How to help reduce the risk of heart disease:

Take regular exercise

Eat a balanced diet that is low in fatty foods Don't smoke (smoking can damage the arteries) Avoid too much alcohol

The effects of exercise on the body

When we take some form of exercise, e.g. running 400m, our muscles move more and so need more food and oxygen from the blood.
This causes the following changes to take place in our body:

• Our heart pumps faster so more food and oxygen reaches the muscles.We breath faster to put more oxygen into the blood.
• We sweat to cool us down.

Investigating the effect of exercise on blood circulation The aim of this investigation is to see how various areas of the body, in particular the heart, are affected by heavy exercise.   We first measured the heart rate (pulse) while resting in the class room. We then carried out 5 minutes of vigorous exercise and then measured the heart rate again at 5 minute intervals until the rate dropped back down to normal.  

Results:

  The pulse was either taken at the wrist  (where an artery is near the surface of the body) or the side of the neck just beside the windpipe (trachea).   Conclusion Our results showed us that the heart rate increased rapidly after exercise and then gradually dropped back to normal. This happened because the muscle cells needed more sugar and oxygen. The time taken  for the pulse to drop back to normal is called the recovery period. The sugar and oxygen initially came from the chemicals already in the blood and muscle cells but as they ran out we started to breath faster to replace the oxygen being used up.   We started to sweat to remove the heat energy being generated by the muscles.     

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