VOA慢速英语2009-Health Report - Study Links Hot Weather to Migra

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

A migraine headache can cause disabling pain. People may not feel back to normal for hours or even days.

Migraine headaches are most common among young adults and middle-aged¹ people. In the United States, about eighteen percent of women and six percent of men report having migraines.

People who suffer from migraines can find that different "triggers" in different people may get a headache started. Stress can act as a trigger. So can chocolate in some people.

Many migraine sufferers say hot weather and low barometric² pressure can act as triggers. But researchers say they did not have much scientific evidence of that -- until now.

In a new study, a team examined the medical records of seven thousand hospital patients. The patients had visited the emergency room at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts, because of a headache. More than two thousand of them had been found to have a migraine.

The team then compared those records to weather conditions in the twenty-four hours before the hospital visits. For every increase of five degrees Celsius³ in air temperature, the patients had a seven and one-half percent higher risk of migraine. Decreases in barometric pressure two to three days before the visit also appeared to trigger headaches, but to a lesser⁴ extent.

The researchers found no evidence that air pollution influenced headaches. But they could not rule out the possibility of a smaller effect similar to that seen earlier for strokes.

Kenneth Mukamal of Beth Israel Deaconess and Harvard Medical School led the study, reported in the journal Neurology.

A separate study has found that age, gender⁵ and where a person has extra body fat may affect the risk of migraine. It found that overweight people between the ages of twenty and fifty-five may have a higher risk. On average, those who were larger around the middle were more likely to have migraines than those of the same age with smaller waistlines.

The study involved twenty-two thousand people. It was led by Lee Peterlin of Drexel University College of Medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She says early results suggest that losing weight in the stomach area may help younger people who experience migraines, especially women. The findings will be presented in a few weeks at the American Academy of Neurology meeting in Seattle, Washington.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report, written by Caty Weaver⁶. I'm Steve Ember.

1 middle-aged   

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。

2 barometric   

大气压力

参考例句：

• Electricity compensates for barometric pressure as well as system pressure variations. 用电补偿大气压和系统压力的变化。
• A barometric altimeter indicates height above sea level or some other selected elevation. 气压高度表用以指示海平面或另外某个被选定高度以上的高度。

3 Celsius   

adj.摄氏温度计的，摄氏的

参考例句：

• The temperature tonight will fall to seven degrees Celsius.今晚气温将下降到七摄氏度。
• The maximum temperature in July may be 36 degrees Celsius.七月份最高温度可能达到36摄氏度。

4 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

5 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

6 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。