Medical advice

Timothy Old = T.O.

Guy Lines = G.L.

T.O. … that was the latest record from Computer, ‘Space Travel’.

Eleven o’clock on Tuesday 17^th September here on the Timothy Old Show on Radio Wessex. 206 metres medium wave, and it’s time for our Medical Advice spot. Today’s guest is Dr Guy Lines from the Common Cold Research Unit. Dr Lines, could you briefly describe your work?

G.L. Yes, Tim. We ask volunteers to stay with us at the Research

Centre for two weeks … and we give them a cold.

T.O. You give them a cold?

G.L. That’s correct. Actually we give half of them a cold. That is we infect them with a solution of cold germs. The other half are given clear, plain water. They’re a control group. Our researchers don’t know which volunteers have been infected.

T.O. How do you get volunteers?

G.L. By word of mouth. It’s like a holiday hotel, really. And of course only half are infected. We can then study the effect of different cold treatments.

T.O. So, have you found the cure yet?

G.L. Not yet, I’m afraid. Although I’d like to get rid of a few old wives’ tales. You get a cold from germs. Not from wet feet, or cold air or sitting in a draught.

T.O. What advice would you give to cold sufferers, then?

G.L. The oldest of all. If you treat a cold, it takes about a week to get over it. If you don’t treat it … then it takes about a week to get over it.

T.O. What about aspirin … or hot whisky and lemon?

G.L. Of course aspirin, or a drink of spirits helps the symptoms. It makes the sufferer feel better, especially if they just go to bed and wait. It doesn’t cure it, though.

T.O. What about your research?

G.L. We’re finding good results from vitamins - large doses of vitamin C … and I mean 5 or 6 grams a day … do seem to help some people if taken at the very first sign of a cold. Once it started though, it seems much less successful. Vitamins A and B6 also seem to help, but we have a lot more research to do. Interferon does give good results, but of course it’s wildly expensive, and we can’t really waste the limited supplies we have on cold research. Most of it is being used for cancer research at the moment.

T.O. Interferon?

G.L. Yes, I’m sure you’ve heard of it.

T.O. Wasn’t there a programme about it on TV recently?

G.L. There was.

T.O. What’s your final advice then?

G.L. Basically go home. Take plenty of liquid. Vitamin C certainly won’t do you any harm, and it may help. Aspirin will make you feel better, but the best advice I can give you is rest. Plenty of rest.

T.O. Thank you, Dr Lines. We’ll be coming back to you after our next record, it’s Daisy Barton singing ‘You broke my heart’...

(from Streamline English. Directions, by P.Viney. Unit 3.6)

UNIT 2

Lesson A

Дата добавления: 2015-11-16