- Aging is an inevitable factor throughout the world. No matter how hard people may try, the process of aging is continuous and can lead to many problems and effects in the human body and its functions. In my experiment, I plan on exposing how a person's age and lifestyle can affect his/her heart rate efficiency. Age and the heart are the two main focal points of this project. To start off with, the heart is an organ contained in all humans and animals that pump blood through the circulatory system. As stated by an article, "The heart is the body's engine room". It is the main source of transportation for oxygenated blood throughout the body and disposing waste matter. It is made out of cardiac muscle tissue and is involuntary. Involuntary means that we can not control and is done automatically. With more knowledge of the heart, I plan on figuring out if the heart's efficiency and heart rate detail rate over time with a person or animal's age.
- To continue with, aging is another focal point in my experiment. As one article said, "We're getting older and our bodies are changing". This statements reinforces my idea that age is inevitable. As people age or grow old, many important body functions begin to fade away. Such as eyesight, hearing, and the sense of touch. Heart rate and other internal body functions are also affected by the body's natural aging process. Heart rate is a heartbeat's speed calculated per unit of time. It is usually shown as BPM or beats per minute. To determine a person's head rate, find the pulse on the radial Artery on the wrist or carotid artery in the neck. Proceed to use the index and middle finger to feel for the pulse's beat. Count as many beats on the person for 30 seconds. Afterwards, multiply this number by two and that is a person's heart rate or BPM. In other words, it is a expression of how quickly blood is flowing through the body. A low or high heart rate can prove whether or not a person's heart is as healthy as it was in their prime years.
- Furthermore, knowing the average heart rate is very important. A person's heart rate can notify if a person is in shape, not in shape or is in too much shape. Heart rate plays a major role in physical fitness as well as everyday life. The resting heart rate is the amount of times when the heart beats at complete rest. The average heart rate for children 10 and up to seniors is 60 BPM - 100 BPM. Well-trained athletes have a 40 BPM - 60 BPM. A person is not doing anything beneficial for themselves if they're not monitoring and keeping their target heart rate. Target heart is the least number of times a heart must beat in order to achieve any positive level of fitness. The average target heart rate is 110-180 for children and teens; while, the target heart rate for adults is 90-160. To continue, my experiment is helpful since it can help represent how different ages of people need different amounts of weekly fitness to achieve target heart rates and fitness goals. Essentially, heart rate is an important indicator any aged person's health and fitness.
- Moving on, heart rate plays an important role in biology class. Biology is the study of livings organisms, separated by many special fields. The role of the heart rate is very important in the special field of anatomy or the study of the human body. The human body is divided from many systems from the respiratory system to the muscular system. The heart and its functions play an important role in the cardiovascular system. The cardiovascular system provides nutrients and oxygen, carries away wastes, and helps fight disease. The most important functions of the heart are to carry away CO2 from our cells to our lungs to be exhaled and to carry inhaled oxygen from the lungs to body cells. Since our heart pumps blood 24/7, humans are able to receive a steady source of oxygen even when we are sleeping.
• 3 different aged people with average lifestyles
• Stopwatch
• Treadmill (or area to run)
• Pen and paper (to record)
1. First, record everyone's resting heart.
2. Second, make sure that every person in the group has stretched and feels loose. Proceed to lead them to the treadmill or area to run.
3. Third, make the person run 4mph (on Treadmill) for 10 minutes straight. Immediately, record the person's target heart rate.
4. Next, make the person go back on the treadmill for 5 more minutes at 6 mph to complete the workout.
5. Afterwards, give the person a 5 minute cool down. Record the person's BPM
6. Repeat this process for the two other people
- The results for my experiment were quite predictable. Our resting heart rates all fell into the average categories. However, the target heart rates proved to be the most interesting. My brother achieved a THR of 90 BPM which is below average. Despite the fact that my brother isn't in the best shape it is perfectly normal. Studies have shown that children tend to have lower heartbeats than adults. My THR was below average. I thought that this was a mistake at first since I wasn't near the average. Then I realized I'm below the average THR because of wrestling. In wrestling practice, we condition 6 days a week. Having a low THR is a sign of good fitness. Furthermore, my mom had a THR of 90 BPM, the same as my brother. This is perfectly fine. She fits right into the average THR of adults. To conclude, we see that the average heart rate decreases with the age of the person. However, other factors like lifestyle (sports/fitness) can change a person's heart rate as well.
- In the end, my hypothesis was correct. I successfully proved the correlation between the heart's rate and body function will deteriorate with a person's age. My experiment showed that a young human contains a more efficient and powerful body than that of an average aged person. Furthermore, lifestyle played an important role in deterring the outcome. I used two average people (fitness wise), my mom and brother, and compared them to average studies done over the world. These average studies and my own research worked together to prove how aging can affect a person and his/her body functions over time.
- In the experiment, a child (my brother) had the highest resting heart rate out of all. Despite his physical condition, his heart works harder than all of our hearts. This proves that the heart is more healthier and stronger compared to my mom's heart. His heart's function also proved to be a bit better than my mom and I. Since, blood can pump through easily and quickly through his heart, this proves that his young age and body positively affect his body functions. They allow for a nice and quick transaction of oxygen and oxygen free blood. To make my experiment better, next time I should try and invest on adding more exercises for the people to do and increase the time. These small changes could've been a major effect in my results.
- To conclude, I enjoyed doing this project. Straying away from all the plant related projects was difficult to do, since I barely knew anything else project wise in biology. However, after doing some extensive and interesting research I have concluded that the human anatomy is very interesting. To imagine how one muscle keeps a person alive baffles me. For my project, I had a lot of fun with it. Proving that the heart is affected with increasing age surprised me. I expected the heart and other muscles to grow stronger as we live. Yet, this only occurs if the person continuously trains the muscles to continue growing. However, over time everybody will lose their body functions and ability to do anything in general. Explaining and researching how the heart loses efficiency and function during the continuous process of aging was a blast. Some other studies I could probably do next would be involving some neurological or other body functions topics. Learning how the human body works as it ages would be a lot of fun.
http://www.popsugar.com/fitness/How-Find-Your-Resting-Heart-Rate-What-Your-Resting-Heart-Rate-Means-2892706
http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/PhysicalActivity/FitnessBasics/Target-Heart-Rates_UCM_434341_Article.jsp
http://www.news-medical.net/health/What-is-Heart-Rate.aspx
http://science.nationalgeographic.com/science/health-and-human-body/human-body/heart-article/#close
http://www.webmd.com/healthy-aging/features/normal-aging-changes-and-symptoms
http://www.bodyscapesfitness.com/why-monitoring-your-heart-rate-is-so-important/
http://www.merckmanuals.com/home/heart-and-blood-vessel-disorders/biology-of-the-heart-and-blood-vessels/effects-of-aging-on-the-heart-and-blood-vessels