Effects of Stress On BLOOD PRESSURE

Group 1 Members: Kimaria (Kim) Baker - Collierville High Yasir Rosli - White Station High Ashley Williams - Fairley High Dai Williams - White Station High

Objectives Stress such as Physical exercise & Cold stress increases blood pressure

What is Blood Pressure? Simply defined as the force of the blood against the walls of the artery Expressed as a ratio (120/80) Higher number is systolic pressure Lower number is diastolic pressure

Systolic vs. Diastolic Blood Pressure The top number in a blood pressure reading. The force of blood in the arteries as the heart beats. Normal and high systolic reading is also known as “Isolated Systolic Hypertension” or I.S.H. The bottom number in a blood pressure reading. The force of blood in the arteries as the heart relaxes between beats. This pressure has consequences when elevated, especially for younger people.

Experiment Procedure: The students were introduced to physical stress by running up and down the stairs of a 4-story building two times. The students were also introduced to cold stress by submerging their left hand into ice cold water. Immediately after stress induction, the students had their blood pressure taken to observe the effects of both types of stress on the flow of blood.

Data Collected ID #Normal SystolicNormal DiastolicCold Stress Systolic Cold Stress Diastolic Physical Stress Systolic Physical Stress Diastolic

Hypothesis H 0 : no matter what happened, blood pressure should stay the same. H a : physical stress and cold stress would increase blood pressure

Result of Paired t-test ICE Cold Water p-value = Significant level = 5% p-value < significant level So, reject H 0. H 0 : BP before = BP after H a : BP after > BP before Therefore, under cold stress, one will increase systolic of blood pressure.

Similarly, our data supports the other three paired – t tests which are normal diastolic vs. cold stress diastolic normal diastolic vs. physical stress diastolic Normal systolic vs. physical stress systolic

Conclusion: Manage Stress Under any kind of stress, blood pressure will increase. One should develop relaxation techniques to deal with stress. To get a healthy life, one should control his/her blood pressure by managing stress.

A Big Thank You to All! Dr. Valerie Chu (Statistics Professor) Dr. Uddin (Biology Professor) Dr. John Harris (Director of TLSAMP Program) Dr. Rajagopolan (Math Professor)