Care Guides

Return to Index Step 1: Taking Control of Your Asthma Step 2: What is Asthma?Step 3: Know the Signs Step 4: How Asthma Is Diagnosed Step 5: The Levels of Severity Step 6: Determine Your Goals and Expectations Step 7: Asthma Drugs Step 8: Drug Delivery Devices Step 9: Understand Your Action Plan Step 10: Make "Peak Flow" a Habit!Step 11: Avoid Asthma Triggers Step 12: Visit Your Doctor Regularly Key Points Glossary

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Lungs video

Let's take a journey through the air passageways of the lungs. Within the lungs, you can see a network of tubes called the bronchial tree, through which air enters and leaves your body.

Upon inhalation, the air you breathe in passes through the trachea (windpipe) and follows the network of bronchial tubes into each lung. The winding passageways branch into smaller and smaller sections, which end at tiny air sacs called alveoli. In each alveolus, the oxygen you inhale is exchanged for the carbon dioxide released from the cells in your body. The carbon dioxide is expelled in the reverse direction during exhalation.

Review Date: 5/16/2007
Reviewed By: Alan Greene, M.D., F.A.A.P., Department of Pediatrics, Packard Children's Hospital, Stanford University School of Medicine; Chief Medical Officer, A.D.A.M., Inc.

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