Sam is getting nervous about his ability to finish the 26 mile (42.2 km) race. H

Question

Sam is getting nervous about his ability to finish the 26 mile (42.2 km) race. He and his running partner David, start the marathon well - with cheering crowds - but after running for about 2 miles, Sam is overcome by nerves and starts to breathe shallower than normal. This is really bothering him and the more he thinks about it, the more it affects his breathing pattern.

Assuming that Sam’s pulmonary ventilation does not change significantly, would this shallow breathing affect Sam’s alveolar ventilation? Include some calculations to support your answer [2 marks]
This is a physiology question.
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Explanation / Answer

Alveolar ventilation is the exchange of gas between the alveoli and external environment, alveolar ventilation = total ventilation(breaths/min) - dead space ventilation(ml/breaths) and alveolar ventilation rate measures the flow of fresh gases into and out of the alveoli during a particular time , rapid and shallow breathing decreases AVR, in the shallow breathing we see that the minimal drawing of minimal breath in to the lungs usually by drawing air into the chest area using the intercostal muscles rather than throughout the lungs via the diaphragm,shallow breathing increases the ventilation of the anatomical dead space and decreases the alvelolar ventilation.

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