2023考研英語閱讀替代醫療
Alternative medicine
替代醫療
Think yourself better
往好處想
Alternative medical treatments rarely work. But theplacebo effect they induce sometimes does
替代療法的治療效果見效甚微，但是所產生的安慰效果往往有所療效
ON MAY 29th Edzard Ernst, the world s first professor of complementary medicine, will stepdown after 18 years in his post at the Peninsula Medical School, in south-west England.
5月29日，作為世界首位互補性醫學專家艾德撒.恩斯特將從位于英國西北部的半島醫學院退休，他在這里曾效力了18年。
Despite his job title, Dr Ernst is no breathless promoter of snake oil.
跟他的職務頭銜相反Dr Ernst 并不是那種推銷起蛇油舌燦蓮花的人。
Instead, he and his research group have pioneered the rigorous study of everything fromacupuncture and crystal healing to Reiki channelling and herbal remedies.
其實，他和他的研究團隊是縝密研究針灸，水晶療法，靈氣療法以及草藥治療的先驅。
Alternative medicine is big business.
替代性醫療是一個很大的商業市場。
Since it is largely unregulated, reliable statistics are hard to come by.
由于這一市場在很大程度上沒有得到監管，所以很難獲取可靠的數據統計。
The market in Britain alone, however, is believed to be worth around ￡210m, with one infive adults thought to be consumers,
然而，該市場僅在倫敦就達到約2億1千萬英鎊，其中5個成年人中就有一個是替代性療法的消費者，
and some treatments available from the National Health Service.
并且有些療法還是國家醫療服務制度中所提供的服務項目。
Around the world, according to an estimate made in 2008, the industry s value is about $60billion.
根據2008年的評估，該產業在全球的價值約為600億美元。
Over the years Dr Ernst and his group have run clinical trials and published over 160meta-analyses of other studies.
在過去的幾年中，恩斯特博士和他的團隊進行了臨床實踐并發表了160多份關于其他研究的再分化分析報告，并有了全然的發現。
His findings are stark. According to his Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine,around 95% of the treatments he and his colleagues examinedin fields as diverse asacupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy and reflexologyare statisticallyindistinguishable from placebo treatments.
根據其《補充替代醫學指南》，在他及其同事所驗證的治療方法中從針灸到草藥，從順勢療法到反射療法，約有95%在數據統計上等同于安慰療法。
In only 5% of cases was there either a clear benefit above and beyond a placebo, or evenjust a hint that something interesting was happening to suggest that further research mightbe warranted.
在僅有的5%的病例中，其中要么明顯屬于非安慰療法所帶來的療效，要么暗示了有某些有趣的因素使得需要進一步的研究。
It was, at times, a lonely experience.
這一研究在過去有時很少有人涉足。
Money was hard to come by.
資金難以籌集。
Practitioners of alternative medicine became increasingly reluctant to co-operate as thenegative results piled up, while traditional medical-research bodies saw investigations intothings like Ayurvedic healing as a waste of time.
并且由于負面效應的積累越來越多的替代性醫療從業者不愿意參與合作，于此同時傳統醫療研究組織也將針諸如對阿育吠陀療法的研究調查視作是浪費時間。
Yet Dr Ernst believes his work helps address a serious public-health problem.
而恩斯特博士相信他的工作將有助于解決一系列公共健康問題。
He points out that conventional medicines must be shown to be both safe and efficaciousbefore they can be licensed for sale.
他指出傳統藥品必須在確保安全和有效后才能許可出售。
That is rarely true of alternative treatments, which rely on a mixture of appeals to traditionand to the natural wholesomeness of their products to reassure consumers.
但是替代性療法卻不需要，這些療法依賴于其產品的傳統性以及天然健康性的綜合體來贏得消費者的放心。
That explains why, for instance, some homeopaths can market treatments for malaria,despite a lack of evidence to suggest that such treatments work, or why some chiropractorscan claim to cure infertility.
