在线英语听力室

VOA慢速英语2013 AS IT IS - Hunger is bad for your health

时间:2013-03-28 09:04:15

搜索关注在线英语听力室公众号:tingroom,领取免费英语资料大礼包。

(单词翻译)

 

AS IT IS - Hunger is bad for your health

Hello and welcome to another “As It Is” program.   I’m Jim Tedder1 in Washington.

Today we examine your health.  Doctors say you have got to get up out of that chair and move!  Sitting for long periods is not good for you.  We all know that hunger in the world is a major problem.  But how bad is it really?  But first, listen carefully if you have ever used Chinese herbs to help you lose weight.  Scientists in Britain have been studying an ingredient added to some herbal medicines that can cause severe kidney disease and cancer.

In the early 1990s, several young women in Belgium were sickened with kidney disease. All the women had been treated with Chinese herbal medicines at a weight-loss center. The medicinal herbs came from a family called Aristolochia. They are used to treat skin conditions, joint2 pain and other disorders4. Graham Lord is with King’s College London. He says the cases were blamed on aristolochic acid, an ingredient in some of the plants.

“It binds5 to DNA6 and causes kidney disease. It causes cancer in areas where it’s most concentrated, which probably explains who the cancers are mostly focused around the urinary tract7 and the kidney.”

Professor Lord is the lead writer of a new paper describing the kidney disease. For the paper, he and his team collected about 20 years of published medical literature. The disorder3 is now called aristolochic acid neuropathy, or AAN. The paper suggests setting standards – rules – for identifying and treating the problem.

Herbs containing aristolochic acid are banned from Europe and the United States. The resulting form of kidney disease is now mostly found in other areas. Professor Lord suggests blocking imports of the herbs.

“Import bans, working with the herbal practitioners8 that in the past have used this drug, can be extraordinarily9 effective.”

In places where they are common, cases of AAN are still being reported. Professor Lord says that in Taiwan, studies suggest tens if not hundreds of thousands of people have come in contact with this herb. But he admits it is hard to know how many people are getting kidney disease from such plants. He says identifying the disorder requires testing to differentiate10 it from other kinds of kidney disease.

The report by Graham Lord and his team was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Doctors say you had better use it before you lose it.  The more you sit each day, the more chance you have of getting sick.  Milagros Ardin has the latest details.

Richard Rosenkranz of Kansas State University was among the researchers. He says people who sat for long periods were at greater risk of the diseases when compared with those who sat less. He said that was especially true for diabetes11.

“We saw increased risk at higher levels (of sitting) for high blood pressure as well as for any chronic12 disease.”

Richard Rosenkranz studied the relationship between sitting and chronic diseases in middle-aged13 Australian men. He worked with researchers from the University of Western Sydney. They examined the health records of more than 63 thousand men from New South Wales. The men were between the ages of 45 and 65. The men reported about what diseases they had, or did not have. And they kept record of the amount of time each day that they sat.

The study also showed that exercising every morning for 30 minutes does not reduce the health risk if you spend the next eight hours sitting at a desk. Mr. Rosenkranz says it is important to make sure you exercise. But he says it is also important to find ways not to sit so much during the day.

The World Health Organization blames sedentary lifestyles for about two million deaths each year. It also considers inactivity to be one of the 10 leading causes of death and disability worldwide.

Many jobs today require sitting and working at a desk all day, he noted14. But other occupations also require a lot of sitting – occupations such as driving a truck or a taxi.

James Levine works at the Mayo Clinic in the United States. He suggests working while standing15 at a high table some of the time instead of sitting at a desk. Dr. Levine also suggests standing while using the telephone or eating. Or he advises walking with the people you work with for an on-foot conference. And he notes that if you spend more time on your feet, you may have muscle activity that helps burn fats and sugars in your body.  I’m Milagros Ardin.

If you are going to treat hunger in the world, you need to know how bad the situation really is.  The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has a new project that may give us important information.  It is called “Voices of the Hungry” and Christopher Cruise reports.

The UN agency wants to hear from the people themselves -- and not deal just with studies and reports. FAO official Carlo Cafiero says the current system of measuring food supplies and hunger is important. But he notes that it often causes long delays.

“From the moment in which this information is collected to the moment in which it is cleared, processed and sent to us, there may be two or three years’ delay.”

He says even developed countries do not have regular surveys – studies – of how much food people get to eat. Food consumption surveys are generally performed every five years. The FAO official says the current situation is not well understood, and that this became very apparent during the food price crisis.

