If you never sigh, you’ll die
QUESTION
Why do we sigh? Sighing is a deep inhalation and exhalation, at least twice as deep as a person’s average inhalation.
it’s common to sigh when we’re angry or frustrated. This is because it stimulates the vagus nerve — the tenth cranial nerve that supplies the heart, lungs and viscera — which then switches on the parasympathetic nervous system (the ‘relaxed’ part of the nervous system), which, in turn, generates a relaxation response.
Deep or controlled breathing is calming. however, research shows sighing to be more than an indication of despondency: it happens around a dozen times an hour, even if you aren’t aware of it, to help preserve lung function.
Two tiny clusters of nerve cells in the brain’s stem — the region that, unbidden, automatically takes charge of breathing, sleeping and heart rate — orchestrate the sigh.
They do this in response to an unconscious command to re-inflate as necessary the myriad tiny sacs in the lungs called alveoli, which control the body’s traffic in oxygen and carbon dioxide, and which sometimes collapse.
Without sighing, the alveoli would not be able to re-inflate, causing the lungs to fail.
The brain’s breathing centre is made up of different kinds of neurons, each functioning like a button that turns on a different type of breath.
One button programmes regular breaths, another sighs and the others could be for yawns, sniffs, coughs or even laughs and cries.
Sighing has somewhat of a negative image — an expression of weariness — but it is vital for our health. if we didn’t sigh, we’d die. Emilie Lamplough, Trowbridge, Wilts.
QUESTION
Are there any relatives of Abraham Lincoln still about? FurTher to the earlier answer, my mother’s maiden name was emma newman Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln is my sixth cousin five times removed. Samuel Lincoln was the brother of my 9x great-grandad, richard. Samuel sailed from ipswich on the John & Dorothy to Boston in 1637.
i have a copy of the passenger list on this voyage. i also have the Lincoln family tree from the present back to 1440. Norman Wainwright,
Telford, Shropshire.