這解釋了為什么一些順勢療法在瘧疾的治療上具有市場，盡管缺乏證據顯示其療效效，以及為什么脊椎推拿師聲稱他們可以治療不育癥的原因。
Despite this lack of evidence, and despite the possibility that some alternative practitionersmay be harming their patients, Dr Ernst also believes there is something that conventionaldoctors can usefully learn from the chiropractors, homeopaths and Ascended Masters.
雖然缺乏醫療證據以及存在一些替代性療法從業者傷害患者的可能，但是恩斯特博士相信傳統醫生仍然可以從脊椎推拿師，順勢療法以及上師那里學到一些有用的東西。
This is the therapeutic value of the placebo effect, one of the strangest and slipperiestphenomena in medicine.
作為醫學中最奇怪以及最棘手的醫療現象之一，這些東西是安慰療法的醫療價值所在。
Mind and body
思想與身體
A placebo is a sham medical treatmenta pharmacologically inert sugar pill, perhaps, or apiece of pretend surgery.
安慰療法是一種虛假性醫療方法在藥物上使用糖丸，或者進行一次虛假手術。
Its main scientific use at the moment is in clinical trials as a baseline for comparison withanother treatment.
其主要科學應用在于它可以作為其他療法對比基準的臨床實踐性。
But just because the medicine is not real does not mean it doesn t work.
但是不使用真實藥物并不代表沒有療效。
That is precisely the point of using it in trials: researchers have known for years thatcomparing treatment against no treatment at all will give a misleading result.
這也恰恰是在實踐中使用它們的原因：研究者多年以來已經明白將完全不治療跟某種治療法做比較往往會產生誤導的結果。
Giving pretend painkillers, for instance, can reduce the amount of pain a patientexperiences.
比如，假的止疼藥可以在一定程度上緩解患者的疼痛。
A study carried out in 2002 suggested that fake surgery for arthritis in the knee providessimilar benefits to the real thing.
2002年進行的一次研究顯示針對膝部關節炎患者進行一次虛假手術所帶來的療效如同對其進行了一次真實的手術。
And the effects can be harmful as well as helpful.
并且產生的效果有好有壞。
Patients taking fake opiates after having been prescribed the real thing may experience theshallow breathing that is a side-effect of the real drugs.
而處方規定需服用鴉片制劑的患者實則服用了假的鴉片制劑后會出現呼吸短促這種真實藥物所帶來的副作用癥狀。
Besides being benchmarks, placebos are a topic of research in their own right.
除了作為基準，安慰療法在其自身領域內也是一個研究主題。
On May 16th the Royal Society, the world s oldest scientific academy, published a volume ofits Philosophical Transactions devoted to the field.
5月16日，作為世界最悠久的科學研究組織，皇家學會發表了一期此領域的《哲學會報》。
One conclusion emerging from the research, says Irving Kirsch, a professor at HarvardMedical School who wrote the preface to the volume,
為該會報撰寫前言的是來自哈佛醫學院的專家歐文.克爾斯，
is that the effect is strongest for those disorders that are predominantly mental andsubjective, a conclusion backed by a meta-analysis of placebo studies that was carriedout in 2010 by researchers at the Cochrane Collaboration,
其稱這些研究所得出的一個結論是安慰療法對于那些主要是腦力和主觀紊亂的患者最為有效，這一結論同樣得到另一個安慰療法再分化研究的支持，
an organisation that reviews evidence for medical treatments.
該項研究由醫療證據審核組織科克侖合作所的研究者們在2010年開展。
In the case of depression, says Dr Kirsch, giving patients placebo pills can produce verynearly the same effect as dosing them with the latest antidepressant medicines.
對于抑郁癥病例，克爾斯稱給患者服用安慰性藥物將產生和給患者服用最新抗抑郁癥藥物同樣的療效。
Pain is another nerve-related symptom susceptible to treatment by placebo.
