How does blood pressure typically respond to exercise with increasing intensity in a healthy individual?

In a healthy individual, blood pressure responds to exercise with increasing intensity in a specific manner that reflects the body's physiological adaptations to meet the elevated demands for oxygen and nutrients by the working muscles. During exercise, particularly as intensity increases, systolic blood pressure rises significantly. This is due to a combination of increased heart rate and higher cardiac output, as the heart pumps more blood to supply active tissues.

Diastolic blood pressure, on the other hand, typically remains stable or may only show slight changes during exercise. This is because while systolic pressure rises, diastolic pressure does not necessarily experience the same degree of increase due to vasodilation in the resistance vessels (arterioles) that regulate blood flow to the muscles. This action helps to counteract the overall increase in pressure that would otherwise occur if there were equal increases in both systolic and diastolic readings.

Mean arterial pressure (MAP), which is a key measure of blood pressure that reflects the average pressure in a person's arteries during one cardiac cycle, does increase during exercise, but this is primarily driven by the significant rise in systolic pressure. Therefore, the correct answer accurately captures this physiological response: systolic pressure and mean arterial pressure are elevated, while diastolic blood pressure remains