HEALTH REPORT - Aspirin Found to Help Men and Women Differen

HEALTH REPORT - Aspirin¹ Found to Help Men and Women Differently
By Cynthia Kirk

Broadcast: Wednesday, March 16, 2005

I'm Gwen Outen with the VOA Special English Health Report.

A lot of older people take low-strength aspirin on the advice of their doctor to help reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. Doctors have based such advice mostly on studies of men.

Now, a major study confirms that aspirin can help women as well. But experts say the drug helps women differently. The findings appeared this month in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Doctor Julie Buring at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, led the study. Doctor Buring says that among apparently² healthy people, aspirin reduces the risk of heart attack for men. But for women it appears to reduce the risk of stroke.

The study involved forty thousand women age forty-five and older. Those who received aspirin took one hundred milligrams every other day. The others took a placebo³, an inactive pill.

The study lasted ten years. The researchers found that the women who took aspirin were seventeen percent less likely to have a stroke than the other group. The aspirin group also had a twenty-four percent lower risk for the most common form of stroke. This is caused by a clot⁴ in the blood supply to the brain. Blood clots⁵ can cause both strokes and heart attacks. Aspirin thins the blood, so clots are less likely to form.

The researchers found that aspirin had an even greater effect in women age sixty-five and older. Those who took aspirin were thirty percent less likely to have a stroke caused by a blood clot. They were also less likely to suffer a heart attack than those given a placebo.

However, the study found that aspirin did not lower the risk of heart attack in younger women. And there were more cases of stomach bleeding in the women who took aspirin than in those who did not. Experts say this shows that, in general, the risks from aspirin use in younger women could be greater than the good it might do.

Aspirin can cause bleeding, especially in the stomach. It can also cause a bad reaction with other medicines. People who want to begin aspirin treatment are advised to talk to their doctor first.

Experts are not sure why men and women react differently to aspirin treatment. But Doctor Buring notes at least one similarity. She says aspirin has been clearly shown to improve the survival⁶ chances for anyone who has already had a heart attack or stroke.

This VOA Special English Health Report was written by Cynthia Kirk. I'm Gwen Outen.

1 aspirin   

n.阿司匹林

参考例句：

• The aspirin seems to quiet the headache.阿司匹林似乎使头痛减轻了。
• She went into a chemist's and bought some aspirin.她进了一家药店，买了些阿司匹林。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 placebo   

n.安慰剂；宽慰话

参考例句：

• The placebo has been found to work with a lot of different cases.人们已发现安慰剂能在很多不同的病例中发挥作用。
• The placebo effect refers to all the observable behaviors caused by placebo.安慰剂效应是指由安慰剂所引起的可观察的行为。

4 clot   

n.凝块；v.使凝成块

参考例句：

• Platelets are one of the components required to make blood clot.血小板是血液凝固的必须成分之一。
• The patient's blood refused to clot.病人的血液无法凝结。

5 clots   

n.凝块( clot的名词复数 )；血块；蠢人；傻瓜v.凝固( clot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• When you cut yourself, blood clots and forms a scab. 你割破了，血会凝固、结痂。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Milk clots when it turns sour. 奶变酸就凝块。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

6 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。