VOA慢速英语2013 The Ups and Downs of Living Longer

 

The Ups and Downs of Living Longer

 

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health Report in Special English.

A new study says people are living longer, but many are living longer in poor health. Researchers found that life expectancy¹ has increased by about five years since 1990. On average, men worldwide can expect to live 67 and a half years. Women can expect to live to age 73.

Almost 500 researchers in 50 countries took part in the study of global disease and disability. The findings appear in a series of articles in the Lancet. Richard Horton is the medical journal's editor-in-chief.

"All of us in the world of health focus on diseases and often bad news. Actually, the Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study broadly presents very good news."

The research found that far fewer people died of measles², tetanus, respiratory problems and diarrheal diseases in 2010 than in 1990. Deaths from infections, childbirth-related problems and malnutrition³ fell about 17 percent to 13.2 million.

Global efforts have focused on reducing HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis⁴ and malaria⁵. HIV/AIDS deaths have dropped since 2006, and TB deaths fell almost 20 percent since 1990. But each of these diseases still kills more than a million people every year. The number of malaria deaths increased by an estimated 20 percent, to almost 1.2 million in 2010.

"Those three big, big diseases are not just going to go away."

Mike Cohen is the head of global health research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel⁶ Hill. He was not involved in the research, but says it shows a change taking place worldwide.

"As infectious diseases have been better controlled and people live longer, and as their diets change and lifestyles change, the inevitable⁷ consequence in health is, you have to deal much more broadly with hypertension, heart disease, diabetes⁸."

The study found that these kinds of non-communicable diseases caused more than half of the global burden of disease in 2010.

The two biggest killers⁹ -- heart disease and stroke -- caused one-fourth of all deaths in 2010. That was up from one-fifth in 1990.

There was a 48 percent increase in the number of deaths from lung cancer, which is commonly caused by smoking tobacco.

The top causes of disability in 2010 were physical conditions like arthritis¹⁰ and back problems, and mental and behavioral problems like depression, anxiety and substance abuse. Harvard University professor Joshua Salomon was a co-author of the disability research.

"I think in general we've been more successful at reducing mortality and less successful at actually addressing chronic¹¹ disability."

1 expectancy   

n.期望，预期，（根据概率统计求得）预期数额

参考例句：

• Japanese people have a very high life expectancy.日本人的平均寿命非常长。
• The atomosphere of tense expectancy sobered everyone.这种期望的紧张气氛使每个人变得严肃起来。

2 measles   

n.麻疹，风疹，包虫病，痧子

参考例句：

• The doctor is quite definite about Tom having measles.医生十分肯定汤姆得了麻疹。
• The doctor told her to watch out for symptoms of measles.医生叫她注意麻疹出现的症状。

3 malnutrition   

n.营养不良

参考例句：

• In Africa, there are a lot of children suffering from severe malnutrition.在非洲有大批严重营养不良的孩子。
• It is a classic case of malnutrition. 这是营养不良的典型病例。

4 tuberculosis   

n.结核病，肺结核

参考例句：

• People used to go to special health spring to recover from tuberculosis.人们常去温泉疗养胜地治疗肺结核。
• Tuberculosis is a curable disease.肺结核是一种可治愈的病。

5 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

6 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

7 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

8 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。

9 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

10 arthritis   

n.关节炎

参考例句：

• Rheumatoid arthritis has also been linked with the virus.风湿性关节炎也与这种病毒有关。
• He spent three months in the hospital with acute rheumatic arthritis.他患急性风湿性关节炎，在医院住了三个月。

11 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。