VOA慢速英語:音樂能幫你緩解傷痛嗎？

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From VOA Learning English, welcome to As It Is! I’mJune Simms in Washington.

Have you ever imagined what the world was like whendinosaurs ruled the Earth? Today, we look at a moviethat is letting audiences experience what this mighthave been like.

First, two recent studies looked at the effect music canhave on severely ill people. VOA’s Richard Paulreported on the results of those studies. We hear moreabout that story coming up.

Music and the Brain

Hospitals employ many therapeutic methods. In addition to medication, thereare interventions like massage therapy and hypnosis. Music therapy is alsogrowing in popularity. Sandra Siedliecki is a Senior Scientist at the NursingInstitute of Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. She says music is a low cost treatment.

“There’s a couple of reasons for music. One - it’s very inexpensive.”

Music therapist Elizabeth Klinger, right, quietly plays guitar and sings for a baby in the newborn intensive care unit at Children's Hospital in Chicago, May 6, 2013.

And she says scientists have done a lot of research on music’s effect on pain.

“Especially, Dr. Marian Good who did an awful lot on acute pain and music. She did a lot of studies looking at abdominal surgery patients and the use ofmusic.”

In those studies, as in many others, patients listened to relaxing music likethis.

Dr. Good found that her surgery patients took fewer pain drugs when theylistened to music. Dr. Siedliecki says taking fewer drugs is helpful becausethe side effects linked to pain medicines can outweigh their value.

“You get to the point where one more pill and the side effects aren’t quiteworth it.”

Dr. Good’s study looked at short-term pain. However, chronic pain, the kindthat just will not go away, is also a common problem.

“People with chronic pain feel powerless. They’ve already tried everything. There’s no choices left, so they feel powerless to do anything that’s going tomake it better.”

Dr. Siedliecki was looking at ways to treat that sense of powerlessness, aswell as patients’ depression, disability, and pain.

Dr. Linda Chlan was studying something else. She was not interested inpatients’ pain, but instead their anxiety or extreme worry.

Dr. Chlan is a Professor of Symptom Management Research in the NursingSchool at Ohio State University. She has spent a lot of time with people whoare in the hospital because their anxiety is so great that they cannot breathe. People with this condition often have to use breathing machines. Dr. Chlansays that sometimes medication does little to ease their condition.

“I was always struck by the profound distress that these patients experienceregardless of the amount of medications that we gave them.”

It was not just that the medicines did not work. Sometimes they made thingsworse.

“Sometimes they would get more anxious and more anxious.”

And just as in the case of Dr. Siedliecki’s pain patients, the drugs the anxietypatients were taking have unwanted side effects.

“We had two primary aims of this study: To reduce anxiety as well as sedativeexposure. If they can control a non-pharmacological intervention in the form ofrelaxing, preferred music, can that have a beneficial effect?”

Dr. Chlan had nurses remind patients that music was another choice to easetheir symptoms. They also placed signs near the patients’ beds.

“Listen to your music at least twice today.”

Another group in Dr. Chlan’s study used noise-cancelling headphones with nomusic. A third group received standard care.

Dr. Siedliecki’s study also had three groups. One group listened to musicfrom past studies. Another group was able to pick its own music. The thirdgroup received traditional treatment. Dr. Siedliecki says the results werepositive in both studies.

“When you look at it overall, power, pain, depression and disability as a groupimproved in the music groups.”

Dr. Chlan’s study looked to decrease the intensity of the drugs people had totake and how often they took them. She also found that music worked.

The people who listened to music needed fewer doses and had a 36 percentreduction in the intensity or the amount of medication they received. Inaddition, their anxiety decreased by about 36 percent. Both doctors hadsimilar explanations for why music was so successful.

“Music operates on many levels. It can be a very powerful distractor in thebrain, where we’re listening to something that is pleasing and then it interruptsstressful thoughts.”

“Music can be a distraction. And if you’re doing something you enjoy, timeseems to go by faster.”

These doctors seem to agree with a line from the old Bob Marley song, “Trenchtown Rock.” It says “one good thing about music, when it hits you,you feel no pain.”

You are listening to As It Is from VOA Learning English. I’m June Simms.

“Walking with Dinosaurs” Blends Entertainment, Science

The film called “Walking with Dinosaurs” is a story thatmixes entertainment with science. The actors whoperformed the voices of the characters say they foundthemselves learning more about the ancient creaturesas they made the movie. Jim Tedder reports.

The 3-D film is set in Alaska during the late CretaceousPeriod, 70 million years ago. A media event at theNatural History Museum of Los Angeles had an actor in a dinosaur costume and three of the film’s stars, including John Leguizamo. He stood beside the oversized dinosaur.

“You’re not scared?”

Leguizamo says the movie was well researched. The settings were partlyfilmed in Alaska and the computer-generated dinosaurs include a plant-eatingspecies called Pachyrhinosaurus.

The film follows a herd of Pachyrhinosaurs, creatures with large bony skulls, and a young member of the tribe named Patchi.

Twentieth Century Fox 'Walking with Dinosaurs'

Leguizamo is the voice of a smaller creature, named Alex.

In the film, he congratulates a pachyrhinosaur couple on their newly hatchedbaby.

“Well, look what we have here? Allow me to congratulate you on this happiestof occasions.”

Tiya Sircar voices a female pachyrhinosaur. She says the science behind thefilm interested her.

“I actually, for a lot of my elementary school years, thought that I would be anarcheologist or a paleontologist when I grew up. That did not happen, as ofyet. I mean, who knows.”

Skyler Stone, the voice behind a character named Scowler, also learnedsomething while making the movie.

“There were dinosaurs I’d never heard of. I was like ‘wait a minute.’ Theywere like, ‘Yeah, we just discovered these ones.’ I said, ‘What? This iscrazy?’“

“Walking with Dinosaurs” is based on a popular science series on the BBC. Some critics say the TV series was better than the film. But Luis Chiappedisagrees. He heads the Natural History Museum’s Dinosaur Institute andadvised the filmmakers. He says films like this one get kids involved inscience.

“They stimulate them to come to a place like this, the natural history museum, to see the real thing. So they’re fun, they’re educational, and they’reinspirational.”

And he likes the story.

I’m Jim Tedder.

And that is As It Is. Thanks for sharing your day with us. I’m June Simms. Enjoy your day!