1. This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS, in VOA Special English. I'm Barbara Klein. And I'm Bob Doughty. Today we tell about osteoporosis, a disease that can make bones weak so they break easily.
2. Osteoporosis is a silent disease until it develops. If you do not know you have it, it can hurt you. A fifty-five year-old American woman named Jill went skiing several years ago. Although she was a good skier, she fell on a difficult hill.
3. She attempted to get up, but could not move one leg. She was taken to a hospital, where doctors found she had broken a bone in her upper leg. And there was another discovery in the hospital. She had osteoporosis.
4. Today, Jill still goes skiing. But now she takes medicine to protect against osteoporosis. Like Jill, many people do not know they have osteoporosis unless they break a bone. Or, they may find that they are getting shorter.
5. Osteoporosis can make it hard for a person to stand up straight if the disease is untreated for a long time. When it has progressed very far, walking can be difficult. Severe osteoporosis in older adults can take away their independence.
6. The National Osteoporosis Foundation works to inform Americans about bone health. The group says breaks caused by weakened bones can lead to pain,disability and even death
7. The word osteoporosis means porous bones, or bones that are not solid enough. The disease harms bones by removing calcium and other important minerals from tissue. Bones are living tissue.
8. Tissues continually break down and then they replace themselves. But as people get older, more bone breaks down than gets replaced. The result is that small spaces inside the bone get larger. And the shell of the bones gets thinner.
9. The National Osteoporosis Foundation, or NOF, says eight of every ten osteoporosis patients are women. It says the condition is most common in Caucasian women over age fifty.
10. Last year, the group suggested that doctors expand their list of persons to watch for osteoporosis. The additions included Latina, African American, Asian and other women. The NOF also called attention to the fact that men can also suffer from osteoporosis.
11. Before people develop osteoporosis, they have a condition called osteopenia. Treatment can prevent this condition from becoming osteoporosis. Doctors agreethat the best way to deal with osteopenia or osteoporosis is to find and treat it before the disease progresses. Bone damage need not be permanent. Drugs can help replace lost bone.
12. Identification of osteoporosis and osteopenia is made by measuring the mineral density of a person's bones. In this case, density means the strength of the bones.
13. The American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons says there are a number of ways bone mineral density can be measured. The group suggests bone mineral density examinations for women sixty years and older. Doctors use the tests to examine the hip and spine, or backbone.
14. The NOF says a test called Dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, or DXA, is the best test for osteoporosis. DXA uses radiation from x-rays. The patient does not get much radiation from the process, which lasts only a few minutes.
15. Another way to measure bone-density is called peripheral bone mineral density testing. It is often used in the United States to show people if they are in danger of osteoporosis. A moveable machine does the test.
16. Medical testing companies sometimes perform this examination at an office or other place of business. The test costs less than the DXA. But peripheral testing measures only one part of the body. Usually that place is the wrist, the heel, or the bones between finger joints.
17. If the testing device is in good condition, it probably will give satisfactory results. But what if the patient has normal bones in the tested areas, but not in others? A person could appear normal on the test. But she still might have osteoporosis in her backbone or hips.
18. Differences in bone mineral density among body parts are most often found in women who recently ended their childbearing years. The density may be normal at one place but low at another.
19. Bone mineral density in the spine decreases first. A woman's bone mineral density becomes about the same in all parts of her body after she is seventy years old. The lower-cost test may not give complete answers. But it can warn that osteoporosis threatens or has started.
Vocabulary
Vocabulary
- against = contra
- agree = concordam
- Although = embora
- among = entre (mais de duas coisas)
- Attempted = tentou
- Bones = ossos
- childbearing = gravidez
- damage = dano
- deal with = lidar com
- decreases = diminui
- Develops = desenvolver-se
- device = mecanismo
- disability = incapacidade
- Disease = doença
- Dual = duplo
- Easily = facilmente
- eight of every ten = oito em cada dez
- enough = o suficiente
- even = até mesmo
- Fell = caiu
- found = descobriram
- from becoming = de tornar-se
- get up = levanter-se
- getting shorter = ficando mais baixos
- harms = prejudice
- heel = calcanhar
- Hill = colina
- hip = quadril
- Hurt = machucar
- in danger = sob risco
- joints = juntas
- lasts = dura
- lead to = conduzir a
- Like = como
- low = baixo
- make it hard = tornar difícil
- May = podem (possibilidade)
- means = significa
- moveable = móvel
- often = frequentemente
- perform = realizam
- prevent = impeder
- replace = substituir
- several = vários
- Severe = grave
- Skier = esquiador(a)
- sometimes = às vezes
- spine = espinha vertebral
- stand up = levanter-se
- still = ainda
- straight = imediatamente
- strength = força
- suffer from = sofrer de
- Surgeons = cirurgiões
- take away = tirar
- taken = levada
- takes medicine = toma remédio
- thinner = mais fino(a)
- threatens = ameaça
- tissue = tecido (muscular)
- Unless = a menos que
- upper = parte superior
- Usually = normalmente
- warn = alerter
- Weak = fracos
- weakened = enfraquecido
- went skiing = foi esquiar
- what if = e se
- wrist = pulso
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