Stop sighing, people will die

We often assume that only when people are tired or angry can they sigh. In fact, we sigh often and this is an important reflex that is vital, keeping the lungs functioning properly.

Surely many people will be surprised to know, every average person sighs 12 times a day, ie every 5 minutes. The frequency of our sighs is so high to prevent alveoli from collapsing, according to research by Stanford University and the University of California.

" The human lung has a horizontal surface area of ​​a tennis court, folded in the chest. There are about 500 million small air sacs called alveoli. Each alveoli is a small ball with a diameter of about 0. , 2mm, " said study co-author Jack Feldman, neuroscience professor.

Jack Feldman also explained that alveoli helps ensure oxygen is easily released into the bloodstream through the pleura. If you do not sigh, the non-inflated alveoli will collapse like a wet ball, causing the lung surface to lose its ability to exchange air and lungs.

According to the researchers, deep breathing (which we still do once every 5 minutes) is the only way to blow the lung bag back. Sighing is like double breathing. If you look at a patient who is fitted with a breathing tube, we will see that a few minutes they will breathe out a big breath.

So what about emotional sighs?

According to Professor Feldman, sighs when the body is stressed by the brain secrete bombesin-derived peptide molecules. According to his previous study, mice increased the number of sighs from 25 to 400 times an hour when they were injected with bombesin into the brain. Conversely, when destroying the bombesin receptor, the sighing behavior completely disappears in animals.

Feldman hopes, in the future, this discovery will be used to make drugs to treat some diseases that make people sigh too little, which makes it difficult to breathe, affect lung function such as anxiety disorders, problems of breathing. Too much steaming or sighing leads to depression.