VOA慢速英语2019 医生：应该提倡做减肥手术以帮助预防严重肥胖（在线收听）

Doctor: Bariatric Surgery Underused Tool to Prevent Severe Obesity

Bariatric surgery helps people who are severely overweight. The surgery can help them lose weight and regain their health.

减肥手术能帮助那些严重超重的人。手术可以帮助他们减肥，恢复健康。

Doctors remove part of the stomach, so the patient is forced to eat less food. It is a difficult, life-changing operation. Yet some doctors think it should be done more often, before patients become severely obese.

医生切除了一部分胃，所以病人食欲会大减。这是一项有难度且能改变人生的手术。然而，一些医生认为，在病人变得严重肥胖之前，应该更经常地做该手术。

Shaun Rogers struggled for more than 20 years to control his weight while he battled the disease diabetes.

肖恩·罗杰斯（Shaun Rogers）在与糖尿病作斗争的同时，已经为控制体重努力了20多年。

“By just dieting and continuing …with the insulin, I was never going to lose the amount of weight I needed to, to change …and get the diabetes under really good control,” he said.

“只是通过节食和继续注射胰岛素，我永远无法减掉需要减掉体重，无法改变并且让糖尿病得到很好的控制，”他说。

Diabetes patients take insulin to get blood sugar, or glucose, into their cells. However, insulin can make people feel hungry, making it even harder to lose weight.

糖尿病患者注射胰岛素将血糖或葡萄糖输入细胞。然而，胰岛素会使人感到饥饿，使减肥更加困难。

Costly treatment

高昂的治疗费用

Bariatric surgery is costly. In the United States, insurance companies will not always pay for the surgery. They require a patient’s body mass index (BMI) to be at least 35, even if a patient’s diabetes is uncontrolled. BMI is the measure of body fat based on the person’s height and weight.

减肥手术费用高昂。在美国，保险公司并不总是为这类手术买单。他们要求病人的身体质量指数（BMI）至少为35，即使病人的糖尿病是无法控制的。BMI是根据一个人的身高和体重来衡量身体脂肪的指标。

Stacy Brethauer is a surgeon at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, Ohio. He says the BMI number does not always show how a patient is reacting to treatment for diabetes.

史黛西·柏思德（Stacy Brethauer）是俄亥俄州哥伦布市俄亥俄州立大学韦克斯纳医学中心的外科医生。他说，身体质量指数并不总能反映出病人对糖尿病治疗的反应。

“BMI is not really a fair …representation of who should be getting therapy,” he said.

“BMI并不能作为衡量谁应该接受治疗的标准，”他说。

Brethauer added that the rules for who gets bariatric surgery need to be changed.

柏思德补充说，减肥手术适用对象的规定需要作出改变。

“The patient who doesn’t get the operation, we know very well that their disease will progress, their lifespan will be shortened if they don’t get effective treatment,” he said.

他说:“那些没有接受手术的病人，我们非常清楚，如果得不到有效的治疗，他们的病情将会恶化，他们的寿命将会缩短。”

The American Medical Association identifies obesity as a complex, chronic disease that requires medical attention. If it is not treated, obesity can lead to heart disease, cancer and diabetes. Brethauer believes early treatment is necessary for both obesity and diabetes.

美国医学协会认为肥胖是一种复杂的慢性疾病，需要医疗护理。如果不治疗，肥胖会导致心脏病、癌症和糖尿病。柏思德认为早期治疗对肥胖和糖尿病都是必要的。

Double standard?

双重标准？

“No one asks somebody with cancer or heart disease to ‘just do it themselves…’ but there’s also effective therapy being offered to those patients at the same time,” he said.‘’

“没有人要求癌症或心脏病患者接受‘早期治疗’……但是同时也为这些患者提供了有效的治疗，”他说。

Since he had surgery to reduce the size of his stomach, Shaun Rogers has lost a lot of weight. His diabetes is also under control. Rogers no longer needs oral medication. And he has cut down on the use of insulin, going from nearly 500 units a day down to about 10.

自从做了缩胃手术后，肖恩·罗杰斯的体重减轻了很多。他的糖尿病也得到了控制。罗杰斯不再需要口服药物。他还减少了胰岛素的使用量，从每天近500个单位降至约10个单位。

“It’s changed my life so much,” he said, “I would tell anyone do it.”

“这一手术极大地改善了我的生活，”他说，“我想建议其他人试试。”

Diabetes is a health issue worldwide. More than 400 million people have the disease. That number represents one in 11 adults. The World Health Organization estimates that number will rise sharply in the near future.

糖尿病是一个世界性的健康问题。超过4亿人患有这一疾病。该数据表明，每11个成年人中就有一名糖尿病患者。世界卫生组织估计，不久的将来人数还会急剧上升。

If people with diabetes have bariatric surgery early on, their diabetes can be cured. For those who have had the disease for 10 years or more, and need insulin, bariatric surgery will not cure their diabetes. But as Stacy Brethauer notes, it can greatly improve their health.

如果糖尿病患者在早期进行减肥手术，他们的糖尿病是可以治愈的。对于那些患有糖尿病10年或10年以上并需要胰岛素治疗的人来说，减肥手术并不能治愈他们的糖尿病。但正如柏思德指出的，这一手术可以极大地改善他们的健康。

Words in This Story

stomach – n. the organ in your body where food goes and begins to be digested after you swallow it

obese – n. very fat : fat in a way that is unhealthy

insulin – n. a substance that your body makes and uses to turn sugar into energy

height – n. a measurement of how tall a person or thing is

therapy – n. the treatment of physical or mental illnesses

chronic – adj. continuing or occurring again and again for a long time

oral – adj. by the mouth

unit – n. a standard measurement