Half of Brazilians aged over 55 have hypertension

     BRASILIA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- A survey conducted by Brazil's Ministry¹ of Health showed Tuesday that half of Brazilians aged² over 55 have hypertension(高血压).

    According to the research, which has been carried out annually³ since 2006, the proportion of Brazilians diagnosed with hypertension increased over the past five years, from 21.6 percent in 2006 to 23.3 percent in 2010.

    Besides, the diagnosis⁴ of hypertension is higher among women (25.5 percent) than men (20.7 percent). But in both sexes, the older people are, the more common the disease becomes, the ministry reported.

    The ministry also said that, to address the problem, the Brazilian government distributes free medicines to control blood pressure, since 80 percent of Brazilians who suffer from hypertension depend on the public health system.

    The Ministry of Health signed on April 7 an agreement with the food industry, aiming to reduce salt in processed food.

    If hypertension is left untreated, some complications including clogged⁵ arteries⁶, stroke and myocardial infarction will bring patients more troubles.（本文由在线英语听力室整理编辑）

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 annually   

adv.一年一次，每年

参考例句：

• Many migratory birds visit this lake annually.许多候鸟每年到这个湖上作短期逗留。
• They celebrate their wedding anniversary annually.他们每年庆祝一番结婚纪念日。

4 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

5 clogged   

（使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞

参考例句：

• The narrow streets were clogged with traffic. 狭窄的街道上交通堵塞。
• The intake of gasoline was stopped by a clogged fuel line. 汽油的注入由于管道阻塞而停止了。

6 arteries   

n.动脉( artery的名词复数 )；干线，要道

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• This is the place where the three main arteries of West London traffic met. 这就是伦敦西部三条主要交通干线的交汇处。 来自《简明英汉词典》