Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

hi, my grandma was 56 years old, and lived in a third world country her pressure used to go up sometimes when she got mad but it wasn't that much, this day she got in a dispute with someone, all she did was yell, she droped and was gone

Is there any experiments I could possibly do on high blood pressures, or Heart problems mainly, because that what killed my grandma

please post me if you have any ideas thank you!

hi

That is a sad story. I'm sorry about your grandmother . About the blood pressure project, what aspect of blood pressure do you want? Can you a be a little more specific? With a little more information, the experts would be better able to give you topic questions. I saw many questions on the internet about "what is the effect that ______ has on blood pressure?" The blank was filled in with many susbtances like garlic and vitamin c. It also had activities like music and video games. Is that the type of question you would like? Please post again with a little more clarity for what you want in a topic question.

I am very interested in doing something like that If you have any original ideas of What I could use to see how it effects blood pressure please post me thank you

Hi!

You could try using fruit and comparing the efects of different fruit. However I have one question, how are you going to measure blood pressure? Because if you do this project on yourself then you can't be sure if what youre adding or taking out of your diet is helping. The variables won't be controlled. Please post back with your response. Hope this helps.

Hi borborsmart508,

This sounds like a really cool project. However, with all cool science experiments, you will always have constraints. Here are a few I've noticed that you might want to take into consideration:

I would really suggest you research on blood pressure and what tools are needed to measure it. There are so many factors that affect blood pressure and it is all relative to the person afflicted with high blood pressure.

Testing a particular vegetable or medicine on humans would be very difficult to have it be approved by SRC/IRB. If you're really interested in this topic and would like to take it to the highest level, I've talked to many students who have done their projects using mice. You might want to consider that.

Here are some websites that give basic knowledge on blood pressure. Understanding them is very important to help develop your idea into a science project.

1.http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/hbp/
2.http://www.americanheart.org/presenter. ... ifier=2114

Now you have an idea - that's the first step in any project. Once you start researching on blood pressure, try thinking of the things you read that really interest you. You start to have focus on your project, and it becomes more specific the more your interests lead you.

I really hope this helps.

Good Luck!

Sareena

Hi,

Sareena Avadhany's comments about working with humans are correct; you would have to get permission to do this project. And, there is something else to consider as well. I have judged many blood pressure science fair projects, and I have noticed that results are never definitive. The problem is that there are too many factors that affect blood pressure and it is not possible to use blood pressure as a dependent variable in an experiment.

So, I would suggest switching to a different topic. Is there something else you are interested in?

Donna Hardy