Health & Lifestyle Vocabulary for IELTS
Health is the second most-tested topic on IELTS after education. The lexis below moves you from everyday talk (‘feel ill’, ‘eat well’) toward the formal register Writing Task 2 expects (sedentary lifestyle, preventive care, mental well-being). It also covers public-health concepts useful for the policy-style Speaking Part 3 questions about healthcare systems.
IELTS prompts where this vocabulary fits
- Speaking Part 1: Do you exercise regularly?
- Speaking Part 3: Should healthcare be funded by taxes or by individuals?
- Writing Task 2: Many young people today have unhealthy lifestyles. What are the causes and what can governments do?
Health & Lifestyle vocabulary table
Each row gives the word, part of speech, plain-English definition, an IELTS-style example sentence, common collocations, and an optional band-7+ synonym you can swap in for variety.
| Word | POS | Definition | IELTS-style example | Collocations | Band-7+ synonym |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sedentary lifestyle | n. | A way of living involving little physical activity. | “A sedentary lifestyle is now a leading risk factor for cardiovascular disease.” | lead a sedentary lifestyle, increasingly sedentary | inactive lifestyle |
| balanced diet | n. | A diet that contains the right amounts of all the major food groups. | “A balanced diet reduces the risk of most chronic conditions far more than supplements do.” | follow a balanced diet, maintain a balanced diet | nutritious diet |
| junk food | n. | Food that is high in calories but low in nutritional value. | “Many countries have considered taxing junk food to fund public health campaigns.” | ban junk food advertising, junk-food consumption | processed food |
| obesity | n. | The condition of being severely overweight. | “Childhood obesity has tripled in many developed countries over the past three decades.” | tackle obesity, obesity epidemic | excess weight |
| mental health | n. | A person's psychological well-being. | “Mental health awareness in workplaces has grown substantially since 2020.” | improve mental health, mental-health support | psychological wellbeing |
| well-being | n. | The state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy. | “Sleep is one of the strongest predictors of long-term well-being.” | physical well-being, emotional well-being | wellness |
| stress | n. | A state of mental tension caused by demanding circumstances. | “Long-term work stress can contribute to high blood pressure and weakened immunity.” | manage stress, chronic stress | tension |
| anxiety | n. | A feeling of worry or unease, especially when ongoing. | “Generalised anxiety affects roughly one in twenty adults in many surveyed countries.” | social anxiety, ease anxiety | apprehension |
| immune system | n. | The body's defence against infection. | “A weakened immune system makes a person more vulnerable to seasonal infections.” | boost the immune system, weakened immune system | body's defences |
| life expectancy | n. | The average number of years a person is expected to live. | “Life expectancy in most developed countries has risen by nearly a decade since 1970.” | rising life expectancy, average life expectancy | longevity |
| public healthcare | n. | Health services funded and provided by the government. | “Universal public healthcare improves population-wide outcomes even when individual treatments are no better.” | fund public healthcare, public-healthcare system | state healthcare |
| preventive care | n. | Healthcare aimed at preventing illness rather than treating it. | “Preventive care, such as routine check-ups, is far cheaper than treating advanced disease.” | invest in preventive care, preventive-care programme | prevention |
| vaccine | n. | A substance that protects against a specific disease. | “Childhood vaccines have effectively eliminated several diseases that were once common.” | develop a vaccine, vaccine rollout | inoculation |
| fitness regime | n. | A regular and structured programme of physical exercise. | “Sticking to a fitness regime is easier when it is built around enjoyable activities.” | follow a fitness regime, demanding fitness regime | exercise routine |
| hygiene | n. | Practices that maintain health and prevent disease. | “Hand hygiene remains the single most effective intervention against infectious disease.” | personal hygiene, food hygiene | cleanliness |
| pandemic | n. | A disease outbreak that spreads across countries or continents. | “Pandemics expose weaknesses in healthcare systems that ordinary years do not.” | global pandemic, response to a pandemic | global outbreak |
| chronic disease | n. | A long-lasting health condition. | “Chronic diseases such as diabetes account for the majority of healthcare spending in older populations.” | manage a chronic disease, chronic-disease prevention | long-term illness |
| longevity | n. | Long life or the duration of life. | “Studies of longevity in remote regions have isolated diet, community, and movement as common factors.” | exceptional longevity, longevity gene | long lifespan |
| addiction | n. | A condition where a person cannot stop using something despite harm. | “Addiction to processed sugar shows many of the same patterns as other behavioural addictions.” | drug addiction, overcome addiction | dependence |
| nutrition | n. | The process of taking in food and using it for growth and health. | “Good nutrition during the first two years of life has lifelong cognitive effects.” | poor nutrition, balanced nutrition | diet |
