VOA慢速英语20060228b

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Study of Women's Health Proves a Headache for Doctors, PatientsBy Caty Weaver¹

Broadcast: Tuesday, February 28, 2006

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VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Bob Doughty². This week: the findings of a fifteen-year study of women's health.

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VOICE ONE:

Results from the Women's Health Initiative, a huge project in the United States, seem to have created more questions than answers. Many doctors are now wondering what advice to give their patients, especially older women. And many patients are wondering what choices to make to improve their health.

The National Institutes of Health began the project in nineteen ninety-one. The goal was to learn more about how to prevent major causes of death and disability in older women. These are heart disease, breast and colorectal cancer and the bone-weakening disorder³ osteoporosis.


Doctor examines 79-year-old woman

The studies involved more than one hundred sixty thousand women between the ages of fifty and seventy-nine.

VOICE TWO:

One of the major parts of the Women's Health Initiative was a clinical trial. This involved studies of diet, hormone⁴ therapy and treatment with calcium⁵ and vitamin D. In the end, doctors did not find much of what they had expected to find.

For example, doctors have urged people for years to eat a low-fat diet. Studies have suggested that a diet low in fats and high in fruits, vegetables and grains might lower the risk of heart disease. Yet the Women's Health Initiative found no such link.

About fifty thousand women were involved in the diet part of the study. Almost twenty thousand of them were put on a low-fat diet. The others continued with the foods they usually ate.

The goal for the women who changed their eating was to meet a daily target of twenty percent energy from fat. But most of them met only about seventy percent of the desired reduction.

Researchers followed the progress of the women for an average of eight years. The study used a controlled research design to test the findings of earlier studies. Those studies used observational research. That leaves a greater chance for influences other than diet to affect the results.

The results of the new study appeared earlier this month in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

VOICE ONE:

The researchers say the low-fat diet did not reduce the risk of heart disease. Almost seven percent of the low-fat group suffered heart disease. That compared to just over seven percent of the group without a restricted diet. The difference was small enough that scientists say it could be explained by chance.

But the researchers note that the study was not designed to compare the effects of different kinds of fats. Still, they say the findings pointed⁶ toward a reduction in heart disease risk in women who decreased their saturated⁷ and trans fats the most.

VOICE TWO:

Both groups in the diet study had similar rates of colorectal cancer. So the low-fat diet did not appear to reduce the risk. The scientists note that this form of cancer can take a long time to develop, so a five-year follow-up study is being done.

The women who changed their diet had a nine percent lower rate of breast cancer that those who followed their usual diet. The reduction is considered small enough that it could have resulted from chance.

Yet the scientists say there are reasons to think it might not be the result of chance alone. For example, women who started with a higher level of fat in their diet, and did more to lower it, had greater reductions in breast cancer risk.

The researchers say it is too soon to know if exercise had any effect on the women in the study. The findings are still being examined. And the study does not answers questions about what effects dietary changes might have on younger women.

VOICE ONE:

The findings from the tests of added calcium and vitamin D in the diet also surprised many people. The study found that these supplements offered only limited bone improvements. And there was no effect on the risk of colorectal cancer.

Eighteen thousand women took calcium and vitamin D; eighteen thousand others took a placebo⁸, an inactive substance. None of the women knew which one they received. The New England Journal of Medicine published the results.

VOICE TWO:

The results suggest that calcium and vitamin D might reduce the risk of a broken hip⁹ in some women, especially those over the age of sixty. But there was no evidence that the supplements prevented other broken bones.

The study found that the group that took the calcium and vitamin D had a greater risk of kidney stones. The women had a seventeen percent increase in kidney stones compared to the other group.

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VOICE ONE:

You are listening to SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English from Washington.

When a woman experiences menopause, her reproductive ability ends. The body produces less and less estrogen and other female hormones¹⁰. The ovaries no longer release eggs into the uterus and monthly bleeding stops.

As a result of these changes, women can experience sweating and intense feelings of heat as they enter menopause. They might also get angry or sad easily. Some women feel extremely tired. Others go through times when they cannot sleep peacefully.

