A medical student is studying how the volume of blood in the circulatory system affects blood pressure. He measures the blood vo
lume and pressure of two classmates, a man and a woman. He finds that the man has a higher blood volume but a lower blood pressure than the woman. He concludes that a person with low blood volume would tend to have high blood pressure. What additional factors should the student consider that would most likely affect blood pressure? a. Differences in overall outlook on life
b. Differences in size and gender
c. Differences in the day's food intake
d. Differences in the amount of recent exercise
Options c and d. The additional factors the student should consider that would most likely affect blood pressure are the differences in the day's food intake and differences in the amount of recent exercise.
Explanation:
Blood pressure is the measure of the force of blood pushing against blood vessel walls. A higher blood pressure, also called hypertension, is detrimental to the health of the person as it makes the heart work harder to pump blood to the body and that can make the arteries to get hardened which can cause heart failure. There are many factors that affect one's blood pressure, one of them being the type of diet that the person follows. If the person eats highly salted foods and drink alcohol, his/her blood pressure is most likely to be higher than the blood pressure of a person that has a healthier diet. Another factor that affects blood pressure is physical activity, being active physically is proven to lower the blood pressure so if a person is sedentary he/she is more likely to have hypertension than an active person.
