Healthy lungs are responsible for respiration – the process of getting oxygen into our bodies and also getting rid of carbon dioxide. Our bodies need oxygen for cells to be happy and function properly. We breathe nearly 25,000 times per day, and normally this all happens in a very efficient manner – so efficient and automatic that we are not usually aware of it. That is until we have lung disease. Lungs can become diseases in different ways that affect how this process happens, but in general when lungs become impaired in their function, this process requires more energy and effort. Examples would be an asthmatic who becomes short of breath and very uncomfortable from narrowed and inflamed airways, or a patient with a serious pneumonia who has an infection that is filling the air spaces and not allowing this process to happen efficiently.