VOA慢速英语-SCIENCE IN THE NEWS - Cause of Alzheimer’s Disease S

The latest developments in research into the most common form of dementia. Transcript¹ of radio broadcast:
09 June 2008

VOICE ONE:

This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I’m Faith Lapidus.

VOICE TWO:

And I’m Bob Doughty². Today we tell about Alzheimer’s disease. One century after its discovery, the disease is still destroying people’s brains. The cause remains³ unknown.

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VOICE ONE:
　

Retired4 Supreme5 Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor spoke6 to the Senate Special Committee on Aging last month about Alzheimer's disease. Her husband, John, suffers from the disease.

A United States Senate committee met last month to discuss the issue of Alzheimer's disease. The Senate Special Committee on Aging heard from several speakers, including retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor. She urged Congress to support an aggressive campaign against the disease.

Miz O’Connor was the first woman to serve on America's highest court. But she left the court in two thousand six. Her husband John suffers from Alzheimer’s. She needed time to move him to an assisted–care center.

VOICE TWO:

About five hundred thousand people in the United States alone have this heartbreaking disease. Millions more are expected to have it in years to come.

Doctors describe Alzheimer's as a slowly increasing brain disorder⁷. It affects memory and personality -- those qualities that make a person an individual. There is no known cure. Victims slowly lose their abilities to deal with everyday life. At first, they forget simple things, like where they put something or a person’s name.

As time passes, they forget more and more. They forget the names of their husbands, wives or children. Then they forget who they are. Finally, they remember nothing. It is as if their brain dies before the other parts of the body. Victims of Alzheimer’s do die from the disease, but it may take many years.

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VOICE ONE:
　

Jeannette Zeltzer, 81, and her new boyfriend Max Rakov, 92, hold hands in March at an assisted living center in Massachusetts. Both have Alzheimer's, and she recently lost her husband to the disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is the most common disability or mental sickness called dementia. Dementia is the loss of thinking ability that is severe enough to interfere⁸ with daily activities. It is not a disease itself. Instead, dementia is a group of signs of some conditions and diseases.

Some kinds of dementia can be cured or corrected. This is especially true if they result from drugs, infection, sight or hearing problems, head injury, and heart or lung problems. Other kinds of dementia can be corrected by changing levels of hormones⁹ or vitamins in the body. However, brain cells of Alzheimer’s victims die and are not replaced.

Victims can become angry and violent as the ability to think and remember decreases. Often they shout and move with no purpose or goal. Media reports often tell about older adults found walking in places far from their homes. They do not know where they are or where they came from. Generally, these people are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

VOICE TWO:

Alzheimer’s generally develops differently in each person. Yet some early signs of the disease are common. Often, the victims may not recognize changes in themselves. Others see the changes and struggle to hide them.

Probably the most common early sign is short-term memory loss. The victim cannot remember something that happened yesterday, for example. Also, victims of the disease have increasing difficulty learning and storing new information. Slowly, thinking becomes much more difficult. The victims cannot understand a joke, or cannot cook a meal, or perform simple work.

VOICE ONE:

Another sign of Alzheimer’s disease is difficulty solving simple problems. Alzheimer’s patients might not know what to do if food on a stove is burning. Also, people have trouble following directions or finding their way to nearby places.

Another sign is struggling to find the right words to express thoughts or understand what is being discussed. Finally, people with Alzheimer’s seem to change. Quiet people may become noisy and aggressive. They may easily become angry and lose their ability to trust others.

VOICE TWO:

Alzheimer’s disease normally affects people more than sixty-five years old. But rare cases have been discovered in people younger than fifty.

Alzheimer’s is identified in only about two percent of people who are sixty-five. But the risk increases to about twenty percent by age eighty. By ninety, half of all people are found to have some signs of the disease.

Alzheimer’s affects people of all races equally. Yet women are more likely to develop the disease than men. This is partly because women generally live longer than men.

VOICE ONE:

There is no one, simple test to show if someone has Alzheimer’s disease. Social workers and mental health experts sometimes test for memory and judgment¹¹. Patients may be asked to identify smells such as smoke, natural gas or fruits. Some scientists say a weakened ability to identify smells may be involved. They believe it might show possible development of Alzheimer’s.

Medical doctors who suspect a patient has Alzheimer’s must test the person for many other physical problems first. Alzheimer’s is considered if the tests fail to show the existence of other problems. The only way to be sure a person has Alzheimer’s is to examine the victim’s brain after death.

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VOICE TWO:

People who care for Alzheimer’s patients may become extremely tired physically¹² and emotionally. Families often can get advice and emotional support from local groups. The Alzheimer’s Disease Education and Referral Center and The Alzheimer’s Association provide information and support.

