ADVANCED

BIOLOGY
Project
Epigenetic and Hypertension

Siriyakorn Wanarat 5861147

 Background Information
Epigenetic is the mechanism for the interactions between the environment and genes
that doesnt affect the changing or modifying the base sequence of the gene. Which means
changing of phenotype, but doesnt affect genotype. The factors that influence the
epigenetic are the age, environment, the way of life and the disease state. Epigenetic can be
used as a treatment of some diseases including cancer, heart disease, diabetes and mental
illness which are the disease that influenced by the epigenetic. Epigenetic can be organized
into three group which are DNA methylation, histone modification, and regulatory RNA. One
of the diseases that is affected by the epigenetic is hypertension.

Hypertension is one of the worlds great public problems. It is a common condition

that occurs when blood against the walls of an artery for a long term. It is a major risk
factor for chronic kidney disease, stroke, and other types of heart disease. It can be
determined by the amount of the blood that is pumped and the amount of resistance of
blood flowing. Furthermore, the size of artery also affects the blood pressure. If the
heart pump more blood and the artery is too narrow then, the blood pressure is going to
be high. Genetics of hypertension is very complicated. The effect of the genes depends on
the environment that affects the blood pressure. Genes elaborated with the renin-
angiotensin-aldosterone system that controls the blood pressure. Moreover, the protein
also regulates the blood pressure.

In Thailand, hypertension is one of the diseases that are the causes of death.
According to Thai Health organization, there are about eleven million Thai people who are
hypertension especially who is over 35 years old. There are about 60 percents of man and
40 percents of woman that dont even notice their conditions of hypertension. There are
two types of hypertension which are primary hypertension and secondary hypertension. The
risk factors of hypertension are age, race, family history, obese, using tobacco, eat to
much salt, lacking potassium and vitamin D, drinking too much alcohol and stress.

If we are in the stressful environment, our body will produce a heave of hormones
that will impact to blood pressure. The heart will beat faster and the blood vessel is going
to be narrower. The human behavior also linked to the stress such as poor sleeping habit.
 Question : How does the sleeping habit affects the stress and blood pressure?
Hypothesis : Good sleeping habit will help in decreasing stress and blood pressure.
Prediction : If people sleeps well, then they have less stress and blood pressure.

Material
1. Sphygmomanometer 2. Heart rate monitor

3. Speaker 4.Electroencephalogram

Experiment
Since, we want to know how the sleeping habits affect the stress and
hypertension so, we separate the environment into six condition which are a dark room, a
room with warm light, a room with bright light, a dark room with classical music, a dark
room with pop music and a narrow dark room. We will find sixty people who have
hypertension with the range of the age between 35-40. So, first, we will collect the data
from them in order to know their sleeping habits. nWe will take them to these conditions.
Ten people for each. The first ten people will sleep in the dark room, no light and no
sound. Next group will sleep in the room that turns on the light and the light is warm. The
third group will sleep in the room that also turns on the light but the light is bright. Then,
the fourth group will sleep in the dark room but in this case, we will play the classical song.
The fifth one is likely to be the same as the fourth condition but, in this case, we will play
the pop song instead and the last one is the dark room that is very narrow. To find how
these conditions affect the stress and hypertension, we have to record their hearts beat,
their blood pressure, and the activities of their brains during each night. We will use the
sphygmomanometer to measure their blood pressure before they sleep, put heart rate
monitor to measure their heart rates on their wrist and the electroencephalogram to
measure their brains activities during each night. After they wake up we will measure their
blood pressure again.
 We will continue doing this for one week. We also have to control their
activity, the food that they eat, and the duration of sleeping in each day in order to be
equal. At the end, we will compare those information that weve recorded and we will
determine what condition is the best way to do and what is the worst way and which
condition affects their blood pressure the most.

Control
- Activity for example watching TV, playing games.
- Types of food
- Duration of sleeping
Implication
In this study, our main aim is to find the way to reduce or prevent the increasing
of blood pressure form the bad sleeping habit. As we know from the background
information, hypertension is a big problem in Thailand and it causes death. I hope that
this study will help in preventing hypertension and influence those people who have a bad
sleeping habit to have a good sleeping habit instead for their health.

Bibliography
Behaviors That Increase Risk for High Blood Pressure. (2014). Retrieved
December 6, 2016, from http://www.cdc.gov/bloodpressure/behavior.html

Epigenetics: Fundamentals. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2016, from http://

www.whatisepigenetics.com/fundamentals/

High blood pressure (hypertension). (2016, September 9). Retrieved December 6,

2016, from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/high-blood-pressure/basics/
causes/con-20019580

Thai Hypertension Society. (n.d.). Retrieved December 6, 2016, from http://

www.thaihypertension.org/guideline.html