Non-communicable diseases

• What is health?


  The state of physical and mental well-being.
• What are possible causes of ill health?

  • Diet
  • Stress
  • Disease
  • Life situations
• What can severe physical ill health lead to?

  Depression and other mental illnesses.
• What are risk factors?


  Factors that increase the chance that a person will develop a certain disease.

  • aspects of a person's lifestyle
  • substances in the person's body
  • substances in the environment
• What are the effects of alcohol on the liver and brain function?

  • Cirrhosis of the liver can develop
  • Can damage the brain and make it lose its normal brain structure.
  • Can impair memory and cause slurred speech
• What are the effects of diet, smoking and exercise on cardiovascular disease?

  • Poor diet and lack of exercise can lead to obesity
  • Obesity leads to high blood pressure and the build-up of fatty deposits in the arteries
  • Smoking damages the lining of the arteries, this can encourage the build-up of fatty material in the arteries.
  • The nicotine in cigarette smoke increases the heart rate, putting strain on the heart.
• What are benign tumours?

  • Growths of abnormal cells which are contained in one area, usually within a membrane.
  • They do not invade other parts of the body
• What are malignant tumours?

  • They are cancers
  • They invade neighbouring tissues and spread to different parts of the body in the blood where they form secondary tumours
• What are risk factors for cancers?

  • Generic risk factors
  • Carcinogens
  • Mutations
  • Ionising radiation