Patients cannot fully¹³ recover from the disease. But many can be helped by medicine. That is especially true if the disease is found early.

VOICE ONE:

America's Food and Drug Administration has approved several drugs to treat signs of the disease. The drugs are of two kinds. A doctor must order these medicines for patients.

Most are called cholinesterase inhibitors. Cholinesterase inhibitors may work by protecting a chemical messenger needed for brain activities. They are meant to treat memory, thinking, language, judgment and other brain activity. They are used for mild to moderate cases of the disease.

The second kind of drug has a long name. It is represented by the drug memantine. This medicine seems to work by governing the activity of a chemical involved in information processing, storage and memory. It treats patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s.

VOICE TWO:

British writer Iris¹⁴ Murdoch died of Alzheimer's disease. She said it was a dark and terrible place.

The two thousand seven film,“Away from Her” tells what happens to one marriage when a partner suffers from Alzheimer’s Disease. Julie Christie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress for playing the patient. Listen as she describes the pain of her mental condition.

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VOICE ONE:

It has been more than a century since a German doctor, Alois Alzheimer, told about a dementia patient whose brain was studied after death. Her brain had sticky structures and nerve cells that appeared to be mixed together. Later studies showed these nerves are made of a protein called tau. The tau protein changes so that it sticks together in groups. The sticky structures were shown to be amyloid plaques¹⁵.

Scientists are still not sure what causes Alzheimer’s disease. The leading theory blames amyloid plaques.

VOICE TWO:

Not all scientists are sure that amyloid plaques cause Alzheimer’s. Some say the plaques could be an effect of the disease, not the cause. Reports say some people who die of Alzheimer's do not have any plaques in their brains. Others who have the sticky structures showed no signs of the disease.

Other possibilities are sometimes noted¹⁶. These include studies of enzymes¹⁷ that act on proteins to produce the plaques, and using antibodies against amyloid. Yet amyloid and enzymes are important for health. Scientists do not want to destroy them completely.

Other scientists are working with a gene¹⁰ called apoE4. Researchers found in nineteen ninety-three that its presence increases the chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

VOICE ONE:

Many more studies are being done to find the cause and treatments for Alzheimer's. It is a disease that continues to affect millions of people around the world.

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VOICE TWO:

This SCIENCE IN THE NEWS program was written by Jerilyn Watson. Our producer was Brianna Blake. This is Bob Doughty.

VOICE ONE:

And this is Faith Lapidus. Read and listen to our programs at voaspecialenglish.com. Join us again next week for more news about science in Special English on the Voice of America.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 doughty   

adj.勇猛的，坚强的

参考例句：

• Most of successful men have the characteristics of contumacy and doughty.绝大多数成功人士都有共同的特质：脾气倔强，性格刚强。
• The doughty old man battled his illness with fierce determination.坚强的老人用巨大毅力与疾病作斗争。

3 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

6 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

7 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。

8 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

9 hormones   

n. 荷尔蒙，激素 名词hormone的复数形式

参考例句：

• This hormone interacts closely with other hormones in the body. 这种荷尔蒙与体內其他荷尔蒙紧密地相互作用。
• The adrenals produce a large per cent of a man's sex hormones. 肾上腺分泌人体的大部分性激素。

10 gene   

n.遗传因子，基因

参考例句：

• A single gene may have many effects.单一基因可能具有很多种效应。
• The targeting of gene therapy has been paid close attention.其中基因治疗的靶向性是值得密切关注的问题之一。

11 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

12 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。

13 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

14 iris   

n.虹膜，彩虹

参考例句：

• The opening of the iris is called the pupil.虹膜的开口处叫做瞳孔。
• This incredible human eye,complete with retina and iris,can be found in the Maldives.又是在马尔代夫，有这样一只难以置信的眼睛，连视网膜和虹膜都刻画齐全了。

15 plaques   

（纪念性的）匾牌( plaque的名词复数 )； 纪念匾； 牙斑； 空斑

参考例句：

• Primary plaques were detectable in 16 to 20 hours. 在16到20小时内可查出原发溶斑。
• The gondoliers wore green and white livery and silver plaques on their chests. 船夫们穿着白绿两色的制服，胸前别着银质徽章。

16 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

17 enzymes   

n. 酶，酵素

参考例句：

• It was said that washing powders containing enzymes remove stains more efficiently. 据说加酶洗衣粉除污更有效。
• Among the enzymes which are particularly effective are pepsin, papain. 在酶当中特别有效的是胃朊酶、木瓜酶。