Diseases and ConditionsBlood Pressure › How does the body maintain normal blood pressure?

The body has mechanisms to alter or maintain blood pressure and the flow of blood. There are sensors in the walls of the arteries and heart that sense blood pressure. These sensors are called baroreceptors. Baroreceptors sense blood pressure and then send signals to the heart, the arterioles, the veins, and the kidneys that cause them to make changes that lower or increase blood pressure. There are several ways in which blood pressure can be adjusted--by adjusting the amount of blood pumped by the heart into the arteries (cardiac output), the amount of blood contained in the veins, the arteriolar resistance, and the volume of blood.

The heart can speed up and contract more frequently, and it can eject more blood with each contraction. Both of these responses increase the flow of blood into the arteries and increase blood pressure.
The veins can expand and narrow. When veins expand, more blood can be stored in the veins and less blood returns to the heart for pumping into the arteries. As a result, the heart pumps less blood, and blood pressure is lower. On the other hand, when veins narrow, less blood is stored in the veins, more blood returns to the heart for pumping into the arteries, and, therefore, the heart pumps more blood and blood pressure is higher.


The arterioles can expand and narrow. Expanded arterioles create less resistance to the flow of blood and decrease blood pressure while narrowed arterioles create more resistance and raise blood pressure.


The kidney can respond to changes in blood pressure by increasing or decreasing the amount of urine that is produced. Urine is primarily water that is removed from the blood so that when the kidney makes more urine, the amount (volume) of blood that fills the arteries and veins decreases, and this lowers blood pressure. If the kidneys make less urine, the amount of blood that fills the arteries and veins increases and this increases blood pressure.

 

Compared with the other mechanisms for adjusting blood pressure, changes in the production of urine affect blood pressure slowly over hours and days. (The other mechanisms are effective in seconds.)
For example, low blood volume due to bleeding into the intestine can cause low blood pressure. The body quickly responds to the low blood volume and pressure by the following adjustments which all increase blood pressure:

The heart rate increases and the forcefulness of the heart’s contractions increase, thus more blood is pumped through the heart.
Veins narrow to return more blood to the heart for pumping.
Blood flow to the kidneys decrease to reduce the formation of urine, and increase the volume of blood in the arteries and veins.
Arterioles narrow to increase resistance to blood flow
These adaptive responses will keep the blood pressure in the normal range unless blood loss becomes so severe and protracted that the responses are overwhelmed.

Article Source:http://medicinenet.com

Article By: Dennis Lee, MD

Views: 19654
Comments On How does the body maintain normal blood pressure? (1)

patience johnsonThursday, February 26, 2009

from your article i have known how to reduce my blood pressure but need more information on how to lower it further

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