Caffeinated beverages and blood pressure test on a small gro

[Fasthorse2002]

Hello,

We are a group of 4 (7th grader boys) who would like to conduct a search on whether if caffeinated beverage really raise the blood pressure.
Variable: coke vs diet coke
Control group: 2 boys who drink coke every day
2 boys who only consume coke once a week
All boys are 7th grader
The experiment would be conducted once a week in the next 3 months .

Is this posiible to conduct this experiment on a small group of 4 boys with good results? What else do we need to do ?

We really want to find out by ourselves about the effect of sodas on blood pressure!

Please help !

[deleted-226200]

Hi, there.

Caffeine and blood pressure sounds like a great concept to study. There are a few more things you should think about that will make your project a bit better.

Here is what someone in the medical community did, looking at 182 men with varying blood pressure (from good to not-so-good): http://hyper.ahajournals.org/content/36/1/137.full

"During caffeine testing, BP was measured after 20 minutes of rest and again at 45 to 60 minutes after the oral administration of caffeine (3.3 mg/kg or a fixed dose of 250 mg for an average dose of 260 mg)." It seems like this would be a better way to conduct your testing.

Here is another experiment involving caffeine from sciencebuddies.org: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p030.shtml.

You might also get some ideas from this topic thread: https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... php?t=9018

Why don't you read through these and see what other questions you might have?

Good luck!

-Lisa

[Fasthorse2002]

Hi Lisa,

I have read all the thread and info that you provided:) . Questions for u:

1) Is it a good ideal if we use this experiment to find out the effect of caffein on the heart rate as well?

2) we only be able to get 4 boys to participate on this project , do u think it is ok for this project?

3) we got mixed results on our first trial.. The 2 boys who drink soda daily did not have much change in their BP while the other two had a big jump on their BP . We will try again this week and see how it goes ..

Thanks a bunch for all your info and suggestions ..

Michael

[deleted-226200]

Fasthorse,

If you've only got 4 boys, then the best thing you can do is take a lot of measurements. Can you do it a couple of times per week instead of just once a week? Do your best to make it so that the only thing that can explain the change in BP is caffeine. For instance, not when someone is sick, or after they've been exercising, or if they're really stressed about a test or something. The time of day probably has an effect on BP as well as well as standing, vs. sitting, vs. laying down, so try to control all those factors as well.

Good luck!

-Lisa

[Fasthorse2002]

Hello Lisa ,

We took your advise and started to conduct our test three times a week and only in the afternoon between 3pm to 4pm only
The results were mixed : the two boys who do not drink sodas often experience a big jump in their BP while the other two boys did not see much change in thir BP ,

We will record our test results and will get back to you by the end of the month.. We will keep you in the loop of what we find .

Thank you very much for your help

Michael

[deleted-226200]

Thanks, Michael. It's always fun to get results. You should have a nice data set by the end of the month.

-Lisa