BOX SET: 6 Minute English - 'Health' English mega-class! 30 minutes of new vocabulary!

6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Dan and joining me today is Neil.

Hi, Neil. Hi, everyone! Bless you!

Are you OK? I think I'm coming down with something serious. It's just a case of the sniffles.

'The sniffles' is 'an informal way of saying a cold or flu'. It comes from the sniffing sound people make when they have a runny nose. Eurgh!

And a 'runny nose' is when 'liquid mucus keeps leaking from our nose — usually when we're sick. ' I'm afraid you'll just have to soldier on Neil. 'To soldier on' means 'to continue despite difficulty'.

I'm dying! What's it about anyway? It's about man flu, and whether it's actually real, or just something that men like to complain about.

We'll give you six words and expressions and, of course, our quiz question. All right, fire away. In a survey conducted by Nuts magazine that asked its readers how long they took to recover from a cold or flu, where women put an average of one and a half days, what did men put?

Was it a) one day? b) two days? Or c) three days?

I'm going to say three days. The threat of man flu is real. Well, we'll find out later, but let's clarify.

'Man flu' is 'the tendency that many people believe men have to complain about a minor illness, such as a cold or flu, and act as if they were suffering from something a lot more serious'. Yes, but science cannot say whether men do actually suffer more than women, or if men just tend to complain more. Let's hear from this British couple about whether they think man flu is real or not.

Men definitely do suffer a lot more, I think, than women do, when we get flu. Yeah, I'm not so convinced. I feel like they just complain more.

— It wipes me out. — I was ill recently and I just carried on and went to work and everything and when Chris had got sick recently, he was on the sofa and couldn't really do anything, so. And it seems that it's not just in the UK.

Listen to this BBC journalist interviewing a woman from Europe. You're from the Netherlands. Have you ever accused your boyfriend of having man flu?

Oh, absolutely yes. Yeah. What have you accused him of doing?

Whining. 'Whining' is 'when someone complains repeatedly and often in an annoying way about something'. So, there certainly seems to be something there, but nothing has been proven, right?

Well, a recent scientific study has indicated that there could be something to man flu after all. Doctor Kyle Sue, an assistant professor of family medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland in Canada, has suggested that there could be a difference between men and women when it comes to respiratory diseases. 'Respiratory' meaning 'related to breathing'.

He says that there was already a lot of evidence from existing studies suggesting men experience worse, longer-lasting symptoms. 'Symptoms' are 'the feelings of illness caused by a disease'. Listen to him explain why this is.

It seems that the higher the testosterone levels, the lower the immune response to these types of infections, whereas the higher the oestrogen level, the stronger the immune response. Testosterone and oestrogen are hormones that exist in both men and women. Testosterone is higher in males and oestrogen is higher in females.

DrSue's research suggests that the more oestrogen a person has, the better able they are to fight off the infection. That's it then! Man flu is real!

Hold your horses, Neil. There are two problems. First of all, the Royal College of GPs in the UK says that there is no such thing as man flu.

And secondly, even DrSue admits that these results, including his own, are only suggestive and not definitive. So, basically, he's saying that there is a suggestion that man flu exists, but the evidence so far cannot say for sure. Exactly.

More studies need to be done. But you know what we can be sure about? The answer to this week's quiz question.

I asked you in a survey conducted by Nuts magazine that asked its readers how long they took to recover from a cold or flu, where women put an average of one and a half days, what did men put? a) one day? b) two days?

Or c) three days? And I said three days. And you were right!

Good! The men said they took twice as long to recover! It must be all that manly testosterone.

Let's review our vocabulary, shall we? Our first was 'the sniffles'. If you have 'the sniffles', you have 'a cold, informally speaking'.

What's the best cure for the sniffles, Neil? Stay in bed and sweat it out, my mum always said. Just make sure you have lots of tissues to deal with your 'runny nose'.

That's 'when a person's nose leaks mucus, usually because they're ill'. Eurgh, yuck. Next, we had 'soldier on'.

This phrasal verb means 'to continue despite difficulty'. When was the last time you had to 'soldier on', Neil? A few days ago, when I went the whole day without eating any lunch!

Then we had 'man flu'. That's the name given to 'the situation where a person, often a man, tends to complain and exaggerate a small illness such as a cold'. Do you do that, Dan?

I'm sure my wife would say I do! Next, we had 'whining'. If you 'whine', you 'complain repeatedly and often in an annoying way'.

Like my children did last time I didn't buy them ice-cream. And finally, we had 'symptoms'. These are 'the feelings of illness caused by a disease'.

What are the 'symptoms' of flu, Dan? A headache, aching muscles, oh, and a fever. And that's the end of this 6 Minute English!

Don't forget to check out our YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages. There, you made it. You can collapse now.

Bye. Bye! 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. I'm Beth.

And I'm Neil. Here at 6 Minute English, we discussed animals adapting their behaviour in response to climate change in earlier programmes, but we didn't focus on one species in detail. So, in this programme, we'll take a look at an especially unwelcome insect, the mosquito.

