 Hello everyone and welcome to medical curiosity. My name is Nicholas and I'm a third year medical student here at the University of Ottawa and today we're going to be talking about breathing and our lungs. So has anyone been out of breath like this before while playing sports maybe? Who has seen a dog panting after running around? I'm sure all of us have. Now our body is a very complex system which requires a lot of energy like to go to school or to go to work and to make this energy our body needs oxygen. More specifically it's our cells and oxygen. So to get that oxygen into our cells we get oxygen from our respiratory system and our lungs which takes part of that system. Now we don't really think about it but our body inhales and exhales oxygen a lot during the day. So pop quiz. What is the total surface area of the lungs equivalent to? Is it A, a 30 inch TV, B, a door, C, a tennis court or D, an Olympic sized pool? Now the answer is C. Now roughly the surface area of your lungs is about 180 meters squared while a tennis court is about 195 meters squared. Now our lungs branch out so much and have such a large surface area in order to supply our bodies with enough oxygen. Now let's quickly talk about the lungs and how they work. Now from a signal from the brain your diaphragm and chest muscles activate which leads to inspiration. So that's when you breathe in. Now this leads to air whooshing through your nose and your mouth, past your vocal cords and down your windpipe and into your lungs. You should think of your lungs as sponges as opposed to hollow balloons. We breathe about 12 to 20 times per minute and that's about 10,000 liters of air per day and a lifetime of around 300 million liters. So that's quite a lot. And the air and the oxygen gets all the way to the end of your lungs and at this part you have these blood vessels that are packed so closely to your lungs waiting patiently to take in that oxygen. The oxygen is then going to be picked up by cells in your blood and transported throughout the body in order to help your cells and organs maintain their livelihood. So for example the brain and the heart. Now back to more real life applications. What do you do if someone you find isn't breathing? So here our friend unfortunately has collapsed. She stopped breathing and I can't personally feel a pulse. She's non-responsive. So what do you guys think we should do? The answer is CPR which stands for cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Now here are the steps of CPR. First we want to make sure that we pay attention to our environment. You want to look around and make sure that it's safe for you to be there. And then you can gently tap on the person to see if you can get their attention. You want to then tilt the person's head to check for breathing. So check to see if there's a pulse as well. You want to tell other bystanders nearby to call 911. And this is a very important step. You want to then perform 30 chest compressions while pushing down about two inches. So you want to put your hand up like a stopping traffic and interlock your fingers. Keep your elbows bent straight and put the palm of your hand on the bony bit in the center of the person's chest. At that point you will have reached proper hand positioning. Now it's important to talk about how fast you should be doing these compressions and the speed of how fast you should be compressing should be to the same rhythm to the song Staying Alive by the Bee Gees. Now I'm sure it's a very popular song amongst you guys and that you all know this classic tune. So just have that in your head when you're performing your CPR. So after you do 30 chest compressions, you want to then deliver what we call two rescue breaths into the person's mouth. And then the cycle of compressions and breaths is going to be repeated until the paramedics arrive. So here's another question for you guys. What is the longest time that someone has been able to hold their breath? The answer is 24 minutes and 3.45 seconds. And this was achieved by Alex Vendrell of Spain in Barcelona. And this was done on February 28th, 2016. So this guy is a professional freediver. But for us mere mortals out here, what can we do if somebody can't breathe on their own? Or maybe they're undergoing surgery? So let me give you a hint. This is maybe something you've seen on TV, like on Grey's Anatomy, a very popular medical TV show. Now if somebody can't keep their airway open, or that tube that carries air from the outside to the inside of your body, or if they're having trouble breathing on their own, we can perform a procedure called intubation. And like I said, this is commonly done for people who are undergoing surgery. Because when you're in surgery, and you have a lot of anesthesia that's preventing your body from moving its muscles, you'll also be having trouble getting air into your body without this procedure. Now in general, a tube is gently guided into the throat and down into the lungs of a patient who is asleep or unconscious. So when you intubate a patient, we use what's called a laryngoscope to help open the airways so that we can insert the intubation tube. Now that's what you see on the left here. This will go into our airways to help the patient breathe. Now let's see what this can look like on a patient. So there's our patient. And you can see the laryngoscope on the right, and the tube on the left. So here's our fake patient. And we're going to open the patient's mouth. And we're going to use this device to put a light in the mouth and keep the tongue out of the way. We're then going to push the laryngoscope device upwards and forwards so that we don't break any teeth. Because remember, it's in metal. Now with the tube in the other hand, we're going to slide it into the patient's airway but not into the esophagus. Because what's the difference between the esophagus and our airway? Well, the esophagus connects to the stomach. And remember, it's our lungs that we need oxygen. It's our lungs that need oxygen for us to breathe. We don't want all of that oxygen going into the stomach. So how do you think we can tell them apart? We can basically differentiate them by seeing the vocal cords. And that's what helps us speak. So here's an important announcement. How can we keep our lungs and respiratory system healthy for years to come? Since we've learned about its importance and just how integral it is for us to be able to get oxygen into our bodies and keep us alive. So what do you guys think? Well, the list that I have here is that you, first of all, want to not smoke or quit smoking and try your best to avoid secondhand smoke. So being in environments where other people might be smoking. You want to also avoid air pollution to the best of your ability. Get vaccinated for the flu or strep and wash your hands where proper personal protection depending on the work that you do. Make sure you stay physically active and keep your house in room clean. And that's it boys and girls. Thank you so much once again for listening to this presentation. I hope you've learned a lot and this has inspired you to keep learning more about science and all things related to medicine. Once again, my name is Nicholas and it's been a pleasure giving this presentation to you all. Have a great day. Bye bye.