Why do you need to breathe?

All the cells in your body require oxygen. Without it, they couldn't move, build, reproduce, and turn food into energy. In fact, without oxygen, they and you would die! How do you get oxygen? From breathing in air which your blood circulates to all parts of the body.


How do you breathe?

You breathe with the help of your diaphragm and other muscles in your chest and abdomen. These muscles literally change the space and pressure inside your body to accomodate breathing. When your diaphragm pulls down, it not only leaves more space for the lungs to expand but also lowers the internal air pressure. Outside, where the air pressure is greater, you suck in air in an inhale. The air then expands your lungs like a pair of balloons. When your diaphragm relaxes, the cavity inside your body gets smaller again. Your muscles squeeze your rib cage and your lungs begin to collapse as the air is pushed up and out your body in an exhale.


So, it all starts at the nose?

Yup. About 20 times a minute, you breathe in. When you do, you inhale air and pass it through your nasal passages where the air is filtered, heated, moistened and enters the back of the throat. Interestingly enough, it's the esophagus or foodpipe which is located at the back of the throat and the windpipe for air which is located at the front. When we eat, a flap -- the epiglottis -- flops down to cover the windpipe so that food doesn't go down the windpipe.


So -- back to breathing -- the air has a long journey to get to your lungs. It flows down through the windpipe, past the voice box or vocal cords, to where the lowermost ribs meet the center of your chest. There, your windpipe divides into two tubes which lead to the two lungs which fill most of your ribcage. Inside each of your sponge-like lungs, tubes, called bronchi, branch into even smaller tubes much like the branches of a tree. At the end of these tubes are millions of tiny bubbles or sacs called aleoli. Spread out flat, all the air sacs in the lungs of an adult would cover an area about the third of a tennis court.


What do these sacs do?

They help perform an incredible magic act. Your air sacs bring new oxygen from air you've breathed to your bloodstream. They exchange it for waste products, like carbon dioxide, which the cells in your body have made and can't use.


How does this exchange work?

With the help of the red blood cells in your bloodstream. Your red blood cells are like box cars on train tracks. They show up at the sacs at just the right time, ready to trade in old carbon dioxide that your body's cells have made for some new oxygen you've just breathed in. In the process, these red blood cells turn from purple to that beautiful red color as they start carrying the oxygen to all the cells in your body.


But what happens to the carbon dioxide?

It goes through the lungs, back up your windpipe and out with every exhale. It's a remarkable feat, this chemical exchange and breathing in and out. You don't have to tell your lungs to keep working. Your brain does it automatically for you.


Factoids

Your lungs contain almost 1500 miles of airways and over 300 million alveoli.

Every minute you breathe in 13 pints of air.

Plants are our partners in breathing. We breathe in air, use the oxygen in it, and release carbon dioxide. Plants take in carbon dioxide and release oxygen. Thank goodness!

People tend to get more colds in the winter because we're indoors more often and in close proximity to other people. When people sneeze, cough and even breathe -- germs go flying!

Sleepwalking is most common in children, occurs at deepest levels, and is thought to be caused by a partial arousal from deep sleep. While the child's brainwaves are those of deep sleep, the sleepwalker moves as though awake.The episodes are typically brief —less than ten minutes— and usually occur during the first three hours of sleep. The sleepwalker usually has no recollection of the event in the morning.

How common is it?

Every second, blood travels around our body through a series of pipes called arteries or veins. Blood carries oxygen and other vital chemicals around the body to all the organs and simultaneously collects waste and other toxins for eventual treatment and disposal. So, if one of our arteries/veins becomes blocked, causing a stoppage in the blood flow, our organs stop working and we collapse.

For a healthy heart, follow these simple steps.

First, to find out where you stand, I suggest you visit your local health clinic for a cholesterol test. This is a quick test (usually done by a nurse) to check the level of fat in your blood, and you should have it done at least once every two years.

Next, If this post has shown you that your lifestyle needs changing, then change it! Don't just ignore the situation and hope it will go away: it won't! So quit smoking, get down to a normal weight, start exercising regularly; don't take life too seriously and start eating properly.

Next, before you start a Healthy- Heart Diet, get organised! For example, in order to eat more fruit and less fat, I strongly advise you to invest in a juicer to make your own fruit juice, and a good non-stick frying pan to help you fry without fat.

And make a list of good foods to keep in the house. Remember: the worst mistake you can make is to run out of good things to eat!

Universities in Bangladesh
Bangladeshi universities are
mainly categorized into three
different types - Public,
government owned and
subsidized universities, Private,
private sector owned universities
and International, mainly
operated and funded by
international organizations such
as OIC. Currently xx public, yy
private and zz international
universities are operating their
activities in Bangladesh.
University of Dhaka is the oldest
university of the country
established in 1921. Bangladeshi
universities are affiliated with the
University Grants Commission
(UGC), a commission created
according to the Presidential
Order (P.O. No 10 of 1973) of the
Government of People's Republic
of Bangladesh.
Universities in Bangladesh play
very important role in the over all
development of the country. This
is evident form the fact that the
students and teachers of the
Dhaka University which was
established in the year 1921, was
at the forefront of the national
liberation struggle that led to the
independence of the country.
There are at present 54 private
Universities in Bangladesh.
The University Grant Commission
of Bangladesh would in fact be
responsible for supervising and
maintaining the quality of
education in all the public and
private Universities of
Bangladesh, as it is the statutory
apex body in the field of higher
education in Bangladesh.