BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST SCHOOL

TORTOLA, BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS

A Project
Done as CXC School Based Assessment
Prepared in Partial Fulfillment
For the Requirements of the Course:

English A

Teacher: ​Ms. Ann-Marie John

Presented by:
Dillon Smith

Year: 2020
 Table Of Contents:
Plan Of Investigation Pg 3

Artifact#1 Pg 4-6

Artifact#2 Pg 7-8

Artifact#3 Pg 9-10

Written Report: Pg 11

Reflection 1&2 Pg 12-

 Plan of Investigation
The topic I chose for my SBA is “how hypertension affects the body” I am interested in this
topic because a lot of people are living with high blood pressure and don’t even know it. I plan to
investigate the different way hypertension affects the body.
As an English student I expect to improve my writing and my reading comprehension skills. I
also plan to improve my knowledge on how hypertension affects the body.
I plan to browse the internet for articles, documents and videos on how hypertension affects the
body.
Artifact#1
High blood pressure (hypertension) can quietly damage your body for years before symptoms
develop. Uncontrolled high blood pressure can lead to disability, a poor quality of life, or even a
fatal heart attack or stroke.

Treatment and lifestyle changes can help control your high blood pressure to reduce your risk of
life-threatening complications.

Here's a look at the complications uncontrolled high blood pressure can cause.

Damage to your arteries

Healthy arteries are flexible, strong and elastic. Their inner lining is smooth so that blood flows
freely, supplying vital organs and tissues with nutrients and oxygen.

Hypertension gradually increases the pressure of blood flowing through your arteries. As a
result, you might have:

● Damaged and narrowed arteries.​ High blood pressure can damage the cells of your
arteries' inner lining. When fats from your diet enter your bloodstream, they can
collect in the damaged arteries. Eventually, your artery walls become less elastic,
limiting blood flow throughout your body.
● Aneurysm.​ Over time, the constant pressure of blood moving through a weakened
artery can cause a section of its wall to enlarge and form a bulge (aneurysm). An
aneurysm can potentially rupture and cause life-threatening internal bleeding.
Aneurysms can form in any artery, but they're most common in your body's largest
artery (aorta).

Damage to your heart

High blood pressure can cause many problems for your heart, including:

● Coronary artery disease.​ Arteries narrowed and damaged by high blood pressure
have trouble supplying blood to your heart. When blood can't flow freely to your
heart, you can have chest pain (angina), irregular heart rhythms (arrhythmias) or a
heart attack.
● Enlarged left heart.​ High blood pressure forces your heart to work harder to pump
blood to the rest of your body. This causes part of your heart (left ventricle) to
thicken. A thickened left ventricle increases your risk of heart attack, heart failure and
sudden cardiac death.
 ● Heart failure.​ Over time, the strain on your heart caused by high blood pressure can
cause the heart muscle to weaken and work less efficiently. Eventually, your
overwhelmed heart begins to fail. Damage from heart attacks adds to this problem

Damage to your kidneys

Kidneys filter excess fluid and waste from your blood — a process that requires healthy blood
vessels. High blood pressure can damage the blood vessels in and leading to your kidneys.
Having diabetes in addition to high blood pressure can worsen the damage.

Kidney problems caused by high blood pressure include:

● Kidney scarring (glomerulosclerosis). This type of kidney damage occurs when tiny
blood vessels within the kidney become scarred and unable to effectively filter fluid
and waste from your blood. Glomerulosclerosis can lead to kidney failure.
● Kidney failure. High blood pressure is one of the most common causes of kidney
failure. Damaged blood vessels prevent kidneys from effectively filtering waste from
your blood, allowing dangerous levels of fluid and waste to accumulate. You might
ultimately require dialysis or kidney transplantation.

High blood pressure emergencies

High blood pressure is usually a chronic condition that gradually causes damage over the years.
But sometimes blood pressure rises so quickly and severely that it becomes a medical emergency
requiring immediate treatment, often with hospitalization.

In these situations, high blood pressure can cause:

● Memory loss, personality changes, trouble concentrating, irritability or progressive

loss of consciousness
● Stroke
● Severe damage to your body's main artery (aortic dissection)
● Chest pain
● Heart attack
● Sudden impaired pumping of the heart, leading to fluid backup in the lungs resulting
in shortness of breath (pulmonary edema)
● Sudden loss of kidney function
● Complications in pregnancy (preeclampsia or eclampsia)
● Blindness
Artifact#2

Hypertension or high blood pressure​is known as the silent killer because in the majority of
cases, there are very few or no symptoms during the initial stages of disease. Symptoms may
appear when there is organ damage or the pressure has reached a very high level, of around
180/110 mm of Hg.

