VOA标准英语2012--Children's Asthma Not Eased by Anti-Reflux Drug

Children's Asthma¹ Not Eased by Anti-Reflux Drug

Seventeen-year-old Alaina Kvapil was diagnosed with asthma when she was 13.
“When you have an asthma attack, your airways² actually close up and people don’t realize that you can’t breathe, you can’t get the air out,” Kvapil said.
The World Health Organization says asthma is the most common chronic³ disease among children. No one knows exactly why, but studies show a link between asthma and acid reflux disease. Up to 70 percent of people with asthma have gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD, which occurs when food and stomach acids leak back up into the esophagus, the tube that connects the mouth to the stomach.
Children and babies can suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease. In children, as in adults, the most common symptom is heartburn.
Alaina Kvapil participated in a study to see if treating her acid reflux disease would also treat her asthma. She was one of more than 300 children who participated in the study. The study involved treating some of the children with powerful drugs called proton pump inhibitors, which reduce the amount of acid in the stomach.
Dr. Janet Holbrook from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health is one of the study's co-authors. “This study is important because proton pump inhibitors are widely used drugs and there’s been a lot of conflicting data about whether they’re effective for the treatment of asthma," Holbrook said.
Half of the children were given a proton pump inhibitor, or PPI, along with an inhaled⁴ steroid that helps with breathing and digestive problems. The other half were given a placebo⁵.
Although medication that treats acid reflux disease often helps to relieve asthma symptoms, the children without acid reflux symptoms who took PPIs did not see any reduction in their asthma symptoms. In fact, the drugs were shown to do some harm.
"In the children who were taking the active drug they tended to have more upper respiratory infections during the study. So not only is the treatment not effective...it may also come with some risk,” Holbrook said.
Even in the children who had documented acid reflux, the PPI did not help their asthma symptoms.
The American Lung Association helped support the study. Journal of the American Medical Association published its findings.

1 asthma   

n.气喘病，哮喘病

参考例句：

• I think he's having an asthma attack.我想他现在是哮喘病发作了。
• Its presence in allergic asthma is well known.它在过敏性气喘中的存在是大家很熟悉的。

2 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

3 chronic   

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。

4 inhaled   

v.吸入( inhale的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She closed her eyes and inhaled deeply. 她合上双眼，深深吸了一口气。
• Janet inhaled sharply when she saw him. 珍妮特看到他时猛地吸了口气。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 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。