VOA慢速英语2012 Health Report - With Physical Activity, No Need to Be an Olympian

 

Health Report - With Physical Activity, No Need to Be an Olympian

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

Watching the Olympics probably made some people feel a little guilty about not exercising. The truth is, if physical inactivity were a sport, a lot of us could give a gold-medal performance. Or should we say non-performance?

To mark the London Olympics, the Lancet, a British medical journal, published a series of papers about this problem. Public health experts say physical inactivity is the world's fourth leading cause of death. They estimate that inactivity plays a major part in six to ten percent of deaths from non-communicable diseases. These include conditions like heart disease, diabetes¹, and colon² and breast cancer.

I. Min Lee at the Harvard School of Public Health worked with a team that studied inactivity. She says the findings are conservative and may even underestimate the problem.

I. MIN LEE: "Physical inactivity is harmful to health, as harmful as far as deaths are concerned as smoking."

The researchers compared data on physical inactivity with disease rates in one hundred twenty-two countries.

I. MIN LEE: "So when we did our analysis, we looked at increased risk of disease after taking into account other health habits that might be associated with physical activity. For example, we know that if you are active, you probably smoke less. Additionally we factored out obesity³, independent of the fact that active people also tend to weigh less."

Harold Kohl from the University of Texas School of Public Health also worked on the special report. He says physical inactivity should be recognized as a global epidemic⁴.

HAROLD KOHL: "We have to realize that high income countries are the most inactive around the world, but low to middle income countries are not going to be far behind as things change, as their economies improve and their people rely more on the improvements that basically engineer physical activity out of our daily lives."

Harold Kohl points to campaigns that continue to reduce smoking and alcohol use. He says the time has come to target physical inactivity as a major threat to public health.

HAROLD KOHL: "It is not just telling someone to go out and be physically⁵ active, but how we rely on the transportation sector⁶ or how our cities or neighborhoods are designed, how crime can be minimized to help people become more physically active in their neighborhoods, simply walking to the store or walking down and being outside with friends and family and so forth⁷. These broader environmental issues are becoming much clearer in terms of their effects."

I. Min Lee agrees -- and she challenges people to do one hundred fifty minutes a week of moderately intense exercise.

I. MIN LEE: "Anything you can do is great! Even if you don't reach that 150 minutes a week, a little is better than none and more is better than a little."

She plans to return every four years -- just like the Olympics -- to give a progress report to tell us how the world is doing.

And that's the VOA Special English Health Report. How much physical activity do you get? Are you a couch potato or a gym rat, someone who just sits and watches TV or someone who continually works out at the gym? Tell us at www.voanews.cn. And if you listen to music when you exercise, give us your nominations⁸ for the best workout songs. 

1 diabetes   

n.糖尿病

参考例句：

• In case of diabetes, physicians advise against the use of sugar.对于糖尿病患者，医生告诫他们不要吃糖。
• Diabetes is caused by a fault in the insulin production of the body.糖尿病是由体內胰岛素分泌失调引起的。

2 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。

3 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

4 epidemic   

n.流行病；盛行；adj.流行性的，流传极广的

参考例句：

• That kind of epidemic disease has long been stamped out.那种传染病早已绝迹。
• The authorities tried to localise the epidemic.当局试图把流行病限制在局部范围。

5 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

6 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

7 forth   

adv.向前；向外，往外

参考例句：

• The wind moved the trees gently back and forth.风吹得树轻轻地来回摇晃。
• He gave forth a series of works in rapid succession.他很快连续发表了一系列的作品。

8 nominations   

n.提名，任命( nomination的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Nominations are invited for the post of party chairman. 为党主席职位征集候选人。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Much coverage surrounded his abortive bids for the 1960,1964, and 1968 Republican Presidential nominations. 许多消息报道都围绕着1960年、1964年和1968年他为争取提名为共和党总统候选人所做努力的失败。 来自辞典例句