High Blood Pressure

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www.anglophonie.fr
High Blood Pressure:The Silent Killer
(NBC News, 2010)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/35529598#35529598
Seventy-three million Americans have high blood pressure, as defined by systolic, or the top
number over one-forty (140) or diastolic, the bottom number, a higher than ninety. The disease accounts
for one in six American deaths.
Dr. Robert Asfelt of Montefiori-Einstein Heart Center in New York, sees mostly people with high blood
pressure.
We call high blood pressure the “silent killer” because you’ll have it, but you don’t feel it and it does
many horrible things to your body. It increases your risk of having a stroke, heart-attack, heart failure,
dying, kidney failure..
Today’s study reports that in a ten-year period the death rate from high blood pressure increased by fully
twenty-five percent.
Measuring blood pressure is one of the simplest, least-invasive tests in medicine. One of the big
surprises in this latest report is that most people who have high blood pressure know it!
Most also know that being overweight and not exercising contributes to the problem
We hear (…. incomprehensible! ) you should exercise more, you should lose weight and it doesn’t seem
to have much effect.
You’re absolutely right! And you’re really touching on the Holy Grail – getting people to modify their
behaviour would be an amazing thing, but actually making that happen is incredibly challenging.
Today’s report calls on Americans to take that challenge seriously. In addition, it urges people to eat less
table salt, seventy percent of which in the US diet comes from processed or restaurant foods and to eat
more potassium, which is found in fish and many fruits and vegetables.
Robert Bazell, NBC News, New York.
Vocabulary
01. to have high blood pressure
faire de l’hypertension
02. to account for
représenter
03. … sees mostly people
…voit surtout des gens
04. a stroke
une attaque cérébrale
05. heart failure
insuffisance
06. kidney failure
insuffisance
07. the death rate
le taux de mortalité
08. by fully twenty-five percent
d’au moins vingt-cinq pour cent
09. to be overweight
être en surpoids
10. the Holy Grail
le Saint-Graal
11. to get people to modify their behaviour
convaincre les gens de modifier leur comportement
12. an amazing thing
une chose étonnante
13. to urge people
recommander, encourager vivement les gens
14. processed (foods)
aliments transformés