In Science last week we looked at how certain dietary and lifestyle choices can affect the circulatory system. We spoke about how making healthy choices can promote a healthy mind as well as a healthy body and we spoke about the negative effects of a poor diet, smoking, drinking alcohol or taking drugs.
We learned that certain choices impact our arteries and stop them from functioning how they should: poor diet or drinking too much alcohol clogs them with plaque; smoking or taking drugs makes the artery lining stickier so that platelets clot when we don’t need them to; smoking also constricts the blood vessels so that blood can’t flow as freely; and some drugs can make the heart beat too fast or slow.
To demonstrate how clogged, sticky or constricted arteries impede blood flow, we conducted an experiment. This clearly showed that a wider artery let blood flow quicker. More blood-flow means we can get all the oxygenated blood that our body needs to work properly. 🙂
