Unit II Lab Project: Light My [metabolic] Fire

I am a person with an average blood pressure. I don't breathe like a rabbit. (except after heavy running, I'm slightly asthmatic) I think my relatively laid back nature contributes to this. My girlfriend's father has high blood pressure. We measured his blood pressure, once, after an argument between and his twin daughters and it was soaring at somewhere around 146/85. ( and wouldn't twin 17 year-olds do that to anyone?) This was a couple of years ago, and I never thought of how stress affected blood pressure and metabolism before that. I didn't really give it much thought afterward until the recent science unit. Then I started to wonder how different activities, environments and substances affect metabolism. (don't worry, when I say substances Iam referring to foods and such.)

When taking my rates, I was fortunate enough to live with the former nursing teacher of Prescott High School, Bill King. Though, the photo below shows me taking my own blood pressure, it is false. I had him measure it for me. I did however measure my own heart rate via the stethoscope shown. The pictures are low quality, I know, but they make the point.

Anyway, when taking my base rates, I simply sat on a chair (once) and my bed (twice). The resulting values are below.


























Baseline
Pulse................................ Mean
52 55 58 52 52............... 53.8
Resp
44 50 38 38 40............... 42
Systolic
122 120 123 120 120..... 121
Diastolic
70 68 68 70 70................ 69.2

From here I chose three activities to do to see what the resulting metabolism changes would be from each. The activities chosen were: 1. sit upside down for one minute 2. read for five minutes 3. work on painting a portrait for 10 minutes
For the first, sitting upside down for a minute at a time, I hypothesize that my heart will go up, because the body will work harder to perform the normal function. The reason I believe so, is that, though being upside down is strangely relaxing, it is not normal for the body and has to work against the way it is naturally tuned. Naturally my reasoning cannot be tested here, but results on metabolism can be, which will at least give me a frame of whether my idea can have merit or not.
For the second, reading for five minutes at a time, I hypothesize that my metabolism will stay relatively similar if not going up slightly. I believe so, because, though mentally I will be stimulated, it is not a physically stressing process.
For the third, painting for ten minutes at a time, I hypothesize that my metabolism will rise. I will see a significant change in blood pressure and a slight change in breathing. The reason is because painting both excites me and makes me anxious. The anxiety is not intense, but coupled with the excitement I think it will make a change in metabolic rates.

For my first activity I sat down upside down on my couch for a minute at a time. I did this like so:

I simply measure the time with a regular watch and then immediately took my respiratory rate, blood pressure and heart rate. I interchanged the order in which I took them to see if it would make a difference whether I took breathing first or breathing last, for example.

For my second activity, reading a book for five minutes at a time, I sat in a folding chair and read, like so:
I like to read a lot. Many of the books I read have view points that differ greatly from my own. For the purpose of keeping relaxed, I read a personally agreeable book. I read for in five minute increments and took my rates, switching the order of each as I did in the first activity.

For my third activity I stood and painted on a portrait that I have been working on for ten minutes at a time. I, of course, did this like so:

Though this picture looks set up, I am really working in it, haha. I just worked in ten minute units and followed the same process as I did in the first two for gathering the information.

The information was as follows:


Activity 1
Pulse....................Mean
72 80 78............. 76.7
Resp
43 44 48 .............45
Systolic
130 132 130....... 130.7
Diastolic
78 80 80............. 79.3
Activity 2
Pulse
56 56 58............. 56.7
Resp
22 23 20............. 21.7
Systolic
125 125 125........ 125
Diastolic
72 78 78............... 76
Activity 3
Pulse
50 52 50............. 50.7
Resp
35 30 32............. 32.3
Systolic
130 130 130...... 130
Diastolic
75 80 78 .............77.7




Each of the metabolic rates were graphed. The activities were compared in four different graphs, one for each rate. These are the graphs:

































Here we can see consistencies and deviations from my hypotheses. The idea that metabolic rates would raise for activities one and three were, for the most part, true. This was even true of the hypothesis for activity, they did raise slightly. However, I was apparently wrong in my hypothesis about rising pulse from painting. My heart rate was strangely slow, especially considering the significant rise in all other areas. My pulse after painting was even slower than my baseline pulse. This is very odd, indeed.

I believe there were problematic methods, devices and environments in this lab. First of all, I did not use an electronic pressure cuff. Though it was professional equipment, used by a professional, Mr. King admitted that it hadn't been used in a while and there may have been pressure issues. Secondly, there was no way to measure all four rates at once. The best remedy I could come up with was to alternate in which order I measured them. There is no way to assure that these results were completely accurate. Lastly, I listened to music when I painted. I didn't really think about it until afterward, but I now realize that changing the setting with something like music or visuals may have an effect on the metabolic rates.

It seems to me that all forms of stimulation affect the physiology of the circulatory and respiratory systems. Whether physical of mental, stimulation will boost the metabolic rates. Physical changes seem to catalyze more so than mental stimulation. The heart gets to pumping to get more oxygen to any stimulated part of the body: legs, brain, hands, etc. This was a very fun and interesting lab. I should try the experiments again, if for no other reason than to sit upside down again, with warrant!