The Effects of Exercise on the Blood
'The Effects of Exercise on the Blood' lesson plan kit is part of the Strength in Science project developed in collaboration between researchers, science teachers, PE teachers, fitness instructors, and Junior Cycle students.
In this short video, we meet NUI Galway researcher, Dr. Karen Doyle and Dr Seán Fitzgerald, who explains the science behind how exercise is good for your blood. It includes suggestions for what types are exercise are particularly good for your blood. Also we learn about the latest work in medical devices to support your blood.
How Does Exercise Affect Your Blood?
Your blood is the life source of your body, as it brings oxygen and nutrients to all of your vital organs. In your blood you will find red blood cells, white blood cells, plasma, platelets and cholesterol. Your body needs a certain amount of cholesterol to build your cells, but if you have too much it can build up on the inner walls of your blood vessels and cause what is called a plaque to form.
Plaques can form in blood vessels all over your body, including the ones in your brain. Plaques in blood vessels can signal to your platelets to form a clot which can block the flow of blood. If a clot blocks a blood vessel in your brain, it prevents oxygen and nutrients from fuelling your brain which can result in a stroke.Exercise keeps blood vessels healthy by lowering your blood pressure and cholesterol. Exercise also boosts nitric oxide production by the cells lining the insides of the blood vessels. This keeps the insides of your blood vessels dilated and healthy which prevents blood cells and platelets from attaching and forming clots.
How Are Irish Researchers Developing Treatments for Stroke Patients?
Dr. Karen Doyle and her team at the National University of Ireland Galway are helping to develop new strategies to treat blood clots in stroke patients. The components of blood clots that cause strokes can vary considerably. What a clot is made up of can affect how easily it is removed from a blood vessel in the brain using a surgical procedure called a thrombectomy. Dr. Doyle and her Postdoctoral Researcher, Dr. Seán Fitzgerald, study the composition of blood clots after they have been removed from patients. This research helps clinicians and a local medical device company, Cerenovus, to improve the design of medical devices used to surgically remove clots following a stroke and hopefully improve the outcome for patients.
Demonstration
Before the lesson, prepare a model of the blood in a clear container (that can hold 1 L) using the following recipe. If you would like to use a smaller container (500 mL), just halve all of the ingredients:
- 550 mL of water mixed with a few drops of yellow food colouring (plasma)
- 440 mL of red lentils (red blood cells)
- 6 mini white marshmallows (white blood cells)
- One teaspoon of jumbo oats (platelets)
Explain to the class the following information:
- The yellow liquid is plasma which makes up 55 % of the blood. It is a thick, clear, yellowish liquid that carries dissolved food and wastes.
- The red lentils are red blood cells which make up 44 % of the blood. They carry oxygen and carbon dioxide around the body and are produced in the bone marrow.
- The marshmallows are white blood cells which make up only 0.5 % of the blood. They are bigger than red blood cells and attack germs.
- The oats are platelets which make up 0.5 % of the blood. They are bits of cells that help blood clot.
Platelet Tag
Equipment/Space Needed:
- Large Hall
- Three sashes or scarves for three students to wear to make them distinctive
Instructions:
- Three students are designated as Platelets.
- The Platelets put on the sashes or scarves in order to make themselves known to the other students.
- The teacher says “Ready, steady, go!”
- The Platelets run after the other students and try to tag them.
- The students run around the hall and try not to be tagged by the Platelets
- If a student is tagged by a Platelet, he/she becomes a Platelet.
- The new Platelet links arms with the person who tagged him/her and they form a chain. (This chain is like a clot)
- The chain of Platelets continues to run after the students and tries to tag them.
- The chain of Platelets continues to grow (and the clot gets bigger) as they tag more students.
- The clot with the most number of students is designated as the winners
Stretches:
After the warm-up, get the students to perform dynamic stretches targeting the following muscle groups in preparation for the activities:
- Hamstrings
- Quadriceps
- Gastrocnemius and soleus (calves)
- Deltoids (shoulders)
- Biceps and triceps (upper arms)
- Trapezius (upper back)
- Pectoralis major and minor (chest)
Clot Cone
Equipment/Space Needed:
- Large hall
- 10-12 Footballs
- 10-12 Cones (per team)
- 10-12 Tennis balls (per team)
- Note: There must be the same number of tennis balls as cones.
