One of the most overlooked parts of the body is the respiratory system itself. This isn’t to say that doctors don’t pay attention to it, but a lot of people don’t even think of it as a normal and important parts of a person’s health beyond the life-death part of things. But a person who breathes well will also have better overall health. The purpose of respiration isn’t simply for a person to live or not live. But instead, it’s a major part of the day-to-day function of a person’s body. If you breathe well, your organs will function well. Your mind will be clearer and you may have less stress. It’s like meditating and you want to breathe slowly and properly to lower the blood pressure. There are lots of products that can help with this if you have trouble doing so on your own. Good inhalers will help people with particular problems. Other kinds of oxygen tanks will deliver more pure oxygen in a regulated way that is easy and comfortable.

There are many different things that can help improve the quality of the air that you breathe. Perhaps the most common of these in our world is basic air filters. There are different kinds of air filters. Air conditioners are a kind of air filter, and if you have one, you know that you have to pull out the cloth filter and wash it out or replace it every so often, because it has a lot of little bits on it that have come out of the air. There are also fairly typical air filters that stand alone in a room and suck in air on one side and push clean air out of the other. They are simple plug-in operating things, almost the same as a fan, but with a filtering mechanism in between. These are also easy to clean, generally. They have a filter that you can wash or replace. You’ve probably seen them in commercials. It is hard to get gaseous pollutants out of the air, however, because they are more a part of the air than particulates are. It generally takes some kind of chemical process to do this properly. But particulates can many times be attracted to a material and thus removed from the air circulation. You might want to consider getting one if you have trouble in breathing at home.

Most people don’t have to worry about a certain problem with breathing anymore: air pollution from coal. It used to be that anyone who lived in an urban environment, or anyplace with a lot of people around, would have to deal with the coal soot that came from them cooking, heating their house, and doing certain kinds of business. Blacksmiths used to use coal a lot. This used to be a major cause of illness back in the middle ages and people complained about it back then. Nowadays, there’s a lot less coal being used for those purposes now and so those particular lung problems are a lot less severe than they were back then. Nowadays, there’s plenty of air pollution, but it’s not coal, and it’s doesn’t coat everything in the world around you. Some places still have this problem, but not as many as used to.

It might be helpful to review the general respiratory system in order to fully understand what it is and how it works. The respiratory system is well described on this KU website, but I will summarize it. As you know, when you breathe, the air goes into your mouth and down your trachea. This is also known as a windpipe and is where some people have problems breathing, particularly in stressful moments. But the air is brought it not through the mouth or the windpipe, but instead through the contraction of muscles below the lungs that creates a vacuum to bring in the air. Once it reaches the bottom of it, the air goes through the bronchi into the lungs, where it hits the alveoli. This is the point at which the oxygen jumps into your blood and goes around your body for maximum function. Down in the lungs is where a lot of people have trouble, everyone from asthmatics to people with pneumonia. Knowing which parts are which and what they do will help people to know how to take care of their body much better than if they are less informed.

Although, it’s not generally considered a respiratory aid, it serves a very similar function. Gas masks are very important in making sure that people, especially in war situations, but also in larger police actions, remain healthy while they are going around. Otherwise, they could be susceptible to toxins that could harm their lungs and prevent them from breathing properly. While you might have never even seen one in person, they are fairly easy to find. There are different ones for people in different situations. You should make sure to check it for the needs that you have. If you are a policeman, you will want it to filter out teargas on occasion, for example. But keep in mind, most people don’t need a real gas mask, because people aren’t generally in those kinds of situations. Certain people with certain roles in society might need to have one around; rely on your job or supervisors to let you know if you might need one.

It can be difficult to keep in mind all the different kinds of respiratory devices that are around and what each one takes care of in terms of conditions and diseases. For example, there is the Metered Dose Inhaler, which will give the user a specific amount of medicine during the course of treatment. Each push of the inhaler will give X ml of the needed medicine. This tends to be specifically for asthmatic people. A broader spectrum device is the nebulizer, which takes care of a whole variety of conditions and is very similar to an inhaler in many ways, though it can be used to give a variety of different medicines rather than just the asthma medicine, though it can do that as well. There are several others, though just one other category of devices can be viewed on the website I referenced. This is, however, a nicely organized list and well described.

Many people need to use respirators in their daily lives, especially at certain jobs. People who work in warehouses, in labs, and in many other environments. There are a lot of different details that you have to remember when you are using a respirator. For example, you shouldn’t have a beard or any facial hair, actually, when you want to use it. You also can’t wear your glasses with certain kinds of respirators. The people who work in these places need to be trained the right way in order to use it properly. This could prevent major problems later on, in case of accident. There are different kinds of respirators and the employee and the supervisor will have to decide what kind will help their specific needs in their particular place. In other words, they will have to decide what kind they need and then train for that particular kind. It’s a little complicated but it’s quite helpful.

It’s still a big story, though not so much in the US as in other countries right now: the H1N1 virus-Swine Flu. Now that it has become less of an emergent concern and shifted into an isolation and prevention action, it’s going to be interesting to see what kinds of solutions the scientists come up with. At this point, many experts seem to be treating it like the regular seasonal flu while keeping an eye on it to make sure that it doesn’t become a bigger issue with morphing into another kind of flu and so on. There are many respiratory aids that will help a person with this illness to get better or prevent it. Humidifiers seem to improve general health and are therefore good at slowing H1N1, in the same way that vitamin C is thought to slow it down. There are many other options available in the world too, because a person would be able to wear a facemask to help prevent the spread, especially within their own home. We’ll have to see what else the scientists come up to in the next few months, because it is expected that this virus will return in a big way come next flu season.