Section 5 - Health, disease and the development of medicine - Non-communicable diseases, obesity and cardiovascular disease

Question 1

What is cardiovascular disease associated with?

Answer 1

Heart or blood vessels

Question 2

3 ways in which smoking is a major risk factor associated with CVD?

Answer 2

Nicotine increases heart rate, which increase blood pressure. This damages artery walls which contributes to build up of fatty deposits or blood clots in arteries. This restricts blood flow and increase risk of heart attack or stroke.

Question 3

4 lifestyle factors associated with cardiovascular disease?

Answer 3

Smoking, diet high in saturated fat, lack of exercise, drinking too much alcohol

Question 4

Equation for BMI?

Answer 4

BMI = weight (kg) ÷ height² (m)

Question 5

One example of how BMI is not a reliable measure of obesity?

Answer 5

Athletes have lots of muscle, which weighs more than fat, so they can have high BMI even though they’re not overweight

Question 6

Waist-to-hip ratio formula?

Answer 6

Waist-to-hip ratio = waist circumference ÷ hip circumference

Question 7

What can too much cholesterol in the blood cause? Where do deposits form?

Answer 7

Causes fatty deposits to build up in arteries, restricting blood flow
Form where artery wall has been damaged

Question 8

How does a heart attack or stroke occur?

Answer 8

Too much cholesterol in blood causes fatty deposits to build up in arteries, restricting blood flow. Fatty deposits trigger blood clots to form which block blood flow completely. Blood stopped from getting to heart muscle (heart attack) or brain (stroke), depriving them of oxygen

Question 9

4 lifestyle changes to treat CVD?

Answer 9

Healthy, balanced diet low in saturated fat, exercise regularly, lose weight and stop smoking

Question 10

3 drugs that reduce risk of heart attack or stoke?

Answer 10

Statins, anticoagulants, antihypertensives

Question 11

What do statins do? Negative?

Answer 11

Reduce amount of cholesterol in blood and slows down rate at which fatty deposits form.
Negative side effects, e.g. aching muscles or even liver damage

Question 12

What do anticoagulants do? Negative?

Answer 12

Make blood clots less likely to form

Can cause excessive bleeding if person hurt in accident

Question 13

What do antihypertensives do? Negative?

Answer 13

Reduce blood pressure, helps to prevent damage to blood vessels and so reduces risk of fatty deposits forming
Can cause negative side effects, e.g. headaches, fainting

Question 14

What are stents and how do they lower risk of heart attack/stroke? Negative?

Answer 14

Tubes inserted inside arteries to keep open, making sure blood can pass through to heart muscles.
Over time, artery can narrow again as stents can irritate artery and make scar tissue grow. Drugs also taken to stop blood clotting on stent

Question 15

What is coronary bypass surgery and how does it lower risk of heart attack/stroke?

Answer 15

If part of blood vessel blocked, piece of healthy vessel taken from elsewhere used to bypass blocked section?

Question 16

Negative of replacing whole heart with donor heart?

Answer 16

New heart doesn’t always start pumping properly so drugs taken to stop body rejecting it. Drugs may have side effects, e.g. make you more vulnerable to infections