure,
the heart itself just becomes less efficient.
It's not able to pump as easily.
More often than not, it's a failure on the left side
of the heart.
Well the reason it's more often than not the left,
is the left is the higher pressure side.
It's the side that really is pushing and blowing
throughout the entire body.
So if you have this left side fail, the blood squirts it
back up towards the right.
Well the structure has to be between the right and left
heart chambers is referring to the lungs.
The blood leaves the right side of the heart,
goes to the lungs, comes back to the left side.
Well if the left side isn't moving, well then, it backs
up onto the right eventually after the pulmonary.
And by building up fluid in the lungs (mumbles)
very efficient at gas exchange then?
No.
So any fluid build-up in the lungs impairs gas exchange.
How do you treat it?
Improve the pumping action of the heart.
Sounds simple but how do you do that?
Well to improve pumping action to the heart,
you have to work out.
Work out the heart, work out the rest of the body,
increase blood flow to the body, and increase the heart's
functionality as well.
So as you improve this pumping action to the heart,
you also must remove the fluid.
Get rid of excess fluid in the body, there's no point
in keeping it around.
So get rid of it.
Congestive heart failure.
Even though it's the heart, we'll starting to deal
with problems of the lungs.
It can back up the blood into the lungs, causing the lungs
to not be efficient.