Caffeine Effect On Teens Blood Pressure

1. Caffeine Effect On Teens Blood Pressure WORCESTER TECH SCIENCE CLASS

2. 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???

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

4. Objectives • I 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 ?????

5. Materials • Blood pressure kit • Stethoscope • Coca Cola cans • Alcohol wipes • Camera • Participants (volunteers) • Clock • Images of DNA molecule • Images of caffeine molecules

6. Terminology • Caffeine • Hypertension • Hypotension • Diastolic • Systolic • DNA Deoxyribonucleic Acid • Nucleotides( A= T; G=C ) • Adenine A • Guanine G • Cytosine C • Thymine T

7. Caffeine’s molecule

8. DNA molecule

9. Procedures • Parents’ 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 data • Compare DNA molecule and caffeine molecule. • Draw a conclusion.

10. Measuring blood pressure before

11. Measuring blood pressure after

13. G • Data of blood pressure of 10 most affected participants

14. Observation • Overall, 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.

15. Expected Conclusion • Everybody’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)

16. 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 areappreciative 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.