Non-Communicable

• A disease is caused by part of the body not working properly. This can affect physical and/or mental health
• Non-communicable diseases cannot be spread between organisms, but communicable diseases can
• • Viruses infecting cells can be the triggers for cancers, such as cervical cancer
  • Diseases of the immune system mean that an individual is more likely to catch an infectious disease, e.g. people with HIV are more likely to get tuberculosis
  • Immune reactions triggered by a pathogen can cause allergies, such as skin rashes and asthma
  • If a person is physically ill, this can lead to depression and mental illness
• Non-communicable diseases, such as HIV and diabetes, can change a person's life and cost countries large sums of money
• About 10% of the health budget in Britain is spent on people with diabetes
• Non-communicable diseases are often caused by risk factors, called so because they make it more likely that a person will develop the disease.

  Risk factors can be:

  • aspects of a person's lifestyle, e.g. lack of exercise
  • substances in the person's body or environment, e.g. chemicals from smoking
• A causal mechanism is the process by which a cause brings about an effect. A causal mechanism has been found that links smoking to lung cancer. It is the action of the chemicals in the tar
• Cardiovascular disease - lack of exercise/smoking/high intake of saturated fat
• Type 2 diabetes - Obesity
• Liver and Brain damage - excessive alcohol intake
• lung diseases - smoking
• skin cancer - ionising radiation, e.g. UV light
• low birth weight in babies - smoking during pregnancy
• brain damage in babies - excessive alcohol intake during pregnancy
• In coronary heart disease, layers of fatty material build up in the coronary arteries and narrow them
• Treatments:

  • stents to keep the coronary arteries open
  • statins to reduce blood cholesterol levels and slow down the rate at which fatty materials build up
• In some people, heart valves may become faulty, developing a leak or preventing the valve from opening fully
• Heart failure:

  • a donor heart, or heart and lungs, can be transplanted
  • artificial hearts can be used to keep patients alive while waiting for a heart transplant or to allow the heart to recover
• The narrowing of coronary arteries reduces the flow of blood, so not enough oxygen can reach the heart muscle
• Cancer is a non-communicable disease
• Cancer is caused by uncontrolled cell division. This can form masses of cells called tumours
• Benign tumours do not spread around the body
• malignant tumours spread, in the blood, to different parts of the body where they form secondary tumours