Hypoxia and Medicine

Why do lungs expand at high altitudes?

I did something for science about the dangers of high altitudes such as lungs expanding too much and collapsing/exploding because of too much expansion. What is the reason for the expansion though?

Public Comments

1. their is less air and your blood cell will have to "reproduce" more often. which makes it harder for u to breath at higher altitudes,thus making ur lungs expand. :o]
2. I am not an expert on this but I think at higher altitudes the Oxygen is less and lungs need to work more to get oxygen from air because it cant get the required oxygen in one cycle.... so it gets exapanded.. there is also some change in blood pressure also.. !!
3. At sea level it takes 14.7 psi to fill your lungs .At higher altitudes the atmospheric pressure is less than 14.7 depending on how high you are. So the volume of air taken in at sea level is more than at higher elevations. If you were to take a deep breath at sea level and then hold your breath and ascend rapidly the volume of air would expand in your lungs because there is less pressure on the outside of your lungs.