Caffeine Effect On Teens Blood Pressure

WORCESTER TECH SCIENCE CLASS

What seems to be a problem Teenagers caffeine addiction is a rising

issue.More teenagers are consuming caffeine

dealing with stress and sleep prevention. Caffeine may cause short or long term

hypertension (high blood pressure) that can damage of blood vessels.

There are some unproven concerns regarding caffeine causing DNA mutation???

Hypothesis Caffeine increases the teenager’s short term blood pressure ?

ObjectivesI wanted to know if caffeine has any

effect on teenagers’ blood pressure. Can caffeine replace DNA

nucleotides??? The Chemical molecule of caffeine is very

similar to DNA and caffeine may replace DNA causing mutations ?????

MaterialsBlood pressure kitStethoscopeCoca Cola cansAlcohol wipesCamera Participants (volunteers)ClockImages of DNA moleculeImages of caffeine molecules

CaffeineHypertensionHypotensionDiastolic Systolic DNA Deoxyribonucleic AcidNucleotides( A= T; G=C )Adenine AGuanine GCytosine CThymine T

Terminology

Caffeine’s molecule

DNA molecule

ProceduresParents’ permission slips for student

participants.Measure student’s blood pressure before

consumption of a single Coca Cola can.Participants consume only one Coca Cola

can per day.Measure the blood pressure after 30

minutes and 60 minutes of consumption of all fifty participants.

Do analysis with gathered dataCompare DNA molecule and caffeine

molecule. Draw a conclusion.

Measuring blood pressure before

Measuring blood pressure after

Name of Participates

Before Drinks

After 30 Minutes

After 60 Minutes

Participant #1

95/70 100/80 100/76

Participant #2

100/70 110/75 100/50

Participant #3

110/60 120/75 106/82

Participant #4

110/60 110/80 120/90

Participant #5

110/70 110/65 100/76

Participant #6

110/70 110/70 100/60

Participant #7

110/80 120/60 120/70

Participant #8

120/60 108/68 120/70

Participant #9

120/77 118/70 110/50

Participant #10

120/78 123/70 110/80

GData of blood pressure of 10 most affected participants Diastolic

Systolic

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

140

Before Drinks

30 minutes after

60 minutes after

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

ObservationOverall, ten students out of 47 or 21 % of participants resulted

in a increase of blood pressure by ten degrees after consuming a single coca cola within 30 or 60 minutes.

Two out of 47 participants or 4% resulted in a increase of blood pressure after 30 minutes drinking a single can of Coca Cola.

After 60 minutes 2 out of 47 or 4% of participants had anther increase of blood pressure compared with 30 minutes ago.

Some participates blood pressure after 30 minutes would go up and after 60 minutes it would actually go back down.

For some participants, there was a very small fluctuation of blood pressure resulting in either increase or decrease of blood pressure.

Four out 47 or 8.5 % of participants resulted to have no effect on caffeine in blood pressure after they drank the Coca Cola can.

Three out of 47 0r 6.4% participants acted as control (no consumption of coca cola) and there was no changes on blood pressure after 30 and 60 minutes.

Expected ConclusionEverybody’s organism works in a different way

dealing with caffeine.Overall, at least 25 % of participants had a short

term increase of blood pressure after 30 – 60 minutes of consumption of a single coca cola can.

More tests are required to determine if caffeine has a long term effect in hypertension.

8.5 % of tested students can actually handle caffeine and their blood pressure did not fluctuate.

More research is needed to determine if caffeine can replace DNA nucleotides because of similarities of both molecules.(future research)

Acknowledgment We are thankful to my science advisor, Mr.

Guri Dura, for helping throughout of this project providing science materials, time, and problem solving.

We are appreciative to all my classmates who volunteered in completion of this project and their parents who granted permissions for tested participants.

We are graceful to my family for their encouragement and support in completion of this project.