After a few minutes sitting down, record your heart rate, blood pressure and heart sounds:
Use a stethoscope to record your blood pressure, or, go to a pharmacy providing an automatic device. The K-Mart in Valpo has one, but I do not trust it. If the machine is a bit "deaf" it will give low systolic and high diastolic values, e.g. instead of 130/80 mm Hg, it may give 120/90 mm Hg. This is because the machine, or your ear, hears blood spurting through the artery only between systolic & diastolic values. Above systolic or below diastolic the machine/you hear nothing, so the highest pressure with sound is systolic, and the lowest with sound is diastolic.
Record your heart rate, beats per minute_______________Blood Pressure mm Hg__________________
Use a stethoscope to record your heart sounds. You must be in a quiet place. Please record what you hear:
__________________________________________________________________________________
You
should hear two sounds per cardiac cycle or heart beat, 1 = A/V valves
close, and 2 = aortic and pulmonic valves close. If you hear anything
else at all please write it down too.
Comments:
Do one of the step tests described at the link. Probably the best choice is the step test that you can do at home. You should make 30 complete cycles of up, up, down, down, in one minute = 1 second to go up, and one to go down. So you must be timing yourself. If you are more ambitious then do one of the more demanding tests (Harvard or Queens). Record here your heart rate immediately when you stop exercising, while remaining standing = record your heat rate for 15 seconds, and then x 4. Use the table at the link to determine your fitness level.
Heart Rate and Fitness Level____________________________________________________________
Comments
We will use old equipment to record a student's ECG. If you think you may have a heart problem please volunteer! The old equipment has the advantage of making an ink recording which you can study. There are normally three waves per heart beat: P = atria depolarize, QRS = ventricles depolarize, and T = ventricles repolarize (the atria also repolarize but no wave is recorded). NOTE: these waves are only electrical, the best evidence that your heart is working is pulse and blood pressure. To get the largest signal we record from right arm to left leg as your heart points that way in your body. All three waves should be upward. Some abnormal ECG
Fix the recording to this sheet, label it's waves, and record the chart speed.
Is the ECG normal?_______________________________________________________________
What is the heart rate?_____________________________________________________________
What is the P-QRS interval (increases if the atria and ventricles are not well connected)?____________
Comments
ALL
FITNESS TESTS
This is a very good site for anyone interested
in their physical fitness. We do not have skin
fold calipers else we would use them. You can figure out your body
mass index from your height and weight. BMI is also in a later
lab exercise on nutrition.
The "big three" health measures are blood: pressure,
sugar and cholesterol. Why?
BP = CO x TPR, but: CO = HR x SV, so: BP = HR x SV x TPR
Mean blood pressure (BP) is the product of cardiac output (CO), and total peripheral resistance (TPR) to blood flow through the circulation. CO is the product of heart rate (HR) and stroke volume (SV - the volume of blood ejected from either ventricle per beat). Resting HR ~ 70 beats/min, and SV ~ 70 mL/beat, so CO ~ 70 x 70 mL/min or ~ 5 L/min.
The cardiovascular system is controlled by negative feedback. Blood pressure is monitored by receptors in the walls of the aorta and carotid arteries, the information is sent to the cardiovascular center in the brain stem, which sends nerve impulses to the heart to regulate CO, and blood vessels to regulate TPR.
Blood pressure goes up if either CO or TPR go up (or both). Hypertensives = high resting blood pressure always have high TPR, never high CO. Ways to help them aim to reduce CO and TPR through exercise, diet and drugs.
Why exercise (know or search)?
What diet changes are always suggested, and how
do they work (know or search)?
The oldest and still most effective drugs are diuretics, how do they lower BP (know or search)?