Yoga May Help Ease High Blood PressurePeople who follow the ancient practice of yoga may be getting an added health boost, with a new study suggesting it can fight high blood pressure—also known as hypertension."This study confirms many people"s feelings that exercise may be useful in the control of hypertension," said Dr. Howard. "Yoga would be a useful adjunct in the lowering of blood pressure in certain populations." 1 Although the study couldn"t prove a cause-and-effect relationship, doing yoga two to three times a week was associated with an average drop in blood pressure readings from 133/80 to 130/77 ,the researchers said.In comparison, the average decrease in blood pressure was smaller (134/83 to 132/82) among people who ate a special diet but did not do yoga. In a bit of a surprise, doing yoga in tandem with a special diet did not outperform doing yoga alone. 2 Dr. Howard said the study shows that "yoga can have a favorable effect" on hypertension. 3 "But some large population studies have suggested that changes of this magnitude could have very significant long-term benefits." 4 , including its relatively short length and the fact that most participants were young and had milder forms of high blood pressure, Dr. Howard said. 5 "Yoga, along with deep breathing exercises, meditation and inner reflection, is a good adjunctive and integrative cardiovascular approach to better health, including lowering blood pressure, as this data suggests," said Dr. David Friedman.A. This may be because doing both required a greater amount of time, making it more difficult for participants to stick with their regimens.B. In the study, researchers tracked 58 women and men, aged 38 to 62 ,for six months.C. The study did have some limitationsD. Yoga is proved to be effective in lowering high blood pressure.E. Another expert agreed that the ancient Indian practice of yoga might ease hypertension.F. The amount of change was small, he said.
Stem Cell Therapy May Help Repair the HeartAccording to scientists in the USA, stem cell therapy may one day be able to repair the hearts of people with heart failure. Researchers at Pittsburgh University School of Medicine examined 20 patients who had severe heart failure and were going to have surgery.They injected stem cells into the parts of their hearts that were damaged. They then compared their hearts with those of people who had undergone surgery without having the stem cells injected into them (they had also suffered from severe heart failure). The patients who had the stem cells injected had hearts that were able to pump (用泵抽水) more blood than the others.According to Professor Robert Kormos, one of the researchers, these results could revolutionize heart treatment. Although previous studies had indicated that there might be a benefit, this is the first study that has actually proved that stem cell therapy can help the failing heart work better.All the patients in this study had hearts that could not pump blood properly. The scientists measured their ejection fraction (射血分数). This is a measure of heart performance; you measure how much blood is being pumped out by the left ventricle (心室).Healthy people"s ejection fraction is about 55%. These patients had ejection fraction of under 35%. They all had by-pass surgery (搭桥手术) performed on them. Some of the patients had stem cells taken from their hip bones and injected into 25-30 sites in the damaged heart muscle. Six months later their ejection fraction rate was 46.1% while those who just had surgery but no stem cell injections averaged 37.2%.No side effects were reported.Heart failure is a common problem all over the world. In the UK alone about 650,000 people suffer from heart failure every year. As the number of people suffering from heart failure increases in the world in general these findings are particularly significant.Current treatments relieve the symptoms. This new stem cell therapy actually repairs the damaged muscle in the heart and has the potential of curing the disease. The control group patients regretted not having had stem cell injections.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned
A Baby"s Growth1 To describe a baby"s growth, the old saying "one thing leads to another" should really read, "one thing leads to an explosion". The perfection of vision and the ability to hold his head up allow appreciation of visual space. The evolution of increasingly efficient reaching also lets the baby appreciate and participate in his three-dimensional world.2 You may notice that your baby can grab toys with either hand. This is partly because the baby has learned to grasp an object even if it touches his hand lightly or his eyes are averted. By the end of the fourth month, he can probably alternate hands to grab the toys or transfer a toy from one hand to the other. He may even wave it briskly, then transfer it and repeat the waving, shuttling it back and forth between hands. In imitating the behavior of one hand with the other, the baby may be becoming aware that he can do the same thing with each arm and that each hand is distinct from the other. This awareness is important to his receiving information about space. The baby also begins to see himself act when he repeatedly reaches for and grasps things. He starts to distinguish himself from the outer world.3 If you would like another sign of this growth process, try one of Gesell"s measures of mental growth, the behavior of a baby before a mirror. According to Gesell, a baby will smile at his image at around twenty weeks of age. Hold your baby up to a mirror and watch him examine the faces there. He will probably attend most to his own image and perhaps smile at it. As his image returns the smile, he may become active and vocalize. He may also look back and forth between your image and you as if the duplication puzzles him. A baby who knows his mother"s face cannot understand two of them. Calling softly to your baby, as he looks at your confusing double, complicates matters even further. His turning back to the real you shows that a baby four months old is likely to have the ability of preference in discrimination.4 An early attachment to one object—a toy or a stuffed animal—is another index of discrimination, as well as self-development, for the baby"s interests are going beyond himself. Most babies do not prefer one toy this early, but some will. After exploring each toy, your baby may start reaching and playing with one special one. In the months to come, the toy or anything else the baby identifies with himself by wearing or carrying may become a "lovey". A "lovey" will be slept with, chewed, hugged, loved, and "talked to". These "loveies" give the baby a way of coping with the necessary separations from the mother. A friendly and familiar toy bear may just make him easier on himself. Rather than feeling threatened, a mother should be flattered by her baby"s extension of affection elsewhere. A baby with the heart to find a "lovey" is showing early mental resourcefulness and flexibility. In imitating the behavior of one hand with the other, the baby is able to ______.
Stem Cell Therapy May Help Repair the HeartAccording to scientists in the USA, stem cell therapy may one day be able to repair the hearts of people with heart failure. Researchers at Pittsburgh University School of Medicine examined 20 patients who had severe heart failure and were going to have surgery.They injected stem cells into the parts of their hearts that were damaged. They then compared their hearts with those of people who had undergone surgery without having the stem cells injected into them (they had also suffered from severe heart failure). The patients who had the stem cells injected had hearts that were able to pump (用泵抽水) more blood than the others.According to Professor Robert Kormos, one of the researchers, these results could revolutionize heart treatment. Although previous studies had indicated that there might be a benefit, this is the first study that has actually proved that stem cell therapy can help the failing heart work better.All the patients in this study had hearts that could not pump blood properly. The scientists measured their ejection fraction (射血分数). This is a measure of heart performance; you measure how much blood is being pumped out by the left ventricle (心室).Healthy people"s ejection fraction is about 55%. These patients had ejection fraction of under 35%. They all had by-pass surgery (搭桥手术) performed on them. Some of the patients had stem cells taken from their hip bones and injected into 25-30 sites in the damaged heart muscle. Six months later their ejection fraction rate was 46.1% while those who just had surgery but no stem cell injections averaged 37.2%.No side effects were reported.Heart failure is a common problem all over the world. In the UK alone about 650,000 people suffer from heart failure every year. As the number of people suffering from heart failure increases in the world in general these findings are particularly significant.Current treatments relieve the symptoms. This new stem cell therapy actually repairs the damaged muscle in the heart and has the potential of curing the disease. Heart failure is more common in the UK than anywhere else in the world.
A. Right
B. Wrong
C. Not mentioned