Abstract: When a person undergoes heightened physical or mental duress, in the form of either

exercise or increased stress, then the body responds by elevating the amount of oxygen that
vital organs, such as the brain, and muscles receive. It does so by increasing the cardiac output
of the heart, which essentially means the volume of blood that each ventricle pumps, and by
causing the blood vessels to contract, decreasing the amount of time it takes to transport
oxygen from the lungs to the cells. The subsequent results of these processes is an increased
blood pressure, which poses health risks to an individual, and these harms are negated by
processes in the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, which are part of
homeostasis. Homeostasis regulates blood pressure by down-regulating the production of
certain hormones such as epinephrine and noradrenaline and increasing the activity of the
parasympathetic nervous system. This can be demonstrated in an experiment in which
participants partake in exercises such as 100m sprints and 400m runs to increase their blood
pressure, and then rest.

Introduction: In a fight-or-flight situation, the body typically has two options. Both require an
increased amount of oxygen to vital organs, such as the brain and muscles, which is why blood
pressure temporarily increases. Within the arterial walls, baroreceptors monitor the pressure
exerted on the walls of the blood vessels, and when the arteries and veins stretch, it stimulates
the baroreceptors. These receptors then send responses via the nerves to the cardioregulatory
center of the medulla, which brings blood pressure back to a normal level. To lower blood
pressure, sympathetic input has to decrease and parasympathetic input has to increase.
Sympathetic input causes the heart to pump faster and with more force because of the secretion
of adrenaline and norepinephrine, which bind to the 1 and
2 adrenergic receptors that either
increase the cardiac output, the amount of blood pumped by the heart, or cause the blood
vessels to contract, allowing blood, and oxygen, to be delivered quickly to vital organs
respectively. An increase in sympathetic input is dictated by the sympathetic nervous system,
and after the situation has been addressed, the secretion of the catecholamines decreases
significantly. The parasympathetic nervous system, on the other hand, secretes the hormone
acetylcholine, which stimulates a response in two major muscarinic receptors, M2 and M3. What
M2 does is slow down the heart rate and decrease the amount of force that the atrium exerts,
subsequently decreasing the volume of blood flowing through the vessels. The M3 receptor
causes endothelial cells of the blood vessels to produce nitrous oxide, which in turn causes the
arteries and veins to dilate, reducing blood pressure. For our test, we chose to make our test
subjects run 100 meter sprints and jog 400 meters.. We decided that this would cause the most
dramatic jump in blood pressure. This test relates to homeostasis because it incites a bodily
response, manifesting itself in the spike in blood pressure, and the body naturally tries to bring
the blood pressure down after recognizing that the blood pressure has reached high levels,
which demonstrates homeostasis. We hypothesize that within a minimum of five minutes, the
body will begin to demonstrate homeostasis in the form of gradually reducing the participants
blood pressure.

Procedures:
Steps:
Use blood pressure monitor to read the test subjects normal blood pressure
Have subjects 1, 2, and 3 run 100m sprints. Then record BP.
After 5 minute cool down, measure BP.
Repeat process with 400m.
Record the data from the blood pressure monitor on a Google Sheets spreadsheets

Materials and Methods: For our methods, we made our subjects first run a 100m sprint. We took
their blood pressure before the sprint to provide us with a baseline, and then we took the
pressure once again immediately after every run. We did this to see if homeostasis occurs after
a cool down in our subjects, and lastly we took there blood pressure 5 minutes after the run to
ensure if homeostasis occurred. We repeated this process again for the 400m run

Participants-
Participant 1 is a 15-year old male, 170.12 cm tall and 48.9 kg.
Participant 2 is a 15-year old male, 174.01 cm tall and 77.12 kg.
Participant 3 is a 15 year old male, 175.26 cm tall and 58.96 kg.
Participants were asked regarding previous health conditions such as hyper- or hypotension,
and metabolic afflictions, or cardiovascular diseases as to prevent any aberrations within our
results.

Results: The blood pressure of each participant was taken at the start of the experiment, after
running a 100 meter dash, and after a five minute cool down. The experiment was then
repeated for a 400 meter run. The data from all our participants is shown in graph 4. Each
participants blood pressure spiked after they ran. After a five minute cool down, everyones
blood pressure fell back near their initial value. Participant 1s data is shown in graph 1. He
started with a blood pressure of 130/72. After the first sprint, it went up to 138/85, and it
decreased to 129/71 after the cool down. After the 400 meter, his blood pressure went up to
143/87, and then it went back to 125/75. This participants systolic pressure was high and his
diastolic pressure was slightly low, but these numbers were consistent. Participant 2s data is
shown on graph 2. His initial blood pressure was 134/73. It spiked to 150/87 after the first run
and 153/89 after the second run, and it went back to within four points of the initial blood
pressure after the cool downs. Participant 3s data is shown on graph 3. This participant has low
blood pressure, but it was consistent and still showed homeostasis. His initial blood pressure
was 119/71. It went up to 134/76 after the first run and 120/85 after the second run. It went back
down to 118/72 after the first cool down and 116/74 after the second one. This data shows
homeostasis because each participants blood pressure returned to approximately their initial
value. Our hypothesis was that within a minimum of five minutes, the body will begin to
demonstrate homeostasis in the form of gradually reducing the participants blood pressure.
This data proves our hypothesis because each participants blood pressure returned to normal
after only five minutes, which was the minimum amount of time specified by our hypothesis.

Graph 1: Graph 2: Graph 3

Graph 4:

Discussion/ Conclusion: The study and the individual experiments demonstrate that the body
has internal mechanisms and processes that allow certain organs and bodily processes to retain
to an equilibrium. As cardiac output increased, paired with the contraction of blood vessels, so
did the blood pressure of the participant, and after providing the runners with five minutes of
rest, the blood pressure had regressed to a value similar to that of their initial blood pressure.
Our data was able to prove our hypothesis in that it is clearly shown that once an individual is
removed from a fight or flight scenario, their body responds by decreasing the amount of
adrenaline and norepinephrine that bond with the adrenergic beta receptors and increasing the
amount of acetylcholine secreted by postganglionic neurons, reducing blood pressure. The
collection of data was slightly turbulent, since the BP recorder was slightly inconsistent, but this
problem was able to be solved by taking the participants blood pressure multiple times. The
initial participants also misconstrued the data by interfering with the BP machines recording
process, so that preliminary set of data had to be discarded. On the other hand, the data clearly
showed that spontaneous running resulted in an elevated blood pressure consistently across all
three of the participants, and subsequently demonstrated the application of homeostatic
processes by showing a decrease of blood pressure after five minutes rest. The tests could
have been augmented by adding additional participants of different heights and weights to gain
a more extensive understanding of how homeostasis can differ within others. It could also have
been enhanced by auxiliary tests using other means, such as fear or apprehension, to show
other means of increasing blood pressure and that homeostasis is unaffected by the factors that
caused the imbalance.

Works Cited

"Sympathetic Nervous System." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, n.d. Web. 18 Nov. 2016.

Gillaspy, Rebecca. "Regulation of Blood Pressure: Short Term Regulation & Baroreceptors."
Study.com. Web. 09 Nov. 2016

"Parasympathetic Nervous System." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 09 Nov. 2016.

Special thanks to Jeffrey Suter and Augi Soto for being test subjects for our experiment. We
would also like to thank Ms. Mathews, San Marin High School, and the Stem Marin program for
providing us with the opportunity to conduct this experiment.

https://prezi.com/wmccy1sjth_0/edit/#0: link to presentation