疼痛是另一種容易得到安慰性治療的神經性癥狀。
Here, patients expectations influence the potency of the effect.
在這里，患者的期望值可以影響治療的效果。
Telling someone that you are giving him morphine provides more pain relief than saying youare dosing him with aspirineven when both pills actually contain nothing more than sugar.
告訴患者你給他們服用的是嗎啡要比告訴他們服用的是阿司匹林具有更好的陣痛效果其實兩種藥物的成分都只是糖。
Neuro-imaging shows that this deception stimulates the production of naturally occurringpainkilling chemicals in the brain.
神經元成像顯示這種欺騙行為可以促進大腦中自然分泌的陣痛化學物質的產生。
A paper in Philosophical Transactions by Karin Meissner of Ludwig-Maximilians University inMunich concludes that placebo treatments are also able to affect the autonomic nervoussystem, which controls unconscious functions such as heartbeat, blood pressure,digestion and the like.
來自路德維希馬克西米利安慕尼黑大學的卡琳.梅斯諾在《哲學會報》上發表的一份論文稱安慰療法同樣可以影響控制諸如心跳，血壓，消化等等這些無意識功能的自主神經系統。
Drama is important, too. Placebo injections are more effective than placebo pills, andneither is as potent as sham surgery.
表演在安慰療法中也很重要。安慰性注射雖然比安慰藥丸有效果，但是卻沒有虛假手術來得見效。
And the more positive a doctor is when telling a patient about the placebo he is prescribing,the more likely it is to do that patient good.
并且在向患者描述療效的時候，醫生顯得越積極，對于患者來說安慰治療的療效越好。
Despite the power of placebos, many conventional doctors are leery of prescribing them.
盡管安慰療法有著強大的力量，但是很多常規醫生仍懷有猜疑。
They worry that to do so is to deceive their patients.
他們擔心這種做法是在欺騙患者。
Yet perhaps the most fascinating results in placebo researchmost recently examined byTed Kaptchuk and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School, in the context of irritable-bowelsyndromeis that the effect may persist even if patients are told that they are gettingplacebo treatments.
然而，也許在安慰治療研究中最引人入勝的研究結果便是即使患者之道他們所接受的是安慰治療，其療效卻依然存在，這一發現由來自哈佛醫學院的泰德.凱普扎克及其同事近期在過敏性腸綜合癥的研究中所確認。
Unlike their conventional counterparts, practitioners of alternative medicine often excel atharnessing the placebo effect, says Dr Ernst.
恩斯特博士稱與常規醫生不同，替代性療法的從業者善于利用安慰治療的療效。
They offer long, relaxed consultations with their customers.
他們會在輕松的氣氛下向患者提供咨詢。
And they believe passionately in their treatments, which are often delivered with great andreassuring ceremony.
并且他們對于治療工作充滿熱情，使用杰出而令人放心的醫療方式進行治療。
That alone can be enough to do good, even though the magnets, crystals and ultra-dilutesolutions applied to the patients are, by themselves, completely useless.
僅此已足夠，而那些用在患者身上的磁鐵，水晶以及高稀釋溶液本身就沒有什么用處。
詞語解釋
1.alternative a.兩者擇一的;供選擇的
We have the alternative plans of having a picnic ortaking a boat trip.
我們在去野餐或者去乘船旅游兩個計劃中只能選一。
2.placebo n.安慰劑;安慰話
The placebo has been found to work with a lot ofdifferent cases.
人們已發現安慰劑能在很多不同的病例中發揮作用。
3.complementary a.補充的;互補的
His personality is complementary to hers.
他的個性與她的相反相成。
4.rigorous a.嚴格的;嚴厲的
The planes have to undergo rigorous safety checks.
這些飛機得接受非常嚴格的安全檢查。
5.crystal n.水晶;結晶體
I lost my crystal necklace at the party.
