The Effect of soda on Blood

Pressure
-Caleb Melton1. Introduction
Purpose:
To determine whether or not drinking
soda affects blood pressure.
Questions/Research:
. How much blood pressure is normal?
The following is by Dr. Mercola.
According to the most recent report (issued 2003)
by the Joint National Committee (JNC) on Prevention,
Detection, Evaluation and Treatment of High Blood
Pressure, the following guidelines apply for
determining whether you might suffer from
hypertension:
Systolic pressure is the highest pressure, in your
arteries and occurs when your ventricles contract at
the beginning of your cardiac cycle
Diastolic pressure refers to the lowest arterial

pressure, and occurs during the resting phase of your

cardiac cycle.
Blood Pressure Classification
Normal- 120 and 80
Pre-hypertension 120-138 or 80-89
Stage 1 hypertension- 140-159 or 90-99
Stage 2 hypertension- 160 and 100

Who created the first soda?

In 1767 a man named Dr. Joseph Priestly created the
first drinkable glass of carbonated water. Three years
later, a Swedish chemist, Torbern Bergman, invented
a generating apparatus which could make
carbonated water from chalk using sulfuric acid.
Torberns apparatus allowed the imitation of mineral
water to be produced in large amounts.

When does your blood pressure raise after soda

intake?
Dr. Mercola,
Within 40 minutes of drinking soda caffeine
absorption is complete; your pupils dilate, your blood
pressure rises, and your liver dumps more sugar into
your bloodstream.

. What is in soda to make it affect your

blood pressure, for good or for worse?
Non-diet Soda usually has a lot of sodium which can
increase blood pressure, and sugar that can increase
levels of hormones called catecholamines, which can
also raise blood pressure. One more possibility is
high fructose corn syrup, which increases uric acid
levels in your body causing an increase in blood
pressure. The answer is simply, there is no, one,
correct answer.

. Does soda have anything good for you

in it?
Sodas, even those that contain vitamins and
minerals, are truly not natural or healthy.
"It is ridiculous to market soft drinks as healthy, but
in todays marketplace consumers are demanding
more healthy looking food, and beverages and soft
drink manufacturers need to boost sales," said
Marion Nestle, a New York University nutrition
professor and author of What to Eat. Most
consumers do not need the extra vitamins found in
fortified soft drinks, she adds.

Why do people drink soda?

16 reasons:
Its Very tasty
The taste can be addictive.
Its Everywhere
Soda is displayed in a lot of places like stores, fast
food restaurants, supermarket, etc.
Convenience, Grab n-Go
Its nearly everywhere so its quite convenient in a
hurry.
Promotion and advertising
Soda is advertised everywhere like T.V, stores, gas
stations, even schools!
Soda habit
For some people once theyve started they cant stop
out of habit.
It is cheap
Soda is pretty cheap compared to other drinks and
can come with combinations at meals.
Thirst
When people get thirsty they drink soda to quench
thirst.
Caffeine Addiction
Most sodas contain caffeine which is mildly addictive.

2. Methods
Materials:

5 Coca-Cola bottles (16 oz.)

Stethoscope
Sphygmomanometer
Watch/Clock
Science Notebook

Procedure:
In my experiment my control is what my blood
pressure is before I start. I shall be testing my
hypothesis by drinking 16oz. of caffeinated soda
each day and recording my blood pressure.
For 5 days I will not drink any soda. My blood
pressure will be recorded everyday at 12:00pm. On
the first day of the experiment I will continue to
record my blood pressure at the same time every day
prior to the soda intake, for another 5 days. After
drinking the soda I will take a reading every 10
minutes until I see a rise in blood pressure. Each day
I will continue the same process to achieve accurate
data. During this experiment I will be recording the
amount of soda I drank and my blood pressure
numbers, in my scientific notebook.

3. Results
Chart:

Amount of
Soda (oz.)

Trial 1

Trial 2

Trial 3

Trial 4

Trial 5

0 oz. (control)

96/72

102/70 98/70

16 oz.

105/7
4

104/72 106/72 108/74 104/70 100110/7074

100/70 94/70

Graph:

Observations:

Average
(mmHg)
90100/70

(0 oz.) Test 1-5: No major rises in

normal blood pressure.
(16 oz.) Test 1-5: Maintained rise in
soda induced blood pressure.

4. Discussion
The purpose of this experiment was to
determine whether or not drinking soda affects
blood pressure. The hypothesis stated for this
experiment was the following If I intake soda
for five days, my blood pressure will raise
accordingly. To start the experiment,
measurements of normal blood pressure were
taken for five days. The blood pressure status
of those five days was regular, kept between a
94-102 systolic and a constant 68-72 diastolic.
After the five days of normal BP measurements
it was time to start five of soda induced BP. For
another five days measurements for soda
induced BP were taken. The data collected
from these measurements showed a increase
in both systolic and diastolic blood pressure.
The data recorded ranged from 104-108

systolic and 10-74 diastolic. Therefore, the

hypothesis proved correct.
To interpret the data collected from this
experiment previous research must be reexamined. When soda intake occurs, it takes
40 minutes for blood pressure to rise due to
the liver dumping more sugar into the
bloodstream. The probable causes for this
effect are sodium and sugar which both can
increase levels of hormones that raise BP.
Another cause is high fructose corn syrup,
which increases uric acid levels that raise BP as
well. These ingredients stated are usually
found in most (if not all) types of sodas.
Errors noted in experiment:
An accidental rise in blood pressure occurred
on 2-3 of the tests due to physical exercise
(running upstairs) and frustration before
measurements were taken.
On some tests the sphygmomanometer would
be inflated but the stethoscope would be
forgotten thus having to restart the test.
The Sphygmomanometer would be wrongly
placed, prohibiting accurate measurements
thus causing a restart of the test.

Conclusion:
The blood pressure observed and
measured increased each time soda
intake occurred. This effect was to the
ingredients in soda that caused BP to
rise. To further better this experiment
suggestions would include that one
should be in a peaceful environment
when taking measurements in order to
not alter data.
Potential experiment question- How
much would your blood pressure raise
is you increased the amount of tests
and soda intake?