Lifestyle, Health and Risk

What Lifestyle, Health and Risk covers

Covers the biological molecules the body is built from and the circulatory system that carries them: the cardiac cycle, blood vessels and clotting, how atherosclerosis develops, and how risk factors for cardiovascular disease are identified and treated.

The 14 subtopics

Each one has its own page. Edexcel AS Biology A students sit this topic in the first year.

• Water and the carbohydratesRecall questions on why water is a polar solvent, and on monosaccharides, disaccharides and the polysaccharides used for storage.Open →
• Condensation, hydrolysis and glycosidic bondsRecall questions on how monosaccharides join, the glycosidic bond, and how condensation and hydrolysis reverse one another.Open →
• Lipids, food tests and unitsRecall questions on triglycerides and ester bonds, saturated against unsaturated fatty acids, the food tests and their colour changes, and unit conversion.Open →
• The cardiac cycle and the structure of the heartRecall questions on why large organisms need mass transport, the three stages of the cardiac cycle, and the chambers, valves and vessels of the heart.Open →
• Arteries, veins and capillariesRecall questions on the wall structure and lumen of each vessel type, and on how each is suited to the pressure it carries.Open →
• Core practical: caffeine and the heart rate of DaphniaRecall questions on preparing Daphnia, the variables in the investigation, and the ethical considerations of using invertebrates.Open →
• The blood clotting cascadeRecall questions on thromboplastin, prothrombin, thrombin, fibrinogen and fibrin, and the order in which they act.Open →
• Thrombus, embolus and their consequencesRecall questions on why clots form inappropriately, and on what happens when a thrombus or embolus blocks an artery.Open →
• Atherosclerosis and the risk factors for CVDRecall questions on endothelial damage and plaque formation, and on genetics, diet, age, sex, blood pressure, smoking and inactivity as risk factors.Open →
• Treatments for CVD, and cholesterol transportRecall questions on antihypertensives, statins, anticoagulants and platelet inhibitors and their risks, and on the roles of HDL and LDL.Open →
• BMI, waist-to-hip ratio and energy balanceRecall questions on calculating BMI and waist-to-hip ratio, how exercise, stopping smoking and diet cut heart disease risk, energy balance, investigating vitamin C with DCPIP, basal metabolic rate, and calculating energy budgets and the fat gained from a surplus.Open →
• Core practical 2: the vitamin C content of food and drinkHow to find the vitamin C content of fruit juice by titrating it against DCPIP, which loses its blue colour as vitamin C reduces it: the calibration curve from known concentrations, the variables to control, and the sources of error in judging the end point.Open →
• Correlation, causation and the design of health studiesRecall questions on using illness and death figures to identify risk, correlation against causation, confounding variables and conflicting evidence, sample selection and size, validity and reliability, accuracy and precision, random and systematic error, and percentage error.Open →
• Risk perception, and handling quantitative dataRecall questions on why perceived risk differs from actual risk, measurement and instrumentation, serial dilutions and significant figures, choosing and reading graphs, estimating answers to check calculations, and the mathematical symbols and significance levels used in biology.Open →

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

Take Lifestyle, Health and Risk further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

• Correlation vs Causation

  Correlation: association between two measured variables. Causation: one factor directly producing a change in another.

• High-density lipoprotein vs Low-density lipoprotein

  High-density lipoprotein: carrier transporting cholesterol towards the liver. Low-density lipoprotein: carrier transporting cholesterol from the liver to tissues.

• Systole vs Diastole

  Systole: phase when cardiac muscle contracts. Diastole: phase when cardiac muscle relaxes.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

1. 1

   What is meant by describing water as a polar molecule?

   Model answer

   Water has partial positive and partial negative charges on different parts of the molecule, giving it a dipole nature.

2. 2

   Why does water have a dipole nature?

   Model answer

   Oxygen is more electronegative than hydrogen, creating an uneven distribution of charge across the molecule.

3. 3

   How does the dipole nature of water enable it to act as an effective solvent for ionic substances?

   Model answer

   The partial charges on water molecules allow them to surround and separate charged particles, dissolving ionic and polar substances.

4. 4

   Name four substances dissolved in blood plasma that demonstrate water's role as a solvent in transport.

   Model answer

   Glucose, amino acids, ions and urea.

5. 5

   Define the term monosaccharide.

   Model answer

   A single sugar unit; the simplest form of carbohydrate.

6. 6

   What is a disaccharide?

   Model answer

   A carbohydrate formed from two monosaccharide units joined together.

What is inside Levo

Six ways to work the same material.

Lifestyle, Health and Risk revision questions

Is Lifestyle, Health and Risk examined at AS in Edexcel Biology A?

Yes. It sits in Papers 1, 2 and 3, which you take in the first year, so it is on the AS paper as well as counting towards the full A level.

What does Lifestyle, Health and Risk cover in Edexcel AS-Level Biology A?

14 subtopics: water and the carbohydrates, condensation, hydrolysis and glycosidic bonds, lipids, food tests and units, the cardiac cycle and the structure of the heart, arteries, veins and capillaries, core practical: caffeine and the heart rate of daphnia, the blood clotting cascade, thrombus, embolus and their consequences, atherosclerosis and the risk factors for cvd, treatments for cvd, and cholesterol transport, bmi, waist-to-hip ratio and energy balance, core practical 2: the vitamin c content of food and drink, correlation, causation and the design of health studies and risk perception, and handling quantitative data. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.

How is Lifestyle, Health and Risk organised?

By the Edexcel 9BN0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.