HEALTH REPORT - National Library of Medicine

HEALTH REPORT - National Library of Medicine
By Jerilyn Watson

Broadcast: Wednesday, March 24, 2004

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Every year, people from all over the world get information from the United States National Library of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. The library is part of the National Institutes of Health. It is the world's largest center of medical information. Doctors, scientists, teachers and historians¹ use the library. So do people who just want to know more about health and sickness.

Thousands of people visit the Library near Washington, D.C. Others get information by computer. For example, people can get health information from a National Library service called Medline Plus. This service cannot identify or advise about individual cases of disorders³. But it provides general knowledge about more than six-hundred-fifty diseases and conditions.

A Medline Plus dictionary includes descriptions of medical words. For example, you might hear that someone has had an appendectomy. In the medical dictionary, you can learn that the person has had an operation to remove a part of the intestine⁴ called the appendix⁵.

Drug information on the site describes medicines. Suppose you want to know the possible effects of taking the pain-killer aspirin⁶. You can check a long list of drug descriptions. You can get Medline Plus services through the National Library of Medicine's Web Site, w-w-w dot n-l-m dot n-i-h dot g-o-v. Information appears in English and Spanish.

The Library also offers a Web site especially for older adults and their families. It is called NIH Senior Health, found at w-w-w dot n-i-h-s-e-n-i-o-r-h-e-a-l-t-h dot g-o-v. The National Library created the site with the National Institute on Aging. The site makes it possible for people to find current information from National Institute of Health centers. For example, older people can learn the latest news about the treatment of heart disease or osteoporosis, a bone disorder².

The site designers developed NIH Senior Health from Institute on Aging studies about changes in the thinking abilities of older people. These include understanding, learning, memory and ability to see. Because of these changes, the site contains print that can be made bigger and sharper. Information has been kept short. And a "talking" operation can speak the words.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Jerilyn Watson.

1 historians   

n.历史学家，史学工作者( historian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Historians seem to have confused the chronology of these events. 历史学家好像把这些事件发生的年代顺序搞混了。
• Historians have concurred with each other in this view. 历史学家在这个观点上已取得一致意见。

2 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。

3 disorders   

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》

4 intestine   

adj.内部的；国内的；n.肠

参考例句：

• This vitamin is absorbed through the walls of the small intestine.这种维生素通过小肠壁被吸收。
• The service productivity is the function,including external efficiency,intestine efficiency and capacity efficiency.服务业的生产率是一个包含有外部效率、内部效率和能力效率的函数。

5 appendix   

n.附录，附属物，阑尾，盲肠

参考例句：

• I have recently had my appendix removed.我最近切除了阑尾。
• There is an appendix at the back of the book.该书末尾处有一附录。

6 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。