| MadSci Network: Anatomy |
Hi Ajan, The diaphragm is located between the chest cavity and the abdominal cavity and does help us breath, but is not responsible for the airway passage. We can switch between breathing out of our nose or mouth without thinking about it, but when we were born we were obligatory nose breathers (we prefer to breath out of the nose and wont breath out of the mouth unless the nose is obstructed) because of it's ability to humidify, warm, decontaminate and regulate the air coming into the lungs. The nose is turned up slightly so that when babies are feeding they can suckle and breath. The tongue acts as a seal to block the oral airway. (see http://cpj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/40/10/567 for a free PDF download of this reference) To understand how we breath, please refer to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharynx you will need to know: the esophagus leads to the stomach and the larynx leads to the lungs. I believe the information you will find here will help you better understand why we can't breath from our mouth and nose at the same time. I hope this answers your question. Janet
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