Why do arteries have thick walls

The pressure is the highest when the heart contracts and lowest when the heart relaxes. The variation in the blood pressure produces a pulse which can be felt in different regions of the body. This pulse is known as the radial pulse. Apart from the main arteries, the arterioles which carry oxygenated blood to extreme ends of the body also have thick elastic and muscular media. They have a major influence on the local blood pressure and overall blood pressure.

The combination of the cardiac output of blood and systemic vascular resistance which refers to collective resistance of blood arterioles are the major deciding factors of arterial blood pressure at any given moment.

Veins, on the other hand, have a smaller Tunica media, comprising less elastic and muscular layer than arteries because veins do not work in a contractile manner like the arteries and are not subject to high systolic pressure.

Hence, to the question - Why are arteries thicker than veins? The answer is - Veins are not subject to high blood pressure, unlike the arteries. Similarly, for the question why arteries are thick-walled, it is because the thick elastic and muscular walls of the arteries not only help them sustain the cardiac output pressure but also maintain blood pressure throughout the circulatory system of the body.

The collapse or change in the blood pressure can be catastrophic for the body and hence fatal to the living organism. It is highly important to maintain a constant and regulated blood pressure that works towards making the blood reach different parts of the body.

The arteries work in a contractual manner that allows them to make the blood reach the extreme portions. In that process, the pressure difference between the arterioles and the arteries has a huge role to play. Thick walls of arteries help them to resist the pressure of flow of blood in them. Arteries are elastic so as to produce enough pressure to push the blood and help it flow.

Why do arteries have thick walls? Why do arteries have elastic walls? Mar 5, People who smoke often have cold hands and feet. Blood may flow out of the body, as external bleeding, or it may flow into the spaces around organs or directly into organs, as internal bleeding.

The arteries, which are strong, flexible, and resilient, carry blood away from the heart and bear the highest blood pressures. Because arteries are elastic, they narrow recoil passively when the heart is relaxing between beats and thus help maintain blood pressure The Body's Control of Blood Pressure High blood pressure hypertension is persistently high pressure in the arteries.

Often no cause for high blood pressure can be identified, but sometimes it occurs as a result of an underlying The arteries branch into smaller and smaller vessels, eventually becoming very small vessels called arterioles. Arteries and arterioles have muscular walls that can adjust their diameter to increase or decrease blood flow to a particular part of the body.

Capillaries are tiny, extremely thin-walled vessels that act as a bridge between arteries which carry blood away from the heart and veins which carry blood back to the heart.

The thin walls of the capillaries allow oxygen and nutrients to pass from the blood into tissues and allow waste products to pass from tissues into the blood. Blood flows from the capillaries into very small veins called venules, then into the veins that lead back to the heart. Veins have much thinner walls than do arteries, largely because the pressure in veins is so much lower.

Veins can widen dilate as the amount of fluid in them increases. Some veins, particularly veins in the legs, have valves in them, to prevent blood from flowing backward. When these valves leak, the backflow of blood can cause the veins to stretch and become elongated and convoluted tortuous. Stretched, tortuous veins near the body's surface are called varicose veins Varicose Veins Varicose veins are abnormally enlarged superficial veins in the legs.

Varicose veins may ache or cause itching or a sensation of tiredness. Doctors can detect varicose veins by examining the Merck and Co.