Lesson video

Hi there.

Welcome to today's lesson.

Today's lesson is on "Lifestyle Choices and Disease." It's part of the Health, Fitness, and Wellbeing Unit of Exam Two.

My name's Miss Hacking and I'm really looking forward to being your teacher today.

By the end of today's lesson, I'm hoping that we can discuss the positive and negative impact of lifestyle choices on our health, fitness, and wellbeing.

Today's key words include: Lifestyle choices, which are the choices we make about how we live and behave that can impact upon our health.

Addictive, which is the urge to do something and is difficult to stop.

Recreational drugs are drugs taken for enjoyment, so not for medical purposes, such as alcohol or nicotine.

And a balanced diet means eating the right amount of calories for energy expended according to how much you exercise, and different food types provide suitable nutrients, vitamins, and minerals.

Our lesson today is split into two parts.

In the first part, we're going to describe types of lifestyle choices, and in the second part we're going to discuss the impacts of those lifestyle choices on our health.

So we're going to think about both the positive impacts and the negative impacts that those lifestyle choices might have upon our health and wellbeing.

Let's get started! So ensuring good personal health is important because it enhances the quality of life, it increases longevity, and it supports physical, emotional and social wellbeing.

There are different lifestyle choices that can both positively and negatively affect our health.

Can you think of any examples of lifestyle choices that may affect our health? Remembering that lifestyle choices are ways in which we choose to live our life.

Okay, so some examples of lifestyle choices that could affect our health include our diet, our activity level, our work/rest/sleep balance, and if we use or drink or consume any recreational drugs.

Now we're going to talk about each of these in a little bit more detail.

So a balanced diet is eating the right amount of calories for energy expended, which means that if we're doing a lot of exercise and using up a lot of energy, we may need actually more calories.

But if we're not doing that much exercise or we're not moving that much, we maybe don't need as many calories.

On average, women need 2,000 kcals a day, and on average men need 2,500 kcals a day.

But what could affect how many calories you need? I've already mentioned one example earlier, but I wonder if you could think of any other examples of what might affect the amount of calories we need.

You might have thought about if someone was ill and they needed more calories in order to help them recover.

You might have also said if someone was training for something specific, if you had a weightlifter for example, they may need more calories than if they weren't entering a competition.

So there's different reasons why different people might need different amounts of calories.

So a balanced diet is important for health and wellbeing.

It's not just about the calories that we're taking in.

We also need to have the recommended amounts of each nutrient in our balanced diet.

So a balanced diet must include macronutrients, which include protein, fats, and carbohydrates, and micronutrients, which includes water, fibre, vitamins and minerals.

And we must have a balance of all of those in order to be healthy.

If we had too much of one and not enough of the other, then we might not be choosing a really healthy lifestyle for ourselves and that might have a negative effect on our health.

Okay, let's have a go to check.

True or false, the daily recommended amount of calories for men is 2,700 kcals a day.

That's false.

Can you tell me why? Yeah, the daily recommended amount of calories for a man is actually 2,500 kcals a day, not 2,700 kcals a day.

Well done if you got that right.

So doing regular exercise is a lifestyle choice that can positively affect your health.

There are lots of different ways to exercise and it doesn't have to just include competitive sport.

That's a really common misconception that some people say, "Oh, no, I don't do any exercise because, you know, I don't play football or netball or rugby." But even just doing things like going on a bike ride or walking somewhere or pushing the baby's pram at the park or joining in fitness classes, they are all examples of a lifestyle choice of choosing to do exercise.

So that has a really positive effect on our health.

Having a good balance between work and home life means you get enough time to do your job or schoolwork, but also plenty of time to relax, have fun, exercise, sleep, and spend time with family and friends.

So people with good health often make that right life choice in having a really good work/life/sleep balance.

So it's recommended that people have between seven and nine hours sleep per night.

How much sleep do you average per night? Sometimes it's hard.

If we get distracted with our smartphones or watching TV late, we might not always get that recommended amount of sleep.

Okay, let's have a go to check.

What is the daily recommended hours of sleep per night? Is it seven to eight hours? Seven to nine hours? Seven to 10 hours? Or seven to 11 hours? Yeah, that's right.

It's B, seven to nine hours.

That's the daily recommended hours of sleep per night.

Okay, recreational drugs can be split into two types.

We have legal drugs and we have illegal drugs.

Illegal drugs can consist of things like heroin or cannabis or ecstasy or cocaine, but we're not going to talk about those today because we do not want to hear about illegal drugs 'cause they're not allowed to be used as they are against the law.

Whereas legal drugs, things like caffeine, nicotine, and alcohol, they're all legal, which means that they are, you can use them within the law.

You're not breaking any laws if you do use them.