| calorie | n. | A unit of energy in food. | “Most adults overestimate the number of calories they burn during exercise.” | count calories, calorie intake | energy unit |
| holistic | adj. | Treating the whole person rather than only symptoms. | “A holistic approach to chronic pain often combines medication, exercise, and counselling.” | holistic approach, holistic care | integrated |
| telemedicine | n. | Medical consultation conducted remotely using technology. | “Telemedicine has expanded access to specialists for patients in remote rural areas.” | telemedicine consultation, telemedicine platform | remote consultation |
| screen-time fatigue | n. | Tiredness caused by prolonged use of digital screens. | “Screen-time fatigue has become a common complaint among remote workers.” | reduce screen-time fatigue, suffer screen-time fatigue | digital eye strain |
| alternative medicine | n. | Treatments outside conventional medical practice. | “Public opinion on alternative medicine remains divided even where treatments are widely used.” | complementary and alternative medicine, regulate alternative medicine | non-conventional therapy |
| recover | v. | To return to good health after illness or injury. | “Patients who exercise mildly during recovery tend to recover faster than those who rest completely.” | fully recover, recover from illness | regain health |
| fatigue | n. | Extreme tiredness, often resulting from physical or mental exertion. | “Chronic fatigue is harder to treat than acute exhaustion because the underlying causes are often unclear.” | mental fatigue, chronic fatigue | exhaustion |
| work out | phr.v. | To do physical exercise. | “Working out three to four times a week is enough to maintain general fitness for most adults.” | work out at the gym, work out regularly | exercise |
| processed food | n. | Food that has been altered from its natural state, often with added sugars or preservatives. | “Diets high in processed food correlate strongly with rising obesity rates.” | highly processed food, ultra-processed food | manufactured food |
| sleep deprivation | n. | The condition of not getting enough sleep. | “Sustained sleep deprivation impairs concentration as severely as moderate alcohol use.” | chronic sleep deprivation, effects of sleep deprivation | sleep loss |
Band-8 sample answer
Sample band-8 Writing Task 2 paragraph from an essay on: ‘What can governments do to encourage healthier lifestyles?’
Governments can do far more to support preventive care than to subsidise treatment of chronic disease after it develops. Public health campaigns that target sedentary lifestyles and processed food consumption have produced measurable reductions in obesity rates in several countries. Investment in mental health services, paid for through taxation rather than user fees, is equally important — chronic stress and anxiety drive a growing share of national healthcare costs and reduce life expectancy in ways that purely physical interventions cannot reach.
Words used: preventive care, chronic disease, sedentary lifestyle, processed food, obesity, mental health, stress, anxiety, life expectancy
Using these in IELTS Speaking
IELTS Speaking rewards natural production over recall. Aim to slip a higher-register word like sedentary lifestyle or public healthcare into your answer at the moment the question invites it, rather than forcing a memorised phrase into the opening sentence. Examiners notice when vocabulary feels rehearsed.
If you are not sure of a collocation, use a slightly safer word you control. A single confident use of calorie in Part 3 — where the question explicitly invites discussion — gives examiners more evidence of range than a stilted opening sentence with three advanced terms.
Using these in IELTS Writing Task 2
Writing Task 2 rewards precise topic vocabulary in body paragraphs more than in the introduction. The introduction restates the prompt and signals your position; the body paragraphs are where examiners look for evidence of lexical range. Anchor each body paragraph on one main idea and weave in two or three words from this page that genuinely advance the argument.
Avoid the temptation to use every word on this page in a single essay. Two or three accurate uses of less common vocabulary is band-7 territory; five forced uses without natural collocation is a band-6 signal. Pair higher-register vocabulary with simple, grammatically clean sentences rather than the other way around.
Common traps to avoid
The most common health & lifestyle trap at band 6.5 is collocation mismatch — using a word in a combination native speakers would not produce. The collocations column on the table above is the most important field for avoiding this; learn sedentary lifestyle not as a single word but as part of the collocations listed beside it.
The second trap is register mismatch: using an informal word in a Writing Task 2 essay, or an overly formal word in a personal Speaking answer. The example sentences on this page are calibrated to the register IELTS expects for each section listed in the header.
Common questions
How many of these health & lifestyle words do I actually need to know?
Will I lose marks if I use an unfamiliar word incorrectly?
Where in the IELTS exam does health & lifestyle vocabulary appear?
How should I memorise this vocabulary effectively for IELTS?
Are these words on the Academic Word List?
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