Hi guys, I'm Lisa and although I'm not science expert, I respect the value of science in our sweet modern society.
Science sometimes says the most insane things you never even thought of. Did you know that our lungs have the ability to converse with our brains?
I don’t mean like they are talking to each other in a human language but they communicate by sending messages mostly when we are unwell. I came across a mind-blowing finding and it made me think about how amazing our bodies are.
For instance, when we get ill—say we have a cold or flu—it’s not only our immune system that springs into action. Our lungs and brain do too – behind the scenes.
We used to think it was all about the immune system, right? It is just trying so hard to keep those germs away. However, it’s more complicated than that.
You see, there are these tiny machines called neurons inside us which act as transmitters sending signals to our brains like small electric wires.
But now it seems that whenever your lungs turn out to be infected, they make use of these neurons for telling your brain “hey Something wrong down here” Then your brain would say “Alright let’s make this individual feel ill so he may know something is wrong”.
I always believed that illness was just a case of feeling awful and tired due to germs. For real though, it’s simply the brain trying to tell us to rest abit so that our bodies can fight back against an infection. It is like our brain communicating “Yo, take some time off so we get well.”
What I find so fascinating about this finding is it could potentially lead to new ways of treating diseases in the future. At present, we only take drugs to destroy germs when unwell.
However, if we know how the lungs communicate with the brain perhaps there are better ways of assisting our body to recover more quickly. Such as, perhaps we may utilize treatments which aim at curing both the disease and the messages which are communicated between our lung and mind.
Another thing that blew my mind is that this research finding a link between gender and sickness revealed that there are different reactions in sick guys compared to girls when they fall ill.
For example, the study discovered that male mice became more ill than female mice after being infected with similar pathogens. This is not because men are weaklings when they are unwell (well, maybe just a little).
It is because their brains require more of these signals from neurones to indicate sickness of their bodies.
This surprised me as I thought about how people always talk about man flu sometimes. The one about people who behave like they have died yet they only have a simple cold. Is there any truth to this? Maybe boys’ bodies do experience illnesses differently from those of girls.
This entire notion of the lungs talking to the brain made me think about COVID and how it was strange that some people were not very ill yet they had severely injured lungs.
They called this “happy hypoxia,” which is an odd name for something so serious that you may wonder how it can be related to happiness. However, now it kind of adds up. May be their lungs were ever busy conversing with their brains such that making themselves feeling unwell was never a priority.
And also, there’s the shit about continually sick lungs, as in cystic fibrosis. People having these kinds of conditions may seem alright most of the time but then all of a sudden fall seriously ill. Thus, it is like their bodies are deceiving them.
On the other hand, possibly those germs hiding from their brained lungs, so they don’t feel bad until its already too late for them.
It was mind blowing to learn how our lungs and brains interact during an illness. It made me understand the intricacy as well as awe-inspiring nature of our bodies.
And it started me thinking about all the possible ways diseases may be dealt with in the future. Perhaps, one day, there’ll be remedies which can prevent communication between the lungs and brain when we are ill so that we will not have yucky feelings again. Imagine that!