Health Risk Factors Flashcards
What is health
The state of physical and mental wellbeing
What are risk factors
Increase the likelihood of developing the disease
What is an example of a risk factor
Carcinogens or ionising radiation
What are some life style choices that affect your risk of disease?
Diet, exercise, alcohol smoking
What do carcinogens do?
They cause cells to divide uncontrollably by mitosis which causes a tumour
What two types of tumour are there?
Benign, non cancerous (doesn’t spread)
Malignant, spreads around the body, invading other tissues (cancerous)
What are the two treatments for tumours?
Chemotherapy
Drugs to stop or make cancer cells self destruct
Radiotherapy
Targets radiation at cancer
How do cigarettes affect fetus development?
Cigarattes produce CO which has a higher affinity to haemoglobin so the red blood cells carry CO instead of oxygen. The blood carrying the CO arrives to the fetus though the placenta, the fetus will have less oxygen means a slower development meaning a lower birth rate = lower chance of survival
What does smoke do?
It damages blood vessel that leads to fatty deposits in those blood vessels
How does high fat diet affect you?
Increases bad cholestoral which cause fatty deposits in arteries causing coronary heart disease
How does high salt (processed food) affect you?
Higher blood pressure causing the vessel to be damaged causing cardiovascular disease
How does stress affect you?
Stress hormones are release narrow blood vessels which cause high blood pressure causing cardiovascular disease
How does obesity and lack of exercise affect you?
Causes sensitivity to insulin which causes diabetes being in itself a cardiovascular disease
How does alcohol affect your liver?
Cells are damaged as they break down the alcohol molecules scarring the tissues causing cirrhosis of the liver
How does alcohol affect your brain
Loss of volume