To deal with these effects, doctors sometimes treat women with female hormones. This is called hormone replacement¹¹ therapy.

But three years ago the Women's Health Initiative had some bad news for women who took a combination of progestin and estrogen. The study showed that the women who took these two hormones had an increased risk of breast cancer. Researchers halted that part of the study early as a result.

VOICE TWO:

But even the shortened study provided other findings as well -- and more bad news than good. Researchers say the combined hormone treatment also increased the risk of heart disease and loss of mental abilities from dementia. Yet the women who took progestin and estrogen did show a reduced risk of osteoporosis and colorectal cancer.

Another part of the hormone study examined the use of estrogen alone. Estrogen taken alone can cause cancer of the uterus. So the estrogen-alone study only involved women who in the past had to have their uterus removed.

About ten thousand women took part in the study. One group took estrogen; another received a placebo.

Doctors followed the progress of the women for almost seven years. Overall, the doctors found an increased risk of stroke and blood clots¹². But they say the estrogen appeared to reduce the risk of osteoporosis. They found no effect on rates of colon¹³ cancer. The researchers say the effects on breast cancer were not clear.

VOICE ONE:

Some researchers noted¹⁴ that younger women in the group that took estrogen appeared to gain some protection from heart disease. For example, they were found to have a lower rate of heart bypass operations than the older women in the group.

These findings are from what is called a subgroup. Researchers sometimes question the value of results based on a group within a group. They say the findings might not be as scientifically strong as those based on the full study. Subgroup findings can still be informative¹⁵, however, and lead to further research.

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VOICE TWO:

The United States government spent more than seven hundred million dollars on the Women's Health Initiative.

People hoping for some simple advice to follow will not find it in the reports. The results are complex. Not all of the women did what they were supposed to do during all of the years of the studies. And some scientists have criticisms of the way the research was designed. Big is not always better, they say.

VOICE ONE:

Jacques Rossouw, the project officer for the Women's Health Initiative, agrees that the findings are not very clear. Doctor Rossouw has said he shares concerns about how people will understand them. He says the results do not mean that a high-fat diet is fine or that calcium supplements are not useful.

People might not like it when studies conflict with widely held beliefs. Yet scientists would argue that testing widely held beliefs is the very nature of scientific study. After all, proof is often a moving target.

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VOICE TWO:

SCIENCE IN THE NEWS was written by Caty Weaver and produced by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Faith Lapidus. Internet users can read and listen to our programs at www.unsv.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 weaver   

n.织布工；编织者

参考例句：

• She was a fast weaver and the cloth was very good.她织布织得很快，而且布的质量很好。
• The eager weaver did not notice my confusion.热心的纺织工人没有注意到我的狼狈相。

2 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

3 disorder   

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 hormone   

n.荷尔蒙，激素，内分泌

参考例句：

• Hormone implants are used as growth boosters.激素植入物被用作生长辅助剂。
• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body.这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。

5 calcium   

n.钙(化学符号Ca)

参考例句：

• We need calcium to make bones.我们需要钙来壮骨。
• Calcium is found most abundantly in milk.奶含钙最丰富。

6 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

7 saturated   

a.饱和的，充满的

参考例句：

• The continuous rain had saturated the soil. 连绵不断的雨把土地淋了个透。
• a saturated solution of sodium chloride 氯化钠饱和溶液

8 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

9 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

10 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

11 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

12 clots   

n.凝块( clot的名词复数 )；血块；蠢人；傻瓜v.凝固( clot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• When you cut yourself, blood clots and forms a scab. 你割破了，血会凝固、结痂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Milk clots when it turns sour. 奶变酸就凝块。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

13 colon   

n.冒号，结肠，直肠

参考例句：

• Here,too,the colon must be followed by a dash.这里也是一样，应当在冒号后加破折号。
• The colon is the locus of a large concentration of bacteria.结肠是大浓度的细菌所在地。

14 noted   

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 informative   

adj.提供资料的，增进知识的

参考例句：

• The adverts are not very informative.这些广告并没有包含太多有用信息。
• This intriguing book is both thoughtful and informative.这本引人入胜的书既有思想性又富知识性。