Every year, mosquito-borne diseases kill around three-quarters of a million globally, with most deaths occurring in children under five. With warming temperatures, mosquitos are now spreading to new areas, including Europe. We'll hear about dengue fever, one of the diseases they bring, and as usual, we'll learn some useful new vocabulary as well.

But first, I have a question for you, Neil. Dengue isn't the only sickness mosquitos spread, so which of the following is also a mosquito-borne disease? Is it a) ebola?

b) cholera? Or c) malaria? I think the answer is c) malaria.

OK, Neil, we'll find out later in the programme. One country at the forefront of the problem is Indonesia which, in recent years, has seen a surge in dengue-related deaths. Here's DrDewi Iriani, a paediatrician in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, speaking with BBC World Service programme The Climate Question.

Fever and muscle aches are common symptoms for a viral infection. But if they're accompanied by other symptoms, for example, red spots on the skin, or maybe there is a fever that lasts for three days, we can suspect that it's dengue fever. Day five to seven is the critical window for a dengue fever patient.

Sometimes parents don't know about this critical window, and when they bring the child to the hospital, it's difficult for us to help. DrIriani describes the 'symptoms' of dengue — 'the signs that indicate the presence of a disease in your body'. These include 'fever', when 'your body temperature is higher than normal, and your heart beats very fast'.

Dengue is not fatal, if you receive treatment quickly. There is a critical window between days five and seven of the infection when a patient needs treatment to survive. A 'critical window' refers to 'a limited period of time during which action must be taken to achieve a certain result'.

Dengue cases in Indonesia have now grown to over 150,000 and many blame climate change. Periods of drought, when little rain falls, force people to collect drinking water in buckets, giving mosquitos places to breed. According to Professor Manisha Kulkarni, an epidemiologist from the University of Ottawa, higher temperatures also mean higher rates of replication, something she explains to Paul Connolly, presenter of BBC World Service's The Climate Question.

The higher the temperature, the quicker that the mosquito can actually replicate that virus within its body, and then be able to transmit it back to another host when it bites. Manisha also talked about the link between poverty and dengue, which is an important part of this jigsaw, isn't it? Because as more and more people move to cities and live in cramped conditions, with poor sanitation, then more and more people are exposed to dengue, so there's something of a domino effect here.

Dengue spreads when an infected mosquito bites a 'host' — 'an animal that another animal lives on or uses for food'. And Professor Kulkarni is concerned about poverty as much as climate change. She calls it an important 'part of the jigsaw', an idiom meaning 'a part of a complicated situation that helps you understand it'.

Poverty forces many Indonesians to move into crowded cities with poor sanitation. These provide the perfect breeding ground for mosquitos creating a 'domino effect' — 'a situation in which something bad happens, causing further negative consequences'. The 'domino effect' means that dengue is spreading not just in Asia, but in parts of the world which didn't have it before, including France, Spain, and Italy.

But the news isn't all bad. Fortunately, technology is getting better at slowing the spread, including early warning systems that can predict dengue outbreaks months in advance, and the ongoing work to produce a vaccine. All of which, hopefully, mean an end to dengue, and similar diseases.

Speaking of which, Beth, what was the answer to your question? I asked you to name another mosquito-borne disease, besides dengue. And I said malaria.

Which was the correct answer! Dengue, malaria, and yellow fever are all diseases spread by mosquitoes. Right, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned from this programme, starting with 'symptom', 'a sign of the presence of a disease in your body'.

A 'fever' is 'a medical condition which increases your body temperature and heartbeat'. A 'critical window' is 'a limited period of time during which action must be taken to achieve the desired outcome'. The word 'host' has several meanings, but in biology, it's 'a plant or animal that another plant or animal lives on as a parasite or uses for food'.

The idiom 'part of the jigsaw', or 'part of the puzzle', means 'a part of a complicated situation that helps you to understand it'. And finally, 'one negative event causing another, which in turn causes another', can be called a 'domino effect'. Once again, our six minutes are up.

Goodbye! Bye! 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

Hello, I'm Rob. Welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm joined today by Finn.

Hello, Rob. Today, we're going to talk about electronic cigarettes — also called e-cigarettes — and teach you words that will help you to discuss the subject or understand news about it. Let's start by asking you, Finn, do you smoke?

No, I don't, Rob. Although sometimes the smoke from other people's cigarettes makes me 'cough'. Like that!

Yes, it's because you are a 'secondary smoker' — in other words, you're 'someone who doesn't smoke, but breathes in the smoke from someone else's cigarette' and this smoke is very harmful to your health. — So, here is today's question, Finn. — Go ahead.

According to the World Health Organization, there are more than 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke. How many of these are known to be harmful to our health? Is it at least a) 50?

b) 150? Or c) 250? Rob, you know, I honestly have no idea.

Let's say c) 250. Always the pessimist. Well, you'll get the answer at the end of the programme.

Some estimates say there are more than a million people using e-cigarettes, just in the UK. But these devices might not be very safe for secondary smokers. Hmm, really?

