Cardiovascular Disease and Women

By Nancy Steinbach

Broadcast: October 8, 2003

This is Faith Lapidus with the VOA Special English Health Report.
The World Health Organization says that each year almost seventeen-million people die of heart disease and stroke. More than eight-million of them are women. In fact, heart attacks and strokes cause two times as many deaths in women as all kinds of cancer combined.
September twenty-eighth was 1)World Heart Day. The W-H-O used the event to release a report on a major worldwide study. The project was called Monitoring 2)Cardiovascular Disease, or MONICA. The study took place from the middle of the nineteen-eighties to the middle of the nineties. Teams in twenty-one countries measured levels of heart disease, stroke and the risk factors that can lead to them in different populations. The W-H-O says the information is important for developing prevention policies and for demonstrating the value of new treatments.
The World Heart Day observance this year centered on women. A non-governmental organization in Geneva, the World Heart Federation¹, says heart disease is the most serious health threat to women. The federation represents more than one-hundred heart organizations in ninety-seven countries.
It says many people believe that mainly men have heart attacks and strokes. Executive Director Janet Voute (pronounced voot) says this is only one of the false ideas people have. Another is that heart attacks and strokes are diseases of rich countries. Mizz Voute says eighty percent of heart attack and stroke deaths are in low and middle income countries.
A third idea is that it is simply an old person's disease. The director says this too is false. But she says people are increasingly at risk of heart disease when they are older because of how they lived when they were young. The federation says the major risk factors for cardiovascular disease are smoking, 3)high blood pressure, 4)high cholesterol², 5)diabetes³ and high body weight.
The group says eighteen times more women die from heart disease and strokes than from breast cancer. It says more than half of female deaths and disability from heart disease and stroke could be cut.
It says women would need to do things like quit smoking, lose weight and get thirty minutes of exercise a day. The federation says it is also important to avoid breathing other people's tobacco smoke.
This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Nancy Steinbach. This is Faith Lapidus.

注释：
1) World Heart Day  世界心脏日
2) cardiovascular Disease  心血管病
3) high blood pressure  高血压
4) high cholesterol  高胆固醇
5) diabetes [ 7daiE5bi:ti:z] n.（医） 糖尿病, 多尿症

1 federation   

n.同盟，联邦，联合，联盟，联合会

参考例句：

• It is a federation of 10 regional unions.它是由十个地方工会结合成的联合会。
• Mr.Putin was inaugurated as the President of the Russian Federation.普京正式就任俄罗斯联邦总统。

2 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。

3 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。