Smoking, Fatty Diets, Stress Lead Global Heart Disease Risks

 

By David McAlary
 
As the prevalence of heart disease increases worldwide, researchers have found that people in developing countries suffer from it for the same reasons people in industrial nations do. Smoking, fatty diets, and stress top the list of heart attack risks.
Heart disease is the largest cause of death worldwide. Eighty-percent of the cases occur in developing nations, but most of what we know about the causes comes from studies among people in Western countries, mainly middle aged¹ white men.
Now a new study of 30,000 men and women in 52 nations on every inhabited continent shows that the rest of the world is no different.
"The factors that cause heart attacks are the same," says Sonia Anand, this is physician Sonia Anand,at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, where the findings were analyzed². "What we found is nine simply measured risk factors predict the majority of heart attacks around the world."
The researchers say these risk factors account for 90 percent of heart attacks internationally and are consistent across all regions and ethnic³ groups, young or old, male or female.
Two of factors stand out, smoking and fatty diets. Together they account for two-thirds of heart attack risk.
"The two most important things that we can do as a society, one is to prevent smoking or [encourage] promote smokers⁴ to stop, and the second is that we can see the adverse⁵ consequences of weight gain or obesity," says Dr. Anand.
Surprisingly, the international study found the third most-important cause of heart disease is emotional stress. Dr. Anand says it is responsible for one-fifth of heart attacks and is independent of bad life style habits like smoking and poor diet.
"Some people think, well, you are stressed out so you are going to eat more or smoke more, and that is why you get your heart attack," she notes. "What we are seeing is there is an independent relationship between stress and having a heart attack. So that is an important area for us to explore because prior studies weren't large enough or precise enough to really show this relationship."
Other but lesser⁶ risk factors for heart attack are high blood pressure and diabetes⁷. Surprisingly genetic⁸ inheritance seems to account for only a tiny portion of this disease, but one percent.
Protecting against heart disease are consumption of fruits and vegetables, moderate amounts of alcohol, and regular physical exercise.
While industrial countries have enjoyed a decline in heart disease in the past few decades, death rates have increased dramatically in low and middle income nations. Dr. Anand says the findings can help governments determine how to counter the trend.
"There is a prediction that countries like India and China will experience an epidemic⁹ of heart disease by the year 2020," she adds. "These studies allows those countries now to begin to put in place prevention policies to try and curb¹⁰ the epidemic."
The study results appear in the medical journal Lancet.
David McAlary, VOA News, Washington

注释：
prevalence 疾病的流行
inhabited 有居民的
continent 大陆
McMaster University 麦克马斯达大学
Hamilton 汉密尔顿
Ontario 安大略
consequence 结果
gain 增长
diabetes 糖尿病
alcohol 酒精
epidemic 流行的
Lancet 《柳叶刀》

1 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

2 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

4 smokers   

吸烟者( smoker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Many smokers who are chemically addicted to nicotine cannot cut down easily. 许多有尼古丁瘾的抽烟人不容易把烟戒掉。
• Chain smokers don't care about the dangers of smoking. 烟鬼似乎不在乎吸烟带来的种种危害。

5 adverse   

adj.不利的；有害的；敌对的，不友好的

参考例句：

• He is adverse to going abroad.他反对出国。
• The improper use of medicine could lead to severe adverse reactions.用药不当会产生严重的不良反应。

6 lesser   

adj.次要的，较小的；adv.较小地，较少地

参考例句：

• Kept some of the lesser players out.不让那些次要的球员参加联赛。
• She has also been affected,but to a lesser degree.她也受到波及，但程度较轻。

7 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。

8 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

9 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。

10 curb   

n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制

参考例句：

• I could not curb my anger.我按捺不住我的愤怒。
• You must curb your daughter when you are in church.你在教堂时必须管住你的女儿。