and continuing the anatomy lesson, re:The lungs don't to anything until the diaphragm and ribs move. And the diaphragm muscles and rib muscles are controlled by nerves coming from the spinal cord
breathing is controled by the base of the brain, sometime called the reptilian part (since it contains many of the same funtions that can be found in reptile brains.) and breathing is one of them.. you don't have to remember to breath, a small part of your brain does that for you.. and as higher functions (thought, image processing, etc) go, the only thing left is the reptilian part.. and you keep breathing. then as damaged lungs bring less air in, and damaged hearts move less blood, and damaged kidneys let toxins accumulated, and damage livers fail to clean out old and damaged red blood cells, less and less oxoginated blood gets to the brain, and it falters.. and finally fails to send the signal to the diaphragm to contract..
