Inhalation and exhalation is the same as breathing or ventilation.
- It is a physical process.
- Air moves into, and out of the lungs.
Respiration is not the same as breathing (at A-Level Biology level).
- Respiration is a chemical process.
- It happens in all cells.
- Respiration is the release of energy from glucose.
- Aerobic respiration occurs with oxygen and releases more energy (but more slowly).
- Anaerobic respiration occurs without oxygen and releases less energy (but more quickly)
Some degree professions and some schools of study including healthcare, nursing and medicine refer to respiration and breathing as the same thing for ease of descriptions, but:
- respiration is the chemical process
- breathing is the biological process