Blood Pressure

You learned how to record a person's blood pressure in lab (or at least you re-learned how). Now it is time for you to get a more thorough understanding of what blood pressure is, how it may change, and how we control it.

Keep in mind that blood pressure is a measure of how hard the blood is pushing to move through a blood vessel. Our blood vessels have to be able to endure the pressure the blood puts on them, or they would burst!

Here you will go over arterial and venous blood pressures. Then you will learn about different factors that influence a person's blood pressure. These "factors" are simply ideas you need to understand how blood pressure might change. These are also described in the Marieb Interactive Physiology CD. Last, you will go through the web page on controlling blood pressure.

As you progress through these pages, I will try to point out what it is about having high blood pressure that is so unhealthy... but you need more information before we can discuss that. So, read on!