我在晚會上丟失了水晶項鏈。
Alternative medicine
替代醫療
Think yourself better
往好處想
Alternative medical treatments rarely work. But theplacebo effect they induce sometimes does
替代療法的治療效果見效甚微，但是所產生的安慰效果往往有所療效
ON MAY 29th Edzard Ernst, the world s first professor of complementary medicine, will stepdown after 18 years in his post at the Peninsula Medical School, in south-west England.
5月29日，作為世界首位互補性醫學專家艾德撒.恩斯特將從位于英國西北部的半島醫學院退休，他在這里曾效力了18年。
Despite his job title, Dr Ernst is no breathless promoter of snake oil.
跟他的職務頭銜相反Dr Ernst 并不是那種推銷起蛇油舌燦蓮花的人。
Instead, he and his research group have pioneered the rigorous study of everything fromacupuncture and crystal healing to Reiki channelling and herbal remedies.
其實，他和他的研究團隊是縝密研究針灸，水晶療法，靈氣療法以及草藥治療的先驅。
Alternative medicine is big business.
替代性醫療是一個很大的商業市場。
Since it is largely unregulated, reliable statistics are hard to come by.
由于這一市場在很大程度上沒有得到監管，所以很難獲取可靠的數據統計。
The market in Britain alone, however, is believed to be worth around ￡210m, with one infive adults thought to be consumers,
然而，該市場僅在倫敦就達到約2億1千萬英鎊，其中5個成年人中就有一個是替代性療法的消費者，
and some treatments available from the National Health Service.
并且有些療法還是國家醫療服務制度中所提供的服務項目。
Around the world, according to an estimate made in 2008, the industry s value is about $60billion.
根據2008年的評估，該產業在全球的價值約為600億美元。
Over the years Dr Ernst and his group have run clinical trials and published over 160meta-analyses of other studies.
在過去的幾年中，恩斯特博士和他的團隊進行了臨床實踐并發表了160多份關于其他研究的再分化分析報告，并有了全然的發現。
His findings are stark. According to his Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine,around 95% of the treatments he and his colleagues examinedin fields as diverse asacupuncture, herbal medicine, homeopathy and reflexologyare statisticallyindistinguishable from placebo treatments.
根據其《補充替代醫學指南》，在他及其同事所驗證的治療方法中從針灸到草藥，從順勢療法到反射療法，約有95%在數據統計上等同于安慰療法。
In only 5% of cases was there either a clear benefit above and beyond a placebo, or evenjust a hint that something interesting was happening to suggest that further research mightbe warranted.
在僅有的5%的病例中，其中要么明顯屬于非安慰療法所帶來的療效，要么暗示了有某些有趣的因素使得需要進一步的研究。
It was, at times, a lonely experience.
這一研究在過去有時很少有人涉足。
Money was hard to come by.
資金難以籌集。
Practitioners of alternative medicine became increasingly reluctant to co-operate as thenegative results piled up, while traditional medical-research bodies saw investigations intothings like Ayurvedic healing as a waste of time.
并且由于負面效應的積累越來越多的替代性醫療從業者不愿意參與合作，于此同時傳統醫療研究組織也將針諸如對阿育吠陀療法的研究調查視作是浪費時間。
Yet Dr Ernst believes his work helps address a serious public-health problem.
而恩斯特博士相信他的工作將有助于解決一系列公共健康問題。
He points out that conventional medicines must be shown to be both safe and efficaciousbefore they can be licensed for sale.
他指出傳統藥品必須在確保安全和有效后才能許可出售。
That is rarely true of alternative treatments, which rely on a mixture of appeals to traditionand to the natural wholesomeness of their products to reassure consumers.
但是替代性療法卻不需要，這些療法依賴于其產品的傳統性以及天然健康性的綜合體來贏得消費者的放心。
That explains why, for instance, some homeopaths can market treatments for malaria,despite a lack of evidence to suggest that such treatments work, or why some chiropractorscan claim to cure infertility.