But we're going to talk about how they can affect, how that lifestyle choice of using those kind of recreational drugs can potentially affect our health.

So why do people consume recreational drugs in the first place? What's the point in drinking caffeine or, you know, smoking, taking nicotine or drinking alcohol? So for caffeine it's often found in tea, coffee, and energy drinks and reasons why people consume it is because it increases energy levels, focus and motivation.

Nicotine is often found in cigarettes or e-cigarettes and it releases a dopamine to the brain, which gives a really good happy feeling to the brain.

Alcohol is often found in beer and wine and spirits and people often consume it to maybe celebrate or socialise or to escape from something, or maybe to change their mood.

If they've had a bad day, they might turn to alcohol in order to feel better about themselves.

So what I'd like you to do is identify which are types of lifestyle choices.

Running every day, consuming energy drinks like Red Bull, getting skin cancer, or eating lots of takeaways.

Yep, so there are actually three there.

So I'm hoping that you've said running every day, consuming energy drinks like Red Bull, and eating lots of takeaway.

They're all choices that someone has made about their life that could have either a positive or negative effect on their health.

Getting skin cancer is not a choice that someone would choose to have.

Okay, now it's your turn for a practise task.

Can you describe lifestyle choices that affect your health and wellbeing? Remember to refer to each of the four factors that has been covered in this lesson.

So I'm hoping that you're going to talk about diet, that you talk about exercise, that you talk about your work/rest/sleep balance, and you talk about any recreational drugs.

You may wish to pause the video now in order to complete your task.

Okay, so you were asked to describe your lifestyle choices that affect your health and wellbeing.

So I obviously don't know what you've written because I don't know your choices, your lifestyle choices, and I might be different to this example here, but you might have written something along these lines.

So diet, you might have said something like, "I eat quite a balanced diet, as I eat both macro and micronutrients.

However, sometimes I do eat a lot of fatty food." You might have talked about your exercise and the fact that you walk to and from school every day and maybe play rugby twice a week.

Sometimes at a weekend you might go out on your bike.

So you might have talked about all the exercise habits that you do in your week.

You might have talked about your work/sleep balance.

So, "I work hard in school and sometimes have a lot of homework when I get home.

I sleep on average six hours a night because I watch TV late." So that's possibly not meeting the recommended amount of sleep, but they're being honest about their sleep habits.

And recreational drugs.

"I don't smoke or drink alcohol, but I drink at least three caffeinated cups of tea a day." So again, this person is now just reflecting on their own lifestyle choices as they might want to think about how that could affect their health, especially if they're doing it over a long term.

Okay, for the second part of today's lesson, I would like you to discuss the impacts of lifestyle choices on health.

So we're going to look at the positive and negative impacts of lifestyle choices.

So can you remember what health is? So health is a state of complete emotional, physical and social wellbeing, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

So remember that we are not just talking about physical health when we're talking about how lifestyle choices can affect our health.

They can also affect our emotional and social health as well.

So lifestyle choices can have both positive and negative effects on our health.

So let's have a little look at how that can happen.

So let's start with a healthy diet and how it can positively affect our health.

It helps to boost energy if we eat lots of fruit and veg and enough calories, we have enough energy to do our daily tasks and possibly take part in sport.

It helps us strengthen our immune system so we're less likely to get poorly.

It helps to support our growth and development.

And again, this is really important that children have a healthy diet so that they're able to grow strong and grow according to what they should be doing.

It's important to maintain a healthy weight and body image.

So again, by having a healthy diet, we're not putting on lots of weight and maybe being at risk of obesity, but it's also improving how we feel about ourselves and how we perceive ourselves because we're in a healthy weight.

It also helps reduce the risk of diseases like heart problems, diabetes and obesity.

So again, eating really healthy food means we are less likely to have a buildup of things like cholesterol or lots of body fat around our body that can help and then that can help eliminate or reduce the risk of some of these diseases.

On the other hand, an unhealthy diet can affect us in the opposite way.

It can lead to mental health issues like stress or depression.

Again, eating a lot of sugar and salty and fatty food actually doesn't help us feel good.

It feels good at the time but then afterwards you can often feel very low and it takes a sugar dip, your blood sugars go down, and that's where it's important that we're eating a healthy diet and not just one full of fatty foods and sugary foods.

It can cause us weight gain, like we've talked about earlier.

Eating a really unhealthy diet makes us become potentially obese and make us not feel as good about ourselves and how we look and also can put a lot of pressure on our body organs, as a result.

It weakens the immune system so we're more likely to get poorly if we have an unhealthy diet, whereas if we're eating lots of fruit and vegetables with lots of vitamins and minerals, and a really balanced diet, we're less likely to get poorly.

It lowers our energy levels.

So by drinking a lot of fizzy drinks and eating a lot of fatty food, it actually makes us more tired and more lethargic.