Preparation:
- Line up 10-12 cones on one side of the width of the hall.
- Line up the other 10-12 cones on the opposite side of the width of the hall.
- The lines of cones are the lining of the blood vessels.
- Put a tennis ball on each cone. The tennis balls are the build-up of clots.
- The footballs are placed in the middle of the hall. The footballs are nitric oxide.
Instructions:
- Students are divided into two teams.
- One team lines up on one side of the hall in front of a line of cones.
- The other team lines up on the opposite side of the hall in front of the other line of cones.
- The teacher says “Ready, steady, go”.
- The students try to knock the tennis balls off the opposing team’s cones by kicking the footballs at them.
- The students also try to put the tennis balls that the opposing team knocked off back on top of their team’s cones.
- The first team to knock all of the tennis balls off the opposing team’s cones at the same time are the winners.
Nitric Oxide Knock-Out
Equipment/Space Needed:
- Large hall
- Note: You can see how the game is set up in the sample YouTube video below.
Instructions:
- The teacher divides the class into teams of 4.
- Three of the students from each team form a triangle by extending their arms and placing their palms on one another’s shoulders.
- The triangle of students is designated as the Clot.
- The remaining student is designated as the Nitric Oxide.
- The Nitric Oxide student identifies one of the students making up the Clot as the person that he/she is going to tag.
- The teacher says “Ready, steady, go!”
- The other two students making up the clot work together to turn the student away to avoid him/her being tagged by the Nitric Oxide.
- The game is played until the Nitric Oxide tags the identified student from the Clot, or a predetermined amount of time is called.
- The students on a team switch roles and the game is played again.
Stretches
Get the students to perform static stretches targeting the following muscle groups that were worked during the activities:
- Hamstrings
- Quadriceps
- Gastrocnemius and soleus (calves)
- Deltoids (shoulders)
- Biceps and triceps (upper arms)
- Trapezius (upper back)
- Pectoralis major and minor (chest)
Facts about Cardiovascular Diseases and MedTech in Ireland
- Ireland is the second largest exporter of MedTech products in Europe.
- Ireland’s MedTech sector employs 29,000 people across 450 companies.
- Ireland has the highest number of people working in the MedTech industry than in any other European country, per head of population.
- 13 of the top 15 MedTech companies have operations in Ireland.
- Galway employs one third of the country’s MedTech employees.
Each year, approximately 10,000 Irish people have a stroke with around 2,000 dying from the illness. This is more deaths than breast cancer, prostate cancer and bowel cancer combined. Stroke can happen at any age and one third of strokes happen in people under sixty-five years of age.
Strokes can be treated via thrombolysis which uses medicine to try and dissolve a blood clot in order to return the blood supply to the brain. Another treatment option is a thrombectomy, a radiologically guided procedure where doctors use a mesh device to physically remove the clot. The Galway-based company, Cerenovus, has designed the EMBOTRAP II Device to remove blood clots and restore blood flow in the brain. To see an animation on how the device works, visit:
https://players.brightcove.net/5716634431001/default_default/index.html?videoId=5789667625001
Students will:
- Watch a video discussing:
- The different components of the blood.
- How a clot forms in the blood and prevents the supply of oxygen and nutrients to tissues.
- Current Irish research in treating diseases caused by clots formed in the blood.
- How exercise prevents the formation of clots forming in the blood.
- Perform exercises to keep their blood healthy.
Students should be able to:
- Make appropriate responses (relative to her/his own ability) to the particular problems posed by a game.
- Gain experience of various degrees of competitive play.
- Display an understanding of the dynamics of team efficiency.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the effects of exercise on the body.
- Show an understanding of the role of physical activity in establishing and maintaining health.
- Plan for and participate in regular physical activity.
- Know the different components of the blood.
- Understand the functions of white blood cells, red blood cells, platelets, plasma, and cholesterol.
- Understand how a clot forms in the blood.
- Know one of the causes of a stroke – a clot blocking a blood vessel in the brain.
- Understand how exercise can prevent a stroke through the release of nitric oxide which prevents clot formation.
Curriculum Links:
| Junior Cycle Science |
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Junior Cycle Short Course in Physical Education (2016) |
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Junior Cycle Syllabus in Physical Education (2003) |
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