VOA慢速英語:With Physical Activity, No Need to Be an Olympian

This is the VOA Special English Health Report.

這里是美國之音慢速英語健康報道。

Watching the Olympics probably made some people feel a little guilty about not exercising. The truth is, if physical inactivity were a sport, a lot of us could give a gold-medal performance. Or should we say non-performance?

觀看奧運會可能會使一些人對不運動感覺一點愧疚。事實是，如果運動不足算一種體育項目，我們很多人都能拿金牌?；蛘呶覀冊撜f是不作為?

To mark the London Olympics, the Lancet, a British medical journal, published a series of papers about this problem. Public health experts say physical inactivity is the world's fourth leading cause of death. They estimate that inactivity plays a major part in six to ten percent of deaths from non-communicable diseases. These include conditions like heart disease, diabetes, and colon and breast cancer.

為了紀念倫敦奧運會，英國醫(yī)學(xué)雜志《柳葉刀》發(fā)表了一系列有關(guān)運動不足的論文。公共衛(wèi)生專家說，運動不足是全球第四大死因。他們估計，非傳染性疾病占到了死亡原因的60%，而運動不足在非傳染性疾病中又占據(jù)了重要地位。非傳染性疾病包括心臟病、糖尿病、結(jié)腸癌和乳腺癌等。

I. Min Lee at the Harvard School of Public Health worked with a team that studied inactivity. She says the findings are conservative and may even underestimate the problem.

哈佛大學(xué)公共衛(wèi)生學(xué)院的李艾敏(I. Min Lee)與一個研究小組合作研究運動不足。她表示，該調(diào)查結(jié)果比較保守，甚至可能低估了這一問題。

I. MIN LEE: "Physical inactivity is harmful to health, as harmful as far as deaths are concerned as smoking."

李艾敏：“運動不足對健康有害，這種傷害足以造成死亡，和吸煙一樣受到關(guān)注。”

The researchers compared data on physical inactivity with disease rates in one hundred twenty-two countries.

研究人員比較了122個國家運動不足致病的數(shù)據(jù)。

I. MIN LEE: "So when we did our analysis, we looked at increased risk of disease after taking into account other health habits that might be associated with physical activity. For example, we know that if you are active, you probably smoke less. Additionally we factored out obesity, independent of the fact that active people also tend to weigh less.

李艾敏：“所以當(dāng)我們做分析時，在考慮了可能和體育鍛煉相關(guān)的健康習(xí)慣后，我們著眼于增加患病的風(fēng)險。例如，我們知道，如果你經(jīng)常鍛煉你可能就會少吸煙。此外我們還考慮了肥胖，經(jīng)常鍛煉的人也傾向于體重更輕。”

Harold Kohl from the University of Texas School of Public Health also worked on the special report. He says physical inactivity should be recognized as a global epidemic.

得克薩斯大學(xué)公共衛(wèi)生學(xué)院的哈羅德·科爾(Harold Kohl)也參與了這一特別報告。他說，運動不足應(yīng)被視為全球流行病。

HAROLD KOHL: "We have to realize that high income countries are the most inactive around the world, but low to middle income countries are not going to be far behind as things change, as their economies improve and their people rely more on the improvements that basically engineer physical activity out of our daily lives."

科爾：“我們必須認識到，高收入國家是全球運動不足最為嚴重的地方。但隨著世事變遷，隨著經(jīng)濟的提升和人民更加依賴于這些進步，這些會把體育鍛煉從人們的日常生活中趕出去，中低收入國家在這一問題上也不會遠遠落后于高收入國家。”

Harold Kohl points to campaigns that continue to reduce smoking and alcohol use. He says the time has come to target physical inactivity as a major threat to public health.

科爾提到了持續(xù)減少吸煙和酗酒的宣傳活動。他說，是時候?qū)⑦\動不足視為公眾健康的一個重大威脅了。

HAROLD KOHL: "It is not just telling someone to go out and be physically active, but how we rely on the transportation sector or how our cities or neighborhoods are designed, how crime can be minimized to help people become more physically active in their neighborhoods, simply walking to the store or walking down and being outside with friends and family and so forth. These broader environmental issues are becoming much clearer in terms of their effects."

科爾：“不僅僅是要告訴別人走出去進行體育鍛煉，還包括我們?nèi)绾我蕾嚱煌ú块T，或我們的城市或社區(qū)如何設(shè)計，如何能使犯罪最小化以幫助人們在社區(qū)中增加鍛煉，只需要步行到商店，或與家人朋友在外面走走等。這些更廣泛的環(huán)境問題在其影響方面正日益清晰。”

I. Min Lee agrees -- and she challenges people to do one hundred fifty minutes a week of moderately intense exercise.

李艾敏對此表示同意，同時她要求人們每周做150分鐘中等強度運動。

I. MIN LEE: "Anything you can do is great! Even if you don't reach that 150 minutes a week, a little is better than none and more is better than a little."

李艾敏：“能做運動就行!即使你達不到每周150分鐘，少做比不做強，做多比做少強。”

She plans to return every four years -- just like the Olympics -- (to give a progress report) to tell us how the world is doing.

她計劃和奧運會一樣每4年(發(fā)布一份進度報告)告訴我們?nèi)蛟谶@件事上的進展。