Some of the symptoms of hypertension or high blood pressure include:

● Headache - Some people with high blood pressure may experience headaches, but
headaches often don't occur unless the pressure is significantly raised.
● Pain in the back of the neck
● Flushing and feeling hot
● Nausea and sometimes vomiting
● Dizziness
● Drowsiness
● Severe hypertension may cause sudden and severe nosebleeds
● Irregular heartbeat
● Shortness of breath
● Long term high blood pressure can lead to eye damage and blurred or double vision.

Effects of high blood pressure

Long term high pressure against arterial walls eventually damages and strains them. This may
lead to several complications, the most well known complication being atherosclerosis which
describes a build up of fatty deposits or plaques in the walls lining the arteries. As the walls
thicken with the deposits, they calcify and become brittle with a narrow lumen which restricts the
flow of blood.
Atherosclerosis is responsible for a host of other disease conditions such as stroke and heart
attacks. The formation of a blood clot at the site of the plaque may block the artery completely
and this leads to ischemia or a lack of blood supply to the heart, a common cause of heart attack.
 Artifact#3

Blood pressure is measured by systolic over diastolic pressure. Systolic refers to the pressure
when the heart is beating, and diastolic refers to the pressure when the heart rests between beats.
For an average adult, a ​blood pressure reading​is considered normal if it’s below 120/80 mmHg.

High blood pressure has no symptoms, until you begin to experience complications. That’s why
it’s important to ​have yours checked​regularly and know your numbers.

Circulatory system

Damage caused by high blood pressure starts small and builds over time. The longer it goes
undiagnosed or uncontrolled, the more serious your risks. Your blood vessels and major arteries
carry blood throughout the body and supply it to vital organs and tissue. When the pressure at
which blood travels gets increased, it begins to damage artery walls. Damage starts as small
tears. As these artery wall tears begin to form, bad cholesterol flowing through the blood starts to
attach itself to the tears. More and more cholesterol builds up in the walls, making the artery
narrow. Less blood is able to get through.

When the proper amount of blood can’t move through a blocked artery, it causes damage to the
tissue or organ it’s supposed to reach. In the heart, this can mean ​chest pain​, ​irregular heartbeat​,
or a ​heart attack​. The heart also has to work harder, but is less effective with high blood pressure
and blocked arteries. Eventually, the extra work can lead to an enlarged left ventricle, which is
the part of the heart that pumps blood to the body. This also puts you at a higher risk of having a
heart attack. ​Heart failure​is when your heart becomes so weak and damaged from high blood
pressure,
working hard, or a previous heart attack, that it stops being able to pump blood through your
body effectively. Signs of heart failure include:

● shortness of breath
● trouble breathing
● swelling​in the feet, ​ankles​, ​legs​, or ​abdomen
● feeling tired

High blood pressure can also cause a bulge to form in a damaged artery. This is known as an
aneurysm​. The bulge gets larger and larger and often isn’t found until it causes pain by pressing
on another area of the body, or bursts. A ruptured aneurysm can be deadly if it’s in one of your
major arteries. This can happen anywhere in the body.
WRITTEN REPORT

Hypertension

The main articles and data used in the SBA titled Hypertension are mostly links and
articles which give the most accurate information. During the process of the SBA, The group
was efficiently driven at first but then progress slowed down because of COVID-19. Soon after
the Group was back on track and performing well. The group’s interaction was exciting and
joyful, but as we progressed it became a lot of work which drained the group members from time
to time. The rules that the group members agreed to follow are:
Each person was to give a follow up every week to say how their progress was going. They were
not to commit any plagiarism and give credit to the authors of the artifacts that they used. Group
members are to notify other group members when they are experiencing difficulty
The benefits to the project were that the group members worked diligently hence the
work didn't get piled up, work was shared equivalently and it was easy to communicate.
Challenges included were that the group members got separated into different classes hence we
aren't able to meet as much, one group member had to change their part of the SBA and
substantial internet issues.
Overcoming those challenges were hard but by using online meetings and utilizing the
share documents feature that was present in Google Docs for the meantime. We were able to
come back to the physical school hence we are able to have actual meetings and not virtually.
The three pieces selected are a Youtube documentaire, An article summarizing Hypertension and
Pictures depicting different aspects of Hypertension.
Through this process, it has enhanced my leadership skills by delegating the group
members tasks, time-management skills by scheduling meetings and my problem solving skills
by assisting my group. Our understanding of Hypertension has significantly grown. From
Causes to Prevention and Treatment, we were grateful for the learning opportunity.
Reflection #1