Cardio Problems: Health Concerns & Exercises

  • Thread starter Thread starter eutopia
  • Start date Start date
AI Thread Summary
Blood pressure and heart rate measurements differ between reclining and standing positions primarily due to the effects of gravity and the body's effort to maintain blood flow. High blood pressure is a significant health concern as it can lead to cardiovascular complications, including heart failure. This occurs when the heart works harder to pump blood, resulting in muscle thickening (hypertrophy) and eventual inefficiency in pumping. Over time, this can lead to a cycle of worsening blood pressure and heart function.Athletes typically need to exert more effort to reach their maximum heart rate compared to less fit individuals due to their enhanced cardiovascular efficiency and conditioning. Smoking is associated with a temporary increase in blood pressure due to nicotine, which can cause immediate spikes of 5 to 10 mm Hg. While smoking does not directly cause hypertension, it increases the risk of vascular complications in those already hypertensive. Interestingly, chronic smokers may exhibit lower blood pressure than non-smokers, potentially due to weight loss effects from nicotine.
eutopia
Messages
28
Reaction score
0
Can someone help me answer these questions?!? thanx!@ :confused: :cry:

Explain why blood pressure and heart rate differ when measured in a reclining position and in a standing position.

Explain why high blood pressure is a health concern.

High blood pressure can lead to many other cardiovascular complications.

Explain why an athlete must exercise harder or longer to achieve a maximum heart rate than a person who is not as physically fit.

Explain why smoking causes a rise in blood pressure.
 
Biology news on Phys.org
eutopia said:
Can someone help me answer these questions?!? thanx!@ :confused: :cry:

Explain why blood pressure and heart rate differ when measured in a reclining position and in a standing position.

Explain why high blood pressure is a health concern.

High blood pressure can lead to many other cardiovascular complications.

Explain why an athlete must exercise harder or longer to achieve a maximum heart rate than a person who is not as physically fit.

Explain why smoking causes a rise in blood pressure.

Interesting questions. The first I'd attribute to gravity and work effort. Second one I pretty much found on the web:

To compensate for increased blood pressure, the heart must work harder to pump blood, and so its muscles thicken (called hypertrophy), usually in the left side (called left-ventricle dysfunction). These thickened muscles pump inefficiently, and over time, the force of their contractions weakens. The heart muscles then have difficulty relaxing and filling the heart with blood. The heart begins to fail.

The failing heart then triggers a number of hormonal and neurochemical mechanisms to correct imbalances in blood pressure and flow. This response, called remodeling, is helpful in the short run but very destructive and irreversible over time.

As part of the remodeling process, the heart muscle cells elongate. The muscular walls of the heart dilate and become thinner and inefficient. The cells themselves undergo molecular changes that result in calcium loss, a mineral crucial for healthy heart contractions.

The end-result of remodeling is that the volume of blood pumped to the kidneys falls, and the kidneys respond by retaining water and salt, which, in turn, increases fluid build-up in the body.

To make matters worse, the body's arteries respond to a lower blood volume by constricting; this forces the heart to work even harder to pump blood through these narrowed vessels, thereby increasing blood pressure, and the cycle continues.

I'd like to know the relationship between smoking and blood pressure. Suppose I could web-out that one too.
 
Well, I'm just cookin' with kerosine people:
On the web:

"Although smoking increases the risk of vascular complications (for example, heart disease and stroke) in people who already have hypertension, it is not associated with an increase in the development of hypertension. Nevertheless, smoking a cigarette can repeatedly produce an immediate, temporary rise in the blood pressure of 5 to10 mm Hg. Steady smokers however, actually may have a lower blood pressure than nonsmokers. The reason for this is that the nicotine in the cigarettes causes a decrease in appetite, which leads to weight loss. This, in turn, lowers the blood pressure"

Can I make a plug for exercising and a healthy life style now? Alright, nevermind.
 
Chagas disease, long considered only a threat abroad, is established in California and the Southern U.S. According to articles in the Los Angeles Times, "Chagas disease, long considered only a threat abroad, is established in California and the Southern U.S.", and "Kissing bugs bring deadly disease to California". LA Times requires a subscription. Related article -...
I am reading Nicholas Wade's book A Troublesome Inheritance. Please let's not make this thread a critique about the merits or demerits of the book. This thread is my attempt to understanding the evidence that Natural Selection in the human genome was recent and regional. On Page 103 of A Troublesome Inheritance, Wade writes the following: "The regional nature of selection was first made evident in a genomewide scan undertaken by Jonathan Pritchard, a population geneticist at the...
Back
Top