Cardiovascular System Flashcards
(21 cards)
What is the cardiovascular system?
The cardiovascular system consists of the heart and blood vessels circulating throughout the body, delivering water, oxygen and nutrients to cells, and removing waste products such as carbon dioxide.
What are the 5 functions of the cardiovascular system?
- Circulates blood to all parts of the body
- Transports water, oxygen and nutrients to the cells
- Transports waste including carbon dioxide away from the cells
- Helps maintain correct body temperature
- Helps fight disease through white blood cells and antibodies contained in the blood.
What are the 4 blood components and their functions?
Red blood cells: Transport oxygen around the body
White blood cells: Protects the body against disease
Platelet: Causes blood to clot
Plasma: Carries blood cells around the body and provides the body with proteins, fats, salts, and more.
What are the 3 blood vessels and what are their structure and functions?
Artery: Large, thick elastic wall. Carries blood away from the heart
Capillary: Small, thin wall. Site of exchange for nutrients and wastes between cells and cardiovascular system
Vein: Thin, large diameter, carries blood back to heart
What do arteries do?
Carry oxygen rich blood away from the heart to the body. Artery walls are elastic to expand with each heartbeat to accommodate large volumes of blood.
What do capillaries do?
The site for exchange of nutrients and waste products. When you begin to exercise, capillaries undergo vasodilation, widening in diameter to allow the blood flow required during exercise.
What do veins do?
Veins are blood vessels that carry deoxygenated blood and waste products from the body’s cells back to the heart.
What is venous pooling?
The collection of blood in the legs veins when high intensity activity stops suddenly. (Calf muscle)
During a cool down, the muscle pump system continues to move the gradually diminishing excess blood flow around the body until it has reacted resting levels.
What is thermoregulation?
Maintenance of body temperature and the heat exchange that occurs between the body and the environment.
What are the factors that influence the body’s core temperature during exercise?
- Muscle use and energy production
- Increased blood flow around the body
- Changes in the environmental conditions such as heat and humidity
What are some optimal functions of the body during exercise?
- Sweating
- Shivering
- Controlling blood flow to the skin and around the body
What is vasoconstriction?
The cardiovascular system will restrict blood flow to the skin and redirect it to the interna organs, decreasing heat loss. The blood vessels reduce in size or contract, and this process is known as vasoconstriction.
What is vasodilation?
The cardiovascular system will automatically direct more blood flow through the vessels to the skin surface in an attempt to cool down the body via increasing sweat and heat loss to the external environment. The blood vessels expand or dilate to allow this increased blood flow, and this process is called vasodilation.
What happens to thermoregulation during exercise?
During exercise, both vasodilation and vasoconstriction can reduce blood flow to working muscles, either through redirection of blood to the skin for heat loss or to the internal organs to maintain heat. This can ultimately affect the athlete’s energy production. This often results in the athlete being unable to perform at their desired level.
What is increased Heart Rate?
Heart rate refers to the number of times your heart beats per minute. Average resting heart rate is 72bpm and beyond 200bpm at maximal intensities. This increases linearly when doing physical activity, as exercise intensity increases so does HR.
What is increased Stroke Volume?
Stroke volume is the amount of blood ejected from the left ventricle with each heart beat. Measured in mL/beat. During exercise stroke volume increases to allow more oxygen to be delivered to the working muscles to create energy. SV increases with exercise intensity, but only to a certain point. When the heart beats rapidly, there is shorter filling time for the ventricles because it doesn’t have enough time to fill up with blood during each beat.
What is Cardiac Output?
Cardiac output is the amount of blood ejected from the left ventricle of the heart per minute.
(SV x HR)
Measured in L/m. Increases same as SV and HR with exercise intensity. As the individual transitions from rest to exercise, both heart rate and stroke volume increase.
What is increased systolic blood pressure?
Systolic blood pressure recorded as blood is ejected during the contraction phase of the heart cycle. This is due to the fact that stroke volume, cardiac and heart rate increases, and the fact that blood is being pumped more forcefully into the arteries.
What is blood flow redistribution?
During exercise, blood flow is redistributed to the working muscles and away from those areas of the body that are less needed for the activity, such as the gut and kidneys. This is helped by vasodilation and vasoconstriction.
What is Increased Arteriovenous Oxygen difference?
The difference between the concentration of oxygen in the arterial blood and the concentration of oxygen in the blood veins. During exercise, the working muscles demand more oxygen for energy production, so the arterial blood will have more oxygen extracted by the working muscles than when they are at rest.
