VOA常速英语2007年-Scientists Link Childhood Obesity to Heart Dise

By Jessica Berman
Washington
06 December 2007

Children who are overweight are at significant risk of developing heart disease as adults. That's the conclusion of two studies published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, which predicts what experts have long suspected about the health hazards of obesity¹ in kids. VOA's Jessica Berman reports.

The largest of the two studies was conducted in Denmark by Jennifer Baker² and colleagues at the University of Copenhagen.

The investigators³ took the height and weight data of virtually every school child born in the Danish city between 1930 and 1976, or about 288,000 children, and followed their health through 2001.

The researchers discovered that the more the children weighed, the greater their risk of developing heart disease as adults, including fatal heart attack. The risk was highest among the heaviest children in each age group.

David Ludwig is a weight consultant⁴ at Children's Hopsital in Boston, Massachusetts. Ludwig says the results are wake-up call.

"The highest weight catagory that they used in this Danish study would barely qualify as overweight, would barely make it out of the normal weight catagory used in the United States for children," said David Ludwig. "So, the bottom line is this generation of obese⁵ children is facing huge risks for a lifetime of cardiovascular disease and other weight-related problems as they age."

The second study, by researchers at the University of Calfornia at San Francisco, used a computer model to estimate how many more heart disease cases there would be in the United States as a result of adolescent obesity.

Experts say that previous studies have found that three million people between ages of 12 and 19 have heart disease by the time they are 35 to 50-years-old.

Using a computer model and plugging in weight data from obese adolescents from the year 2000, researchers estimated there would be more than a 100,000 extra cases of heart disease by 2035, which is an increase of 16 percent, and heart disease deaths could increase by as much as 19 percent for the 35 to 50 age group.

Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California and the study's lead author.

"We were really surprised at the magnitude by the magnitude of how large this increase was," said Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo. "And it really suggests that we really have to work now to prevent children from becoming overweight because this is going to have an impact well into adulthood⁶."

The good news, according to David Ludwig of Boston's Children's Hospital, is the health problems of obesity are reversible.

"It's not unprecedented⁷ to see even adolescents with type two diabetes⁸, which can become a permanent condition, reverse it which potentially long term cure just with significant weight loss," he said. "So, it's really never too late. But being excessively heavy in childhood may confer increased risk for a lifetime of chronic⁹ medical problems if it's not adequately addressed."

David Ludwig commented on the research in the New England Journal of Medicine.

1 obesity   

n.肥胖，肥大

参考例句：

• One effect of overeating may be obesity.吃得过多能导致肥胖。
• Sugar and fat can more easily lead to obesity than some other foods.糖和脂肪比其他食物更容易导致肥胖。

2 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

3 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 consultant   

n.顾问；会诊医师，专科医生

参考例句：

• He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
• Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来，加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。

5 obese   

adj.过度肥胖的，肥大的

参考例句：

• The old man is really obese,it can't be healthy.那位老人确实过于肥胖了，不能算是健康。
• Being obese and lazy is dangerous to health.又胖又懒危害健康。

6 adulthood   

n.成年，成人期

参考例句：

• Some infantile actions survive into adulthood.某些婴儿期的行为一直保持到成年期。
• Few people nowadays are able to maintain friendships into adulthood.如今很少有人能将友谊维持到成年。

7 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

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 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。