The Effects of Exercise on the Blood Pressure and Heart Rate of Smokers and Non-Smokers

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The Effects of Exercise on the Blood Pressure and Heart Rate of Smokers and Non-Smokers

Planning the experiment

Aim: I am going to investigate how aerobic exercise affects the heart rate between smokers and non-smokers. To carry out this I will need to select a group of students (e.g. 10-15), in this group of student there have to be halves of them who are smokers and the other halves who are not smokers. To gather data on this I will need to generate two types of reading: heart rate and blood pressure of both of smokers and non-smokers.

Prediction: I predict that heart rate of smokers will be elevated and blood pressure will be higher from non-smokers. This is, because smoking causes high blood pressure (nicotine that is found in cigarette causes blood constriction of blood vessel). This damages the endothelial layer of blood vessels, limits ability of blood vessel to dilate and raises the blood pressure, as the blood find difficult to flow through the vessels. Carbon monoxide, which is found in cigarette smokes lowers the ability of haemoglobin carrying oxygen. Therefore effecting transport of oxygen to the respirations sites (during exercise in the muscles).

Background information on exercise

The reason for my prediction is that more exercise a person does more it will affect the pulse rate of that person. When I mean exercise, I mean more activity a person do, for example running and cycling. The exercise requires movements, so more energy will be required. In order, to get more energy; respiration has to take place at faster rate. As more respiration takes place, more energy is used. Therefore, more carbon dioxide will be produced. Carbon dioxide is a waste product of respiration. So it must be removed from our blood (circulatory system), as it is a toxin. Because of the extra carbon dioxide being produced and blood has higher concentration of carbon dioxide. To get rid of the extra carbon dioxide, blood is pumped around the body faster in order to transport it into the lungs. This process raises the heart rate (heart beat), so the heart adjusts to the condition by pumping more blood around the circulatory system. However, during strenuous exercise, lasting at least more than 12 minutes, the respiratory system cannot supply enough oxygen to initiate respiration, so the body uses reserved energy, which is stored in the muscles as glycogen. This is known as ‘anaerobic’ respiration. In ‘aerobic’ respiration oxygen comes from two sources: oxyheamoglobin, where oxygen we breathe in that combines with haemoglobin in the blood, in this process the oxygen is released from the oxyheamoglobin in the muscles where respiration takes place, to become haemoglobin again. The other source is myoglobin, which is stored in the muscles. Myoglobin has greater affinity for oxygen than haemoglobin, as a result from this its acts as store of oxygen.

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Respiration is the process that releases energy food. In this process Glucose from our food is oxidised to give, carbon dioxide, water and energy is released in form of ATP.

The overall equation for respiration is:

C6H12  +  6O2                                          6CO2  +  6H2O  +  ATP

Effects of exercise

As a person exercises, the longer the person exercises the dept of breathing increases as the exercise becomes harder or tiring. Our lungs respond to this by increasing the breathing rate (air inhalation). So, lungs could supply more ...

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