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Biology · Edexcel Paper 1

Non-communicable Diseases

The diseases that cannot be passed from person to person, such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and lung, liver and nutrition-related diseases. It covers their causes and risk factors, how cancer develops, how diet, exercise, alcohol and smoking affect health, including BMI and waist to hip ratio calculations, and how cardiovascular disease is treated. Matches Edexcel 2.4 and 5.23 to 5.25. Every lesson is for both Combined Science and separate Biology, at Foundation and Higher.

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Key terms in this chapter

All 45, gathered from every lesson.

Non-communicable disease
A disease that is not caused by a pathogen and cannot be passed from one person to another.
Risk factor
Something that increases the chance of developing a disease.
Cardiovascular disease
A disease of the heart or blood vessels.
Correlation
A link between two variables.
Lifestyle
The way a person lives, including their diet, exercise and habits.
Deficiency disease
A disease caused by a lack of a nutrient.
Obesity
Having a very high amount of body fat.
Interaction
When factors affect each other, so that the combined effect is different to the effects on their own.
Carcinogen
A substance or radiation that can cause cancer.
Cancer
A disease in which cells divide in an uncontrolled way.
Tumour
A lump of abnormal cells.
Benign tumour
A tumour that stays in one place, and does not spread.
Malignant tumour
A tumour that invades other tissues, and spreads to other parts of the body.
Secondary tumour
A new tumour that forms when cancer cells have spread from the first one.
Carcinogen
A substance or radiation that can cause cancer.
Screening
Testing people who have no symptoms, to find a disease early.
Biopsy
A small sample of tissue taken to be examined for disease.
Chemotherapy
The use of drugs to kill cancer cells.
Malnutrition
A diet that is out of balance, with too little or too much of some nutrients.
Obesity
Having a very high level of body fat.
Body mass index
A measure of body mass compared with height, found by mass divided by height squared.
Waist to hip ratio
The waist measurement divided by the hip measurement.
Deficiency disease
A disease caused by a lack of a nutrient.
Balanced diet
A diet with the right amount of all of the nutrients.
Type 2 diabetes
A condition in which the body does not respond properly to insulin, linked to obesity.
Saturated fat
A type of fat, found in foods such as butter and fatty meat, that raises the risk of heart disease.
Energy balance
The difference between the energy taken in as food, and the energy used.
Cirrhosis
Permanent scarring of the liver, which stops it working properly.
Unit of alcohol
10 ml of pure alcohol.
Nicotine
An addictive drug in tobacco smoke, which raises heart rate and blood pressure.
Carbon monoxide
A poisonous gas in smoke that binds to haemoglobin and reduces the oxygen carried by the blood.
Tar
A sticky mixture in smoke that contains carcinogens.
Atheroma
A fatty deposit in the wall of an artery.
Heart attack
Damage to the heart muscle when a coronary artery is blocked.
Stroke
Damage to part of the brain, when a blood vessel to it is blocked or bursts.
Passive smoking
Breathing in the smoke from other people's cigarettes.
Coronary artery
An artery that supplies the heart muscle with blood.
Statin
A drug that lowers the level of cholesterol in the blood.
Anticoagulant
A drug that makes the blood clot less easily.
Angioplasty
A procedure in which a balloon is used to widen a narrowed artery.
Stent
A mesh tube that is left in an artery to hold it open.
Bypass
Surgery to make a new route for blood around a blocked artery.
Transplant
The replacement of a damaged organ with a healthy one from a donor.
Angina
Chest pain that is caused by too little blood to the heart muscle.
Immunosuppressant
A drug that reduces the activity of the immune system, so that a transplant is not rejected.