Blood Flow during Rest and Exercise
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Blood Flow during Rest and Exercise
The flow of blood is how blood from the arteries moves through the veins, capillaries, and veins. As blood moves through these blood vessels, it exerts pressure that aids in its movement. The flow of blood throughout the body helps in availing the cells of the body with oxygen in the form of hemoglobin and removing the carbon dioxide via the respiratory cells and tissues. The flow of blood throughout the body involves several processes. The heart is the main regulatory organ responsible for the flow of blood in the body cells. Blood into the heart comes through two main vessels; vena cava and pulmonary artery. The aorta and pulmonary vein execute blood out of the heart. In this paper, I will discuss how the blood flows during the rest and in exercise.
To start with, during exercise, the flow of blood is faster and in high pressure. During training, someone spends a lot of energy, which implies a lot of respiration(Teixeira et al., 2018). In the skeletal muscles, two types of respiration occur; aerobic and anaerobic respiration. Glucose and carbohydrates must be broken down to yield this energy(Teixeira et al., 2018). This oxygen in the blood acts as a catalyst for the breakdown of glucose and carbohydrates(Toweyet al., 2017). During this process, the blood is obligated to transfer oxygen to these respiratory tissues faster to avoid its shortage. The flow of blood under high pressure is facilitated by the heart(Toweyet al., 2017). During exercise, the lung capacity increases, and consequently, the breathing rate increases to cope with the demand of oxygen into the body and remove carbon dioxide from the body(Toweyet al., 2017). The auricles and ventricles of the heart contracts and relax rapidly to pump blood out of the heart to the highly respiring tissues(Toweyet al., 2017). The blood vessels constrict and decrease in volume to make the blood flow faster and in high pressure(Teixeira et al., 2018). This explains why the blood flows in high pressure and more quickly during exercise.
Conversely, during rest, oxygen is needed for respiration. At this time, the respiratory tissue still requires oxygen to carry out their chemical reactions to survive(Toweyet al., 2017). During rest, breathing rate is average, the lungs are in their average size, and blood flow into and out of the heart is still normal since there is no high demand for oxygen to the respiratory tissues(Toweyet al., 2017). The heart’s valves regulate blood flow in and out of the heart(Teixeira et al., 2018). The closing and opening of the valves trigger the pulsing of the flow of blood to the heart. Blood from the lungs enters the heart through auricles into the ventricles. During this time, the heart volume is increased to receive oxygenated blood from the lungs(Teixeira et al., 2018). After the blood enters the heart, the atrial-ventricular valves open, allowing the blood to flow into the ventricles(Toweyet al., 2017). To pump this blood out of the heart, the ventricle muscles contract exerting pressure on the valves, making them open and permits blood to flow to the blood vessels through the auricles(Teixeira et al., 2018). Consequently, the blood vessels dilate to increase their volume and reduces the pressure in the flow of the blood.
Generally, there is a high oxygen demand during exercise, which must be guaranteed by the fastest flow of blood to provide oxygen in the respiratory tissues. On the other hand, blood flow is just normal since there is no high demand for oxygen in the respiratory tissues.
References
Teixeira, E. L., Barroso, R., Silva‐Batista, C., Laurentino, G. C., Loenneke, J. P., Roschel, H., &Tricoli, V. (2018). Blood flow restriction increases metabolic stress but decreases muscle activation during high‐load resistance exercise. Muscle & Nerve, 57(1), 107-111.
Towey, C., Easton, C., Simpson, R., &Pedlar, C. (2017). Conventional and novel body temperature measurement during rest and exercise-induced hyperthermia. Journal of thermal biology, 63, 124-130.