Hypertension Lab

1. What factors are known to cause increases in blood pressure?
Some factors that can lead to an increase in blood pressure are lack of exercise, overconsumption of salt, and possibly genetics.
2. Use your knowledge about the heart and the circulatory system to make a

hypothesis about how the average blood pressure for a group of people would

be affected by manipulating the age and gender of the group members.
I think that as age increase, so does the blood pressure and that it should be treated immediately. Also I hypothesize that gender does not affect blood pressure.

3. What sorts of problems might a person develop who has chronic

hypertension?
Their blood pressure would be higher than normal and it could be fatal.

4. Analyze the result of your experiment. Explain any patterns you observed.
I noticed that the male blood pressure is higher than the females for all ages. Also that as age increase, so does the blood pressure. This is probably because the younger ones get more exercise. Also, male diastolic numbers are really close to one another.

5. Did the result of your experiment support your hypothesis? Why or why not?

Based on your experiment what conclusion can you draw about the

relationship of age and gender to group blood pressure averages?
My hypothesis that the older the person, the higher the blood pressure was correct but it turns out that female usually have lower blood pressure than male. Due to age, I believe that as age increase, blood pressure will too because of the decrease in exercise. I was surprised to find out, though, that females have lower blood pressure than male. It could be said that some males eat a little more.

6. During the course of your experiment, did you obtain any blood pressure

reading that were outside of the normal range for the group being tested?

What did you notice on the medical charts for these individuals that might

explain their high reading?
Yes, some of the factors could have been genetics and lack of exercise. Also, that those who don't exercise are a lot heavier and may have more issues. I learned a lot of new things from this experiment.

7. List risk factors associated with the hypertension. Based on your observation,

which risk factor do you think is most closely associated with hypertension?

- smoking
- lack of exercise
- genetics
- too much salt
8. What effect might obesity have on blood pressure? Does obesity alone cause a

person to be at risk for high blood pressure? What other factors, in

combination with obesity, might increase a person's risk for high blood

pressure?
Obesity can mean that there is too much fat in your body. This can clot your blood and slow down blood flow. Obesity can cause a person to be at risk of high blood pressure. Being just overweight can lead to high blood pressure.