People will die if not often sigh

Every hour, people sigh about 12 times, ie every 5 minutes. But the sound of sigh is not necessarily a sign of fatigue or sadness. In fact, sighing plays an essential role, helping our lungs to function effectively.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (USA) and Stanford University have discovered that sighing is a life-sustaining reflex , blocking air sacs in the lungs - also called alveoli - churning. .

"People have a large surface area equal to a tennis court, and they are all folded in the chest thanks to the existence of 500 million small air sacs called alveoli . Each alveoli has a small spherical shape of about diameter. 0.2mm, "said Jack Feldman, professor of neurobiology at UCLA, co-author of the study.

The alveoli ensures oxygen can enter the blood easily through the pleura. Professor Feldman describes them as "wet bubbles".

Professor says: "If you ever try to blow a wet ball, you will find it very difficult, because water makes the inside of the ball stick together. That's what happens when the alveoli collapses, and whenever If they collapse, the surface of the lungs cannot exchange air. " In other words, if humans cannot sigh, alveoli will not swell again, and the lungs will not work.

If people cannot sigh, alveoli will not swell again, and the lungs will not work.

Professor Feldman said the only way to open the alveoli is to take a deep breath , and people tend to do this every 5 minutes.

"At first, when using support devices such as lung iron, patients only had enough air to support normal lungs, and many died because of their broken alveoli. But now, if you see it If you use a CPR, you'll notice that there's a big breath every few minutes. "

According to Professor Feldman, sighing means breathing twice, and not necessarily an out-breath with a loud sound like when you get upset or vent.

However, according to Professor Feldman, actual sighs are related to emotions in a different way, because the rate of sighing increases when someone is under stress. One of the things that happens with a stressed body is that the brain produces molecules called peptides - a subunit of the protein chain. Some peptides are also called "bombesin-derived peptides".

Scientists say that bombesin does not exist in mammals, and in fact it is a toxin found in the skin of purple toads. However, many mammals can sense this substance, and previous studies have found that peptides called neuromedin B (NMB) and epigastric stimulating peptides (GRP) are present in every organism. breast, including human.

Scientists believe this discovery will help us go deeper into other areas of the nervous system, as well as the mechanisms of complex manifestations in humans.

According to scientists, the study is likely to be applied to the development of pharmacology to contain certain diseases. For cases of anxiety disorders, the infected person can sigh a lot and become susceptible to depression. And there are also some people who sigh very little, leading to poor respiratory and lung problems.

Feldman said he wanted to delve into the activity of human neurons when sighing, and he was very interested in breaking down the way these neurons were organized.

"What's going on with neurons and the whole vascular system? That's an important question, not only with sighing but also to understand the nervous system transforming information and processing such signals. " he said.