And it increases the risk of serious diseases like heart problems, diabetes and obesity.

So eating these kind of unhealthy foods regularly will really increase those health risks that could actually affect our life and how we live it and our ability to sort of stay well and stay healthy.

So regular exercise can positively affect our health.

It can positively affect our physical health by improving all the components of fitness, which we talked about in other lessons before.

But knowing that we can improve our flexibility, our muscular strength, our cardiovascular endurance, and aerobic endurance by doing that regular exercise.

It helps to improve our general health and means we're less likely to suffer any health conditions or health risks such as osteoporosis or heart disease.

It also helps to improve our emotional health by helping to relieve stress and tension and increasing self-esteem and confidence.

So exercise can really help us feel good because we enjoy doing it and it also provides us an emotional and psychological challenge.

And that aesthetic appreciation that we get from performing in sport, perhaps in dance, in ice skating, or just from doing a really good golf hit, can also really help to affect our emotional health positively.

And again, exercise can really benefit our social health by improving our cooperation and teamwork skills, by giving us a sense of belonging, and developing lots of friendships.

And it also helps us to develop a good attitude to competing.

So being able to win or lose graciously, which we can actually, that level of respect that we learn through sport can actually be applied to our wider life as well, which really helps us to build better relationships with people.

So regular exercise can really positively affect all aspects of our health.

A sedentary lifestyle is a lifestyle where there's no physical exercise or very regular physical exercise, and often people are spending a lot of time sat down in one place.

So that can negatively affect our health because it really does increase the risk to long-term health as it increases the chance of depression.

So of coronary heart disease, of high blood pressure, of diabetes, it increases the risk of osteoporosis 'cause we're not using, we're not putting as much weight through our bones that they become weaker, and we also lose that muscle tone as well.

So sitting down for large portions of your day has all these risks associated with it.

So that's why exercise and regular physical activity is a really important lifestyle choice to benefit your health.

Okay, let's have a go to check.

What are some effects of an unhealthy diet? Is it A, lack of energy? Is it B, increased muscle tone? Is it C, reduced risk of diabetes? Or is it D, that it strengthens the immune system? Yep, that's right! It's lack of energy.

So having an unhealthy diet, particularly filled with lots of sugar and salt and fatty food, can actually make us feel quite lethargic.

So we're better to have a more healthier diet that includes lots of macro and micronutrients so that we can stay healthy and have lots of energy.

Okay, incorporating appropriate rest into your work life balance can positively affect your health by reducing the production of the stress hormone cortisol.

So cortisol can make us feel quite anxious and can make us feel like we're always having to do everything really quickly and work really hard.

So it's the stress.

So that's what makes us feel stressed, whenever you feel that level of stress.

It also, having appropriate rest time, lowers the risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.

So it actually lowers your blood pressure by making sure that you're having that adequate time to rest.

It can help boost immune function 'cause obviously if you're not resting, your body's never able to recover.

So having appropriate rest time means that your immune system is able to fight any illness or injury quicker so that you're able to recover from things a lot quicker as well.

It helps to support muscle repair.

Again, if you've worked out really hard in the gym and you haven't rested properly, you're more likely to get injured.

So therefore it's important that you have adequate rest, particularly after working out, to allow your muscles to repair and so that you don't actually get a more long-term injury.

And again, probably quite obviously that getting enough sleep will therefore help you with your energy levels.

If you've ever not had enough sleep, the next day you're really tired and you can't really focus and concentrate.

So it's important that you're getting enough sleep so you've got the energy to get through your day-to-day lives and complete exercise as you need to.

Also like with that, it's important that you improve your focus.

So with getting enough sleep, you're more focused the next day.

I'm sure you've all had it before where you haven't got enough sleep and you're feeling really tired and your brain just can't concentrate on what it is you're meant to be doing because you're really tired and you need a bit more sleep.

So it's really important that appropriate rest in your life is there so that you are able to function properly.

So there are positive and negative aspects of caffeine.

So we remember that caffeine can be found in things like tea or coffee or energy drinks.

And we've already mentioned sort of the positive or the reasons why people might consume caffeine because it improves focus, it can boost energy levels, it can improves mood.

You might have heard someone that wakes up really tired in the morning and then once they've had their coffee they're in a better mood.

And it can enhance, caffeine can enhance, physical performance because of the positive effects that is listed above, so by having more energy.

However, regular consumption of caffeine can also have negative effects on health and wellbeing.

And that includes things like disrupted sleep or increased heart rate and blood pressure, which can lead to things like anxiety.

But because it is an addictive, it means that people have to drink it, they keep drinking it, they can't stop drinking it.

These kind of things can happen more regularly as they drink it more and more.

So that is one of the side effects of drinking too much caffeine, or sort of drinking caffeine for a large portion of your life.

