Do we need to know the scientific names of some diseases as examples ?
Say, 'atherosclerosis' or can I just refer to it as 'hardening of the arteries'?
Also , do I need to understand all the processes that occur with biological stuff? An example I can think of is , cholesterol , do I need to know LDL and HDL and stuff like that? Or do I just need to understand the impact of high cholesterol levels on overall health ?
Thank you
Although it's the hardest thing to spell and pronounce, you should refer to the hardening of arteries (due to fatty LDL cholesterol plaque build-up) as Atherosclerosis. It's just one of those HHD terms you need to be using as it shows you have a deeper understanding of the content
And yep, it's essential that you know about Cholesterol, in terms of High density lipoprotein (HDL) "good" cholesterol and Low Density Lipoprotein "Bad" cholesterol - it's especially important to know how they have a role in impacting the Cardiovascular Health NHPA (the role of nutrition questions for the NHPAs will come up in SACs and exams so if you are asked about the role of nutrition in Cardiovascular Health, one of your main points will be about saturated fats and then linking that to build up of LDL cholesterol etc). You need to understand how accumulation of LDL cholesterol can lead to atherosclerosis and how this can then restrict blood flow and increase pressure within arteries and vessels and increase the risk of developing coronary heart disease, hypertension, heart attacks or stroke
You don't really need to know the biology behind every single topic in HHD as a lot of students that do HHD are not Biology students so it won't get extremely complicated so dont worry!
But yes for the NHPAs, it is important that you know a little bit about how the disease/condition occurs (this is usually covered in the "Key features of each NHPA" part of the subject
).