In 2007, many experts predicted a worldwide economic recession. Food prices began going up. Carlo Cafiero says that led to an unpleasant prediction about food consumption. He notes that a few years later, it was learned that the economies of China, India and other developing countries did not slow down sharply. The predicted events did not take place in each and every country. And, he says, that is where the model-based prediction to make an estimate of the current situation was proved wrong.

The new Voices of the Hungry project is described as fast and more exact. It will use surveys of individuals to collect information on the extent and severity of hunger. The surveys will be done every year in cooperation with the survey group, Gallup. The project will be tested in the coming months in Angola, Ethiopia, Malawi and Niger. I’m Christopher Cruise.

And that is all for today, Tuesday, the 26th day of March.  Today, by the way, is birthday number 65 for Steven Tyler, lead singer for the rock group “Aerosmith.”


分享到:


点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 tedder 2833afc4f8252d8dc9f8cd73b24db55d     
n.(干草)翻晒者,翻晒机
参考例句:
  • Jim Tedder has more. 吉姆?特德将给我们做更多的介绍。 来自互联网
  • Jim Tedder tells us more. 吉姆?泰德给我们带来更详细的报道。 来自互联网
2 joint m3lx4     
adj.联合的,共同的;n.关节,接合处;v.连接,贴合
参考例句:
  • I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤,肩膀脫臼了。
  • We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。
3 disorder Et1x4     
n.紊乱,混乱;骚动,骚乱;疾病,失调
参考例句:
  • When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后,他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
  • It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。
4 disorders 6e49dcafe3638183c823d3aa5b12b010     
n.混乱( disorder的名词复数 );凌乱;骚乱;(身心、机能)失调
参考例句:
  • Reports of anorexia and other eating disorders are on the increase. 据报告,厌食症和其他饮食方面的功能紊乱发生率正在不断增长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • The announcement led to violent civil disorders. 这项宣布引起剧烈的骚乱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 binds c1d4f6440575ef07da0adc7e8adbb66c     
v.约束( bind的第三人称单数 );装订;捆绑;(用长布条)缠绕
参考例句:
  • Frost binds the soil. 霜使土壤凝结。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Stones and cement binds strongly. 石头和水泥凝固得很牢。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 DNA 4u3z1l     
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸
参考例句:
  • DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
  • Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
7 tract iJxz4     
n.传单,小册子,大片(土地或森林)
参考例句:
  • He owns a large tract of forest.他拥有一大片森林。
  • He wrote a tract on this subject.他曾对此写了一篇短文。
8 practitioners 4f6cea6bb06753de69fd05e8adbf90a8     
n.习艺者,实习者( practitioner的名词复数 );从业者(尤指医师)
参考例句:
  • one of the greatest practitioners of science fiction 最了不起的科幻小说家之一
  • The technique is experimental, but the list of its practitioners is growing. 这种技术是试验性的,但是采用它的人正在增加。 来自辞典例句
9 extraordinarily Vlwxw     
adv.格外地;极端地
参考例句:
  • She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
  • The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨,大海出奇地宁静。
10 differentiate cm3yc     
vi.(between)区分;vt.区别;使不同
参考例句:
  • You can differentiate between the houses by the shape of their chimneys.你可以凭借烟囱形状的不同来区分这两幢房子。
  • He never learned to differentiate between good and evil.他从未学会分辨善恶。
11 diabetes uPnzu     
n.糖尿病
参考例句:
  • In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者,医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
  • Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。
12 chronic BO9zl     
adj.(疾病)长期未愈的,慢性的;极坏的
参考例句:
  • Famine differs from chronic malnutrition.饥荒不同于慢性营养不良。
  • Chronic poisoning may lead to death from inanition.慢性中毒也可能由虚弱导致死亡。
13 middle-aged UopzSS     
adj.中年的
参考例句:
  • I noticed two middle-aged passengers.我注意到两个中年乘客。
  • The new skin balm was welcome by middle-aged women.这种新护肤香膏受到了中年妇女的欢迎。
14 noted 5n4zXc     
adj.著名的,知名的
参考例句:
  • The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
  • Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。
15 standing 2hCzgo     
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的
参考例句:
  • After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
  • They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

本文本内容来源于互联网抓取和网友提交,仅供参考,部分栏目没有内容,如果您有更合适的内容,欢迎 点击提交 分享给大家。