Okay, let's have a go at a question then.

True or false: Too much caffeine can contribute to negative mental health issues like increased anxiety.

Yeah, that's true.

Can you tell me why? So as caffeine is a stimulant, it stimulates the central nervous system that boosts the production of the stress related hormones like adrenaline, which can increase feelings of anxiety.

So we get that heart rate pumping faster, it makes us focus more, it makes us more ready, and boosts our energy.

But with the side effect of that it can also increase our anxiety.

So well done if you've got that right.

Okay, so some of the negative impacts of smoking include that there's a shortness of breath and reduced lung capacity because of the tar that's been inhaled.

And when you're smoking it can really damage the organs inside the body, particularly associated with breathing.

And it can increase problems in the lungs such as bronchitis and lung disease.

But not only affects the lungs, but it also can affect the heart as well.

So it increases the chance of heart disease and increases blood pressure because of all the chemicals that are being breathed in.

Interestingly, there's also higher risk of death during medical operations for someone that has been a smoker compared to someone that has not been a smoker.

So there are some really serious implications on health of the lifestyle choice, from the lifestyle choice of smoking.

And this includes e-cigarettes too.

So e-cigarettes haven't been around as long and there may be some more benefits than actual smoking cigarettes.

However, there is still evidence to suggest that they negatively impact on health similar to smoking as well.

So what are the negative impacts of alcohol on health? So alcohol can affect how the brain works and it changes behaviour.

So not only does it change the behaviour when you're drunk or when you're drinking alcohol, but drinking alcohol over a long period of time, so for many years, can really affect the brain and can actually change behaviour of a person of what they used to be like compared to what they are now, having drunk quite a lot of alcohol.

It can also damage the heart and circulatory system and cause problems on the internal organs.

It can increase the risk of stroke and increases high blood pressure and it increases the risk of liver damage as well.

There's also a higher risk of developing cancer for someone that is regularly drinking alcohol, and it weakens the immune system.

So again, someone that's drinking a lot of alcohol or drinking alcohol regularly is more likely to pick up illness or become poorly as a result.

There's also a higher chance of depression because alcohol is actually a depressant.

So drinking alcohol, maybe not at the time of drinking alcohol, but following drinking alcohol, you can increase the risk of depression and that can really negatively affect emotional health.

So again, alcohol can have really serious negative health implications as a lifestyle choice.

So let's have a go to check.

Can you suggest one reason why smoking may be negative for overall health? Okay, you may have said one of the following: That there it leads to a shortness of breath or reduced lung capacity.

It can increase the risk of heart disease or increase blood pressure.

It can increase the chance of bronchitis and lung disease and there's a higher risk of death during medical operations for someone that's a smoker, compared to someone that's not a smoker.

Okay, now it's time for a go at a practise task.

For the first part of the practise task, I'd like you to identify two positive lifestyle choices on health and wellbeing.

And for the second part of the task, I'd like you to listen to this scenario.

Orla consumes alcohol every day.

Describe the health implications this lifestyle choice could have.

You may wish to pause the video now to give you time to answer these questions.

Okay, so for the first part of the task, you are asked to identify two positive lifestyle choices on health and wellbeing.

You could have said any of the following.

You may have said that they eat a balanced diet, that they exercise regularly, that they don't drink excessive caffeine, that they don't smoke or use e-cigarettes, or they don't drink alcohol.

Any two of those would be positive lifestyle choices on health and wellbeing.

So, well done if you got those correct.

The second part of the task, you were given the scenario that Orla consumes alcohol every day.

You were asked to describe the health implications this lifestyle choice could have on her health.

So you might have said something along the lines of that daily alcohol consumption can have serious health consequences.

It can affect the brain by altering behaviour, impairing judgement , and increasing the risk of depression.

Over time, it can damage the heart and circulatory system, raising the risk of high blood pressure and a stroke.

Alcohol also harms the liver, increasing the likelihood of liver disease and cancer.

It weakens the immune system, making the body more vulnerable to infections and contributes to a higher risk of developing various types of cancer.

So here this answer has talked about all the implications, all the negative implications, that drinking alcohol every day regularly could have on Orla's health.

So, well done if you've managed to mention all of those in your answer.

Okay, that gives us just enough time left to summarise today's lesson.

So some examples of lifestyle choices that could affect our health include our diet, activity level, our work/rest/sleep balance, our recreational drugs usage.

So having a healthy diet, regular exercise, and suitable work/rest routine helps to contribute to good health.

Consuming recreational drugs can have negative effects on overall health and wellbeing.

Now I hope you've reflected a little bit on today's lesson and thought about how your lifestyle choices might also affect your health as well.

Well done today.

You've worked really hard.

I look forward to seeing you again soon.