這解釋了為什么一些順勢療法在瘧疾的治療上具有市場，盡管缺乏證據顯示其療效效，以及為什么脊椎推拿師聲稱他們可以治療不育癥的原因。
Despite this lack of evidence, and despite the possibility that some alternative practitionersmay be harming their patients, Dr Ernst also believes there is something that conventionaldoctors can usefully learn from the chiropractors, homeopaths and Ascended Masters.
雖然缺乏醫療證據以及存在一些替代性療法從業者傷害患者的可能，但是恩斯特博士相信傳統醫生仍然可以從脊椎推拿師，順勢療法以及上師那里學到一些有用的東西。
This is the therapeutic value of the placebo effect, one of the strangest and slipperiestphenomena in medicine.
作為醫學中最奇怪以及最棘手的醫療現象之一，這些東西是安慰療法的醫療價值所在。
Mind and body
思想與身體
A placebo is a sham medical treatmenta pharmacologically inert sugar pill, perhaps, or apiece of pretend surgery.
安慰療法是一種虛假性醫療方法在藥物上使用糖丸，或者進行一次虛假手術。
Its main scientific use at the moment is in clinical trials as a baseline for comparison withanother treatment.
其主要科學應用在于它可以作為其他療法對比基準的臨床實踐性。
But just because the medicine is not real does not mean it doesn t work.
但是不使用真實藥物并不代表沒有療效。
That is precisely the point of using it in trials: researchers have known for years thatcomparing treatment against no treatment at all will give a misleading result.
這也恰恰是在實踐中使用它們的原因：研究者多年以來已經明白將完全不治療跟某種治療法做比較往往會產生誤導的結果。
Giving pretend painkillers, for instance, can reduce the amount of pain a patientexperiences.
比如，假的止疼藥可以在一定程度上緩解患者的疼痛。
A study carried out in 2002 suggested that fake surgery for arthritis in the knee providessimilar benefits to the real thing.
2002年進行的一次研究顯示針對膝部關節炎患者進行一次虛假手術所帶來的療效如同對其進行了一次真實的手術。
And the effects can be harmful as well as helpful.
并且產生的效果有好有壞。
Patients taking fake opiates after having been prescribed the real thing may experience theshallow breathing that is a side-effect of the real drugs.
而處方規定需服用鴉片制劑的患者實則服用了假的鴉片制劑后會出現呼吸短促這種真實藥物所帶來的副作用癥狀。
Besides being benchmarks, placebos are a topic of research in their own right.
除了作為基準，安慰療法在其自身領域內也是一個研究主題。
On May 16th the Royal Society, the world s oldest scientific academy, published a volume ofits Philosophical Transactions devoted to the field.
5月16日，作為世界最悠久的科學研究組織，皇家學會發表了一期此領域的《哲學會報》。
One conclusion emerging from the research, says Irving Kirsch, a professor at HarvardMedical School who wrote the preface to the volume,
為該會報撰寫前言的是來自哈佛醫學院的專家歐文.克爾斯，
is that the effect is strongest for those disorders that are predominantly mental andsubjective, a conclusion backed by a meta-analysis of placebo studies that was carriedout in 2010 by researchers at the Cochrane Collaboration,
其稱這些研究所得出的一個結論是安慰療法對于那些主要是腦力和主觀紊亂的患者最為有效，這一結論同樣得到另一個安慰療法再分化研究的支持，
an organisation that reviews evidence for medical treatments.
該項研究由醫療證據審核組織科克侖合作所的研究者們在2010年開展。
In the case of depression, says Dr Kirsch, giving patients placebo pills can produce verynearly the same effect as dosing them with the latest antidepressant medicines.
對于抑郁癥病例，克爾斯稱給患者服用安慰性藥物將產生和給患者服用最新抗抑郁癥藥物同樣的療效。
Pain is another nerve-related symptom susceptible to treatment by placebo.
