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Weimar University

Allen Lloyd

Don Mackintosh

Eddie Ramirez

Total Community Immunity Series

Fight Coronavirus with Immune-Boosting Foods - Part 2

Total Community Immunity Series - Part 1

Fight Coronavirus with NAC -  Part 3

Fight Coronavirus with Exercise - Part 4

Fight Coronavirus with Saunas -  Part 5

3 Steps Through Anxiety - Part 6

Joel Sabangan

Fight Coronavirus with Good Hygiene - Part 7

Fight Coronavirus As A Diabetic - Part 8

Fight Coronavirus With Vitamin D -  Part 9

Roger Gallant

Fight Coronavirus with Sleep - Part 10

Fight Coronavirus with Positive Thinking - Part 11

Dean Cullinane

Be Still - Part 12

Roger Seheult

Nerida Titchiner

Fight Coronavirus Q&A - Part 13


Hi, I'm Don McIntosh. Welcome to our series on boosting immunity and helping the community. And with us today, we have Dr. Joel Sabangan. He's joining us from Ardmore, Oklahoma, where he practices in a busy hospital as a pulmonologist.

Pulmonologist, what does that mean? That's a lung doctor, right? That's correct, yes. And we're gonna talk about the lungs and COVID-19. First of all, you know, you look at lungs all the time.

That's your specialty. So describe to us maybe the anatomy, the physiology of the lungs, and then we'll get into what COVID-19 does in the lungs. Sure. Well, thank you for inviting me today. You know, the lung is a complex organ, and it has a lot of intricate structures.

If you think of it as a tree, it's called a bronchial tree, where the organ is divided into a conducting airway and a respiratory unit. Now The conducting airway comprises of the trachea, the bronchi, the bronchioles, and ultimately into the alveoli, which is the respiratory unit of the lungs. So that's like those little sacs, right? Those little sacs inside? That's correct.

You're born with about on the average about 500 million air sacs that are clustered in a grape-like fashion and this is where gas exchange occurs. In other words, when you breathe in, that's how the oxygen goes from the outside and hooks up to your red blood cells? That's correct. So you breathe in oxygen, you exhale carbon dioxide. So that's where the gas exchange occurs.

And it's an intricate process. You know, When the hemoglobin molecule goes by the alveolar sac, that's where oxygen gets absorbed and carbon dioxide gets excreted. Okay, so basically you're taking in the air, you're getting rid of the trash, comes down that trachea, then into that, you know, kind of the tree. And right there, those little sacks is where the air exchange takes place. So what happens then if we get something like COVID-19?

Well, if you think about it, the respiratory system, or it's 1 of the organ systems that is directly open to the environment. So when you breathe in, it goes right into your lungs? You're exposed to the... That's correct. So you're exposed to everything you breathe in?

Yes, yes. Okay, go ahead, explain then what's what happens. Well, that's why the COVID-19 virus is easily transmitted because it's open. I mean that the lungs are directly open to the environment and and so which brings us to the question on how the virus is transmitted. It's primarily transmitted through a droplet inhalation.

So by you mean it's like on a on a piece of what would you say water that's a droplet and the virus is riding along on that droplet? That's correct. And it goes into your nasal passageway and ultimately gets inhaled down into your lower respiratory tract and that's where it causes a lot of problems. So that probably is why sneezing is something you don't want to do if you're sick on somebody else. That's true because the droplet inhalation is really obtained from someone sneezing at you or coughing at you or someone sneezing on a surface that you ultimately touch and then you touch your face, your mouth, your eyes, your ears, I'm sorry, your nose, that's how you inoculate the virus into your respiratory system.

So that's why we should be washing our hands, that's why we should be cleaning places, that's why if we sneeze, we sneeze into our elbow, and if someone else sneezes, we put up our hands. That's true. I mean, we need to be mindful of where our hands are, right? We wanna make sure that if we are To touch our face, our mouth, our eyes, or nose, we have to wash our hands thoroughly to prevent the transmission of the virus. OK, well, this gives us a good overview.

We're going to come back and talk with you a little bit more about some more of the mechanisms, but this is the basic take home messages. Your lungs are open to the outside. Be careful what you're allowing in those. Make sure and wash your hands. Don't be sneezing or be sneezed on because you don't wanna get that down into those air sacs.

Thank you so much, doctor, and we'll talk more. And I think we now know why we have to have those clean hands and make sure that we're not being sneezed on. Thank you for joining us today, and we'll be back with another episode on the lungs with Dr. Sabangan.

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Series

Total Community Immunity Series

Fight Coronavirus with Good Hygiene - Part 7

Parent Series

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Recorded

Other Teachings in Series

Fight Coronavirus with Immune-Boosting Foods - Part 2

3m

Total Community Immunity Series - Part 1

3m

Fight Coronavirus with NAC - Part 3

4m

Fight Coronavirus with Exercise - Part 4

4m

Fight Coronavirus with Saunas - Part 5

3m

3 Steps Through Anxiety - Part 6

3m

Fight Coronavirus with Good Hygiene - Part 7

5m

Fight Coronavirus As A Diabetic - Part 8

5m

Fight Coronavirus With Vitamin D - Part 9

3m

Fight Coronavirus with Sleep - Part 10

5m

Fight Coronavirus with Positive Thinking - Part 11

4m

Be Still - Part 12

3m

Fight Coronavirus Q&A - Part 13

2h 1m

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