GCSE Biology, Unit 2, Lesson 7 of 8

Health, lifestyle and body measurements

GCSE Biology, Organisation: tissues, organs, digestion and circulation, 30 minutes

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What health means and how diseases interact, how smoking, alcohol, diet and exercise raise the risk of non-communicable diseases, BMI and waist-to-hip ratio (Edexcel), and reading health data without mixing up correlation and cause.

What you will learn

  • Describe health and how one disease can make another more likely
  • Link smoking, alcohol, diet, exercise and obesity to named non-communicable diseases
  • Calculate BMI and waist-to-hip ratio and use them to judge risk (Edexcel)
  • Calculate rates per 100,000 and compare local and national incidence
  • Use study data to tell a correlation from a causal link

Health and how diseases interact

Health is a state of physical, mental and social well-being, not just being free of disease.

Diseases are a major cause of ill health, but diet, stress and a person's life situation all affect it too.

Diseases can interact:

  • A defect in the immune system makes a person more likely to suffer from infectious diseases. HIV destroys white blood cells, so people with HIV are more likely to develop tuberculosis.
  • Viruses living in cells can trigger changes that lead to cancer (for example, some types of HPV).
  • An immune reaction first caused by a pathogen can trigger allergies, such as skin rashes and asthma.
  • Severe physical ill health can lead to depression and other mental illness.

The rest of this lesson and its 12 practice questions are locked.

In this lesson

  1. Health and how diseases interact
  2. Lifestyle risk factors
  3. BMI and waist-to-hip ratio (Edexcel)
  4. Correlation and cause
  5. Try it: Your first BMI

12 practice questions, marked as you go; about 30 minutes in all.

Key terms

Health, Immune system, Viruses, Cancer, Immune reaction, Allergies, Depression, Risk factor, Interacting, Waist-to-hip ratio

In this unit: Organisation: tissues, organs, digestion and circulation

Levels of organisation, digestion and enzymes with the amylase and food test practicals, the heart, blood and lungs, heart disease and cancer, and transport in plants.

All of Organisation: tissues, organs, digestion and circulation

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