疼痛是另一種容易得到安慰性治療的神經性癥狀。
Here, patients expectations influence the potency of the effect.
在這里，患者的期望值可以影響治療的效果。
Telling someone that you are giving him morphine provides more pain relief than saying youare dosing him with aspirineven when both pills actually contain nothing more than sugar.
告訴患者你給他們服用的是嗎啡要比告訴他們服用的是阿司匹林具有更好的陣痛效果其實兩種藥物的成分都只是糖。
Neuro-imaging shows that this deception stimulates the production of naturally occurringpainkilling chemicals in the brain.
神經元成像顯示這種欺騙行為可以促進大腦中自然分泌的陣痛化學物質的產生。
A paper in Philosophical Transactions by Karin Meissner of Ludwig-Maximilians University inMunich concludes that placebo treatments are also able to affect the autonomic nervoussystem, which controls unconscious functions such as heartbeat, blood pressure,digestion and the like.
來自路德維希馬克西米利安慕尼黑大學的卡琳.梅斯諾在《哲學會報》上發表的一份論文稱安慰療法同樣可以影響控制諸如心跳，血壓，消化等等這些無意識功能的自主神經系統。
Drama is important, too. Placebo injections are more effective than placebo pills, andneither is as potent as sham surgery.
表演在安慰療法中也很重要。安慰性注射雖然比安慰藥丸有效果，但是卻沒有虛假手術來得見效。
And the more positive a doctor is when telling a patient about the placebo he is prescribing,the more likely it is to do that patient good.
并且在向患者描述療效的時候，醫生顯得越積極，對于患者來說安慰治療的療效越好。
Despite the power of placebos, many conventional doctors are leery of prescribing them.
盡管安慰療法有著強大的力量，但是很多常規醫生仍懷有猜疑。
They worry that to do so is to deceive their patients.
他們擔心這種做法是在欺騙患者。
Yet perhaps the most fascinating results in placebo researchmost recently examined byTed Kaptchuk and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School, in the context of irritable-bowelsyndromeis that the effect may persist even if patients are told that they are gettingplacebo treatments.
然而，也許在安慰治療研究中最引人入勝的研究結果便是即使患者之道他們所接受的是安慰治療，其療效卻依然存在，這一發現由來自哈佛醫學院的泰德.凱普扎克及其同事近期在過敏性腸綜合癥的研究中所確認。
Unlike their conventional counterparts, practitioners of alternative medicine often excel atharnessing the placebo effect, says Dr Ernst.
恩斯特博士稱與常規醫生不同，替代性療法的從業者善于利用安慰治療的療效。
They offer long, relaxed consultations with their customers.
他們會在輕松的氣氛下向患者提供咨詢。
And they believe passionately in their treatments, which are often delivered with great andreassuring ceremony.
并且他們對于治療工作充滿熱情，使用杰出而令人放心的醫療方式進行治療。
That alone can be enough to do good, even though the magnets, crystals and ultra-dilutesolutions applied to the patients are, by themselves, completely useless.
僅此已足夠，而那些用在患者身上的磁鐵，水晶以及高稀釋溶液本身就沒有什么用處。
詞語解釋
1.alternative a.兩者擇一的;供選擇的
We have the alternative plans of having a picnic ortaking a boat trip.
我們在去野餐或者去乘船旅游兩個計劃中只能選一。
2.placebo n.安慰劑;安慰話
The placebo has been found to work with a lot ofdifferent cases.
人們已發現安慰劑能在很多不同的病例中發揮作用。
3.complementary a.補充的;互補的
His personality is complementary to hers.
他的個性與她的相反相成。
4.rigorous a.嚴格的;嚴厲的
The planes have to undergo rigorous safety checks.
這些飛機得接受非常嚴格的安全檢查。
5.crystal n.水晶;結晶體
I lost my crystal necklace at the party.
我在晚會上丟失了水晶項鏈。