I thought they were OK because they produce 'vapour' — that's 'water in the form of gas' — rather than the smoke full of harmful chemicals that you get in ordinary cigarettes. Well, the World Health Organization is not convinced e-cigarettes are any safer to secondary smokers. It has recommended a ban on the use of electronic cigarettes indoors and their sale to people under 18 years old.

A 'ban'? In other words, they 'don't want them to be permitted indoors any more'. Well, I know that e-cigarettes work by heating liquid nicotine.

Now, 'nicotine' is 'the substance in tobacco which makes it addictive' and it turns this into vapour, which is then breathed in by the smoker. You see, I thought it was OK because it was just vapour, and therefore OK for non-smokers too? No, well, you see, — it's vapour with some chemicals in it.

— Right. And experts fear it could have similar effects to the smoke produced by ordinary cigarettes. Listen to what Professor John Ashton has to say.

He's from the Faculty of Public Health, here in the UK. Which words does he use to describe the use of e-cigarettes for an extended period of time? There are scientists in America who've been studying second-hand effects of tobacco smoke who are raising these issues now about the e-cigarettes.

And we really can't allow these things to get established before we know what the long-term effects are going to be. He talks about 'long-term effects' and he means that the constant use of e-cigarettes for 'an extended period of time' might 'cause harm which we're not aware of yet'. You can't light up a cigarette in a pub or bar any more.

It was the effect of people's cigarette smoke on others that led to the ban on ordinary cigarettes in Britain. Private companies and the authorities are keen not to risk bringing back any kind of smoking to closed spaces in public places. This is likely to annoy many smokers who have been moving to electronic cigarettes in an attempt to cut down on nicotine or even to quit smoking.

Yes, many people want to 'quit smoking' — 'stop smoking' — at once and they find it easier to do this if they can use e-cigarettes. In the last few decades, smokers have been feeling persecuted. Mm, well, there's a lot of pressure on them to quit the habit.

Let's listen to this smoker, who uses e-cigarettes. He's in a pub in Bristol. Which word does he use to talk about the harm certain things do to children?

We react to absolutely everything in this world. What we'll gonna have eventually though, they'll outlaw drinking beer in pubs, because it's damaging for, you know, to children to watch it happening. He uses the word 'damaging', meaning 'harmful'.

He complains that there's an overreaction to things like cigarettes and alcohol. Yes. An 'overreaction' means 'responding to something in a way which is more forceful than required'.

He complained that one day the authorities might end up banning people from drinking alcohol in pubs. 'Pubs', as we know, are 'bars to which most customers go to drink alcohol'. And I think he's using some irony here, maybe making a joke there, I think.

He is a bit! Well, the right to smoke or not smoke generates passionate debates. But here are some facts which might make people who are about to light up a cigarette think again.

Oh, maybe! I told you earlier in the programme that there are more than 4,000 chemicals in cigarette smoke and I asked you how many of these are known to be harmful to health. The options were at least 50, 150 or 250?

I said 250. Is it as many as that, Rob? — It is as many as that.

— Wow! Yes, at least 250, according to the World Health Organization website. It says that more than 50 chemicals in tobacco smoke are known to cause cancer.

Any amount of second-hand tobacco smoke is thought to be unsafe, and second-hand smoke causes more than 600,000 early deaths per year. Well, as we're nearly at the end of the programme, let's just remember some of the words we used today, Finn. OK.

We heard 'cough', 'secondary smoker', 'vapour', 'ban', 'nicotine', 'long-term', 'quit smoking', 'damaging', 'overreaction'. Thanks, Finn. That's it for this programme.

Please join us soon again for 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. — Bye-bye. — Bye.

6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. Hello. This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.

I'm Sam. And I'm Neil. In March 2020, the World Health Organization, the WHO, declared Covid-19 a pandemic.

Now, after two and half years in the shadow of Covid, for many people travel restrictions are ending, and many people around the world are starting their lives again. But not everyone. Whether it's because of lockdowns and not seeing friends, or getting sick, even dying, everyone wants to see an end to the pandemic.

But, with cases of Covid infections still in the millions, and doctors warning about new variants of the disease, is the pandemic really coming to an end? In this programme, we'll be finding out how pandemics end, and, as usual, we'll be learning some related vocabulary as well. Of course, pandemics are nothing new.

Ancient texts are full of stories of plagues which spread death and disease before eventually going away. In the Middle Ages, The Black Death that killed over half of Europe's population lasted for four years. It's only with modern vaccines that diseases have been 'eradicated' — 'completely ended'.

So, Neil, my question this week is which disease was eradicated in 1977? Was it a) cholera? b) polio?

Or c) smallpox? I'm going to say c) smallpox. OK, I'll reveal the answer at the end of the programme.

Of course, the idea that the pandemic might not be ending isn't something people want to hear. Most people are sick of worrying about Covid and can't wait for things to get back to normal. But as Yale University physician Professor Nicholas Christakis explained to BBC World Service programme The Inquiry, it's not just the biological disease that needs to end.

Pandemics have a social ending too. Pandemics are not just a biological phenomenon, they're also a social phenomenon, and they end socially. And one of the