So you’re breathing normally, decide to take a deep breath and you feel a super refreshing feeling. But it doesn’t happen all the time when you take deep breaths, only once every couple minutes or so. Sorry if this is not a good explanation.
In: Biology
Part of respiratory drive is based on gas concentrations in the blood, but your lungs also have stretch receptors as a feedback mechanism. A super deep breath and maximizes the stretch receptor feedback, which lets your brain know you’re breathing adequately, and decreases the need for a sudden next breath and “air hunger”. Air hunger is an interesting drive, which is usually but not always correlated with good gaseous exchange, and in some medical cases, such as end of life, inappropriate air hunger becomes extremely agitating and needs to be suppressed pharmacologically.
Latest Answers