TED英语演讲:所居之地影响健康

 Can geographic 1 information make you healthy? In 2001 I got hit by a train. My train was a heart attack. I found myself in a hospital in an intensive-care ward 2, recuperating 3 from emergency surgery. And I suddenly realized something: that I was completely in the dark. I started asking my questions, "Well, why me?" "Why now?" "Why here?" "Could my doctor have warned me?"

So, what I want to do here in the few minutes I have with you is really talk about what is the formula for life and good health. Genetics, lifestyle and environment. That's going to sort of contain our risks, and if we manage those risks we're going to live a good life and a good healthy life. Well, I understand the genetics and lifestyle part. And you know why I understand that? Because my physicians constantly ask me questions about this.
Have you ever had to fill out those long, legal-size forms in your doctor's office? I mean, if you're lucky enough you get to do it more than once, right? (Laughter) Do it over and over again. And they ask you questions about your lifestyle and your family history, your medication history, your surgical 4 history, your allergy 5 history ... did I forget any history?
But this part of the equation I didn't really get, and I don't think my physicians really get this part of the equation. What does that mean, my environment? Well, it can mean a lot of things. This is my life. These are my life places. We all have these. While I'm talking I'd like you to also be thinking about: How many places have you lived?
Just think about that, you know, wander through your life thinking about this. And you realize that you spend it in a variety of different places. You spend it at rest and you spend it at work. And if you're like me, you're in an airplane a good portion of your time traveling some place. So, it's not really simple when somebody asks you, "Where do you live, where do you work, and where do you spend all your time? And where do you expose yourselves to risks that maybe perhaps you don't even see?" Well, when I have done this on myself, I always come to the conclusion that I spend about 75 percent of my time relatively 6 in a small number of places. And I don't wander far from that place for a majority of my time, even though I'm an extensive global trekker 7.
Now, I'm going to take you on a little journey here. I started off in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I don't know if anybody might hail from northeastern Pennsylvania, but this is where I spent my first 19 years with my little young lungs. You know, breathing high concentrations here of sulfur 8 dioxide, carbon dioxide and methane 9 gas, in unequal quantities -- 19 years of this. And if you've been in that part of the country, this is what those piles of burning, smoldering 10 coal waste look like.
So then I decided 11 to leave that part of the world, and I was going to go to the mid-west. OK, so I ended up in Louisville, Kentucky. Well, I decided to be neighbors to a place called Rubbertown. They manufacture plastics. They use large quantities chloroprene and benzene. Okay, I spent 25 years, in my middle-age lungs now, breathing various concentrations of that. And on a clear day it always looked like this, so you never saw it. It was insidious 12 and it was really happening.
Then I decided I had to get really smart, I would take this job in the West Coast. And I moved to Redlands California. Very nice, and there my older, senior lungs, as I like to call them, I filled with particulate 13 matter, carbon dioxide and very high doses of ozone 14. Okay? Almost like the highest in the nation. Alright, this is what it looks like on a good day. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about.
So, what's wrong with this picture? Well, the picture is, there is a huge gap here. The one thing that never happens in my doctor's office: They never ask me about my place history. No doctor, can I remember, ever asking me, "Where have you lived?" They haven't asked me what kind of the quality of the drinking water that I put in my mouth or the food that I ingest into my stomach. They really don't do that. It's missing. Look at the kind of data that's available. This data's from all over the world -- countries spend billions of dollars investing in this kind of research.
Now, I've circled the places where I've been. Well, by design, if I wanted to have a heart attack I'd been in the right places. Right? So, how many people are in the white? How many people in the room have spent the majority of their life in the white space? Anybody? Boy you're lucky. How many have spent it in the red places? Oh, not so lucky. There are thousands of these kinds of maps that are displayed in atlases 16 all over the world. They give us some sense of what's going to be our train wreck 17. But none of that's in my medical record. And it's not in yours either.
So, here's my friend Paul. He's a colleague. He allowed his cell phone to be tracked every two hours, 24/7, 365 days out of the year for the last two years, everywhere he went. And you can see he's been to a few places around the United States. And this is where he has spent most of his time. If you really studied that you might have some clues as to what Paul likes to do. Anybody got any clues? Ski. Right. We can zoom 18 in here, and we suddenly see that now we see where Paul has really spent a majority of his time. And all of those black dots are all of the toxic 19 release inventories 20 that are monitored by the EPA.
Did you know that data existed? For every community in the United States, you could have your own personalized map of that. So, our cell phones can now build a place history. This is how Paul did it. He did it with his iPhone. This might be what we end up with.
This is what the physician would have in front of him and her when we enter that exam room instead of just the pink slip that said I paid at the counter. Right? This could be my little assessment 21. And he looks at that and he says, "Whoa Bill, I suggest that maybe you not decide, just because you're out here in beautiful California, and it's warm every day, that you get out and run at six o'clock at night. I'd suggest that that's a bad idea Bill, because of this report."
What I'd like to leave you for are two prescriptions 22. Okay, number one is, we must teach physicians about the value of geographical 23 information. It's called geomedicine. There are about a half a dozen programs in the world right now that are focused on this. And they're in the early stages of development. These programs need to be supported, and we need to teach our future doctors of the world the importance of some of the information I've shared here with you today.
The second thing we need to do is while we're spending billions and billions of dollars all over the world building an electronic health record, we make sure we put a place history inside that medical record. It not only will be important for the physician; it will be important for the researchers that now will have huge samples to draw upon. But it will also be useful for us. I could have made the decision, if I had this information, not to move to the ozone capital of the United States, couldn't I? I could make that decision. Or I could negotiate with my employer to make that decision in the best interest of myself and my company.
With that, I would like to just say that Jack 24 Lord said this almost 10 years ago. Just look at that for a minute. That was what the conclusion of the Dartmouth Atlas 15 of Healthcare was about, was saying that we can explain the geographic variations that occur in disease, in illness, in wellness, and how our healthcare system actually operates. That was what he was talking about on that quote. And I would say he got it right almost a decade ago. So, I'd very much like to see us begin to really seize this as an opportunity to get this into our medical records. So with that, I'll leave you that in my particular view of view of health: Geography always matters. And I believe that geographic information can make both you and me very healthy. Thank you. (Applause)




点击收听单词发音  






1
geographic

  
 


adj.地理学的，地理的


参考例句：





The city's success owes much to its geographic position. 这座城市的成功很大程度上归功于它的地理位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
Environmental problems pay no heed to these geographic lines. 环境问题并不理会这些地理界限。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法












2
ward

  
 


n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开


参考例句：





The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。












3
recuperating

  
 


v.恢复（健康、体力等），复原( recuperate的现在分词 )


参考例句：





He's still recuperating from his operation. 他动了手术，还在恢复。
He is recuperating from a serious back injury. 他背部受了重伤，目前正在康复中。 来自辞典例句












4
surgical

  
 


adj.外科的，外科医生的，手术上的


参考例句：





He performs the surgical operations at the Red Cross Hospital.他在红十字会医院做外科手术。
All surgical instruments must be sterilised before use.所有的外科手术器械在使用之前，必须消毒。












5
allergy

  
 


n.(因食物、药物等而引起的)过敏症


参考例句：





He developed an allergy to pollen.他对花粉过敏。
The patient had an allergy to penicillin.该患者对青霉素过敏。












6
relatively

  
 


adv.比较...地，相对地


参考例句：





The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。












7
trekker

  
 


背包客


参考例句：



















8
sulfur

  
 


n.硫，硫磺（=sulphur）


参考例句：





Sulfur emissions from steel mills become acid rain.炼钢厂排放出的硫形成了酸雨。
Burning may produce sulfur oxides.燃烧可能会产生硫氧化物。












9
methane

  
 


n.甲烷，沼气


参考例句：





The blast was caused by pockets of methane gas that ignited.爆炸是由数袋甲烷气体着火引起的。
Methane may have extraterrestrial significance.甲烷具有星际意义。












10
smoldering

  
 


v.用文火焖烧，熏烧，慢燃( smolder的现在分词 )


参考例句：





The mat was smoldering where the burning log had fallen. 燃烧的木棒落下的地方垫子慢慢燃烧起来。 来自辞典例句
The wood was smoldering in the fireplace. 木柴在壁炉中闷烧。 来自辞典例句












11
decided

  
 


adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的


参考例句：





This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。












12
insidious

  
 


adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧


参考例句：





That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。












13
particulate

  
 


adj.微小的；n.微粒，粒子


参考例句：





A special group was organized to dig up the particulate of the case.成立了一个专门小组来查明该案件的各个细节。
Lungs retain relatively insoluble particulate material.肺脏内留有不溶解的颗粒物质。












14
ozone

  
 


n.臭氧，新鲜空气


参考例句：





The ozone layer is a protective layer around the planet Earth.臭氧层是地球的保护层。
The capacity of ozone can adjust according of requirement.臭氧的产量可根据需要或调节。












15
atlas

  
 


n.地图册，图表集


参考例句：





He reached down the atlas from the top shelf.他从书架顶层取下地图集。
The atlas contains forty maps,including three of Great Britain.这本地图集有40幅地图，其中包括3幅英国地图。












16
atlases

  
 


地图集( atlas的名词复数 )


参考例句：





Besides the two novels, I have bought two atlases. 我买了两本小说，另外还买了两本地图册。
The facts of monsoon climate have been presented in a number of texts and atlases. 季风气候的一些事实已在一些教科书和气候图集中加以介绍。












17
wreck

  
 


n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难


参考例句：





Weather may have been a factor in the wreck.天气可能是造成这次失事的原因之一。
No one can wreck the friendship between us.没有人能够破坏我们之间的友谊。












18
zoom

  
 


n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升


参考例句：





The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。












19
toxic

  
 


adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的


参考例句：





The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。












20
inventories

  
 


n.总结( inventory的名词复数 )；细账；存货清单（或财产目录）的编制


参考例句：





In other cases, such as inventories, inputs and outputs are both continuous. 在另一些情况下，比如存货，其投入和产出都是持续不断的。
The store must clear its winter inventories by April 1st. 该店必须在4月1日前售清冬季存货。












21
assessment

  
 


n.评价；评估；对财产的估价，被估定的金额


参考例句：





This is a very perceptive assessment of the situation.这是一个对该情况的极富洞察力的评价。
What is your assessment of the situation?你对时局的看法如何？












22
prescriptions

  
 


药( prescription的名词复数 )； 处方； 开处方； 计划


参考例句：





The hospital of traditional Chinese medicine installed a computer to fill prescriptions. 中医医院装上了电子计算机来抓药。
Her main job was filling the doctor's prescriptions. 她的主要工作就是给大夫开的药方配药。












23
geographical

  
 


adj.地理的；地区(性)的


参考例句：





The current survey will have a wider geographical spread.当前的调查将在更广泛的地域范围內进行。
These birds have a wide geographical distribution.这些鸟的地理分布很广。












24
jack

  
 


n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克


参考例句：





I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。