Research Paper

How does the human body maintain

homeostasis through blood pressure.
By: Vinny Long, Nico Lofrano, Kianna Brabo
San Marin
1/24/19

Abstract:
Eating too much salt can cause your bloodstream to be filled sodium and results in a higher
blood pressure.. In this experiment we tested to see if eating a large intake of salt would affect
the homeostasis of our blood pressure. This was tested by having two people both eat meals of
instant ramen, which is known for its extremely high sodium content, and monitoring their blood
pressure. Our overall result was no change at all and data that showed practically nothing.

Introduction:

What is homeostasis? Homeostasis is the balance of all systems in your body to create a well-
functioning human being. In this project, we are testing the effects of salt on blood pressure, and
how it affects homeostasis. Blood pressure is the amount of pressure that your blood applies
while going through your veins and arteries, and also relates back to the rate and the force at
which your heart is beating. The way that Homeostasis is measured in blood pressure is by using
a blood pressure gauge; a sphygmomanometer. When you take your blood pressure two numbers
will come up one on top and one on a bottom as a ratio. The number on top is the amount of
pressure on your arteries when your heart contracts or the systolic pressure. The number on the
bottom is your blood pressure in between the beats of your heart, or the diastolic pressure. We
chose to study salt on blood pressure because… Our hypothesis was that salt would raise your
blood pressure significantly.

Materials and Methods:

Method-
1. Pour hot water into 16 oz of Sapporo Ichiban chicken ramen
2. Measure the tests subjects blood pressure before he/she eats the ramen
3. Have your tests subjects eat all of the ramen and the water at the bottom
4. Measure their blood pressure right after
5. Measure the subjects blood pressure every minutes until 20 minutes have passed
6. Write down results

Materials-
 1. 16 oz of ramen
2. Spoon
3. Blood Pressure machine
4. 18 oz thermos
5. 3 cups of water
6. Nico
7. Kiki

Results:

Subject One’s Blood Pressure Subject Two’s Blood Pressure

Before Eating 118/76 95/57

Right After Eating 123/73 96/60

5 Minutes After 97/80 112/51

10 Minutes After 119/64 85/52

15 Minutes After 107/72 108/63

20 Minutes After 101/62 94/61

Discussion and Conclusion:

After conducting this experiment, our results conducted nothing. Our results show no
change in blood pressure. The conduction and testing in this experiment went well. Everything in
this experiment went as planned. The thing that went wrong was the results.

As shown in the data table and the line graph above, the lines all are going mostly up and
down and evening out. This shows not much of a variation in blood pressure. Before eating,
subject one’s blood pressure was 118/76 and by the end it had gone up to 123/73 in 5 minutes
after, drastically down to 97/80, then back up to 119/64, then down a bit to 107/72, then to
101/62. With test subject 2 the initial blood pressure was 95/57, then after 5 minutes it stayed
almost the same at 96/60, then it rose to 112/51, then it dropped drastically to 85/52, next it rose
to 108/63, then after 20 minutes it went back down to 94/61. The results didn’t show anything.
There was no massive change in blood pressure like we expected. There weren’t any errors with
the testing and brainstorming, the only error was the completely negative results. We could
conduct a different experiment to test this. We could have had the test subjects perform any kind
of exercise and test for the change in blood pressure.

Works Cited:

“April 2014.” Blood Pressure : Salt's Effects on Your Body, Apr. 2014, www.bloodpressureuk.org/microsites/E-
PositivePressure/Home/April2014.
“Blood Pressure Homeostasis.” The Free Dictionary, Farlex, 2019, medical-
dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/blood+pressure+homeostasis.
Clin, Cardiol. “Home - PubMed - NCBI.” Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports., U.S. National Library of
Medicine, 2002, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/.
Notes, Cliff's. “Control of Blood Pressure.” What Is Anatomy and Physiology?, 2016, www.cliffsnotes.com/study-
guides/anatomy-and-physiology/the-cardiovascular-system/control-of-blood-pressure.