Risk Factors and Lifestyle Effects on Health (Part 1/2) Revision Notes | GCSE OCR Foundation Biology

What this lesson covers

Explore how lifestyle factors like diet, smoking, alcohol and exercise affect non-communicable diseases, understanding risk factors and their mechanisms

• Explain what risk factors are and how they link to increased disease rates
• Describe how lifestyle choices like diet, smoking and exercise affect cardiovascular disease
• Evaluate the role of obesity as a risk factor for Type 2 diabetes
• Analyse the effects of alcohol on liver and brain function

Key ideas to keep in view

Use this lesson to stay inside B6.3 Monitoring and maintaining health while connecting the detail back to the wider B6: Global challenges topic.

• B6: Global challenges
• B6.3 Monitoring and maintaining health
• GCSE OCR Foundation Biology

Lesson notes preview

Read the core explanations from Risk Factors and Lifestyle Effects on Health (Part 1/2) before testing yourself from memory.

• Your health isn't just about luck. Every day, you make choices that either protect your body or put it at risk. Some people smoke for decades and never get lung cancer. Others eat junk food daily but stay slim. Why the difference?
• A factor that increases the likelihood of developing a disease. Risk factors don't guarantee you'll get ill, but they stack the odds against you.
• Think of risk factors like loading dice. One loaded die might still roll a six, but load enough dice and you're almost certain to lose. Risk factors work the same way - they increase your chances of disease.
• Risk factors fall into two main categories: aspects of your lifestyle (what you choose to do) and substances in your body or environment (what you're exposed to). Let's see how this plays out in real diseases.
• Your heart is a muscle that beats 100,000 times per day. Like any hardworking muscle, it needs the right fuel and regular maintenance. Get this wrong, and cardiovascular disease becomes much more likely.
• Diet effects: A diet high in saturated fats and salt increases blood pressure and cholesterol levels. This damages artery walls and makes blood clots more likely. Think of your arteries like pipes - fatty deposits narrow them, forcing your heart to pump harder.
• Exercise effects: Regular exercise strengthens your heart muscle, lowers blood pressure, and improves cholesterol balance. It also helps maintain a healthy weight, reducing strain on your cardiovascular system.
• Smoking effects: Tobacco smoke contains over 70 carcinogens and damages blood vessel walls. Nicotine increases heart rate and blood pressure, while carbon monoxide reduces oxygen transport. This triple threat massively increases cardiovascular disease risk.
• Here's a connection that catches many students off-guard: being overweight doesn't just affect how you look - it fundamentally changes how your body processes sugar.
• In Type 2 diabetes, your body becomes resistant to insulin - the hormone that moves glucose from blood into cells. Obesity makes this worse because fat tissue, especially around the abdomen, releases chemicals that interfere with insulin action.

Continue through the topic

Move to the related lessons or back to the topic page when you need the wider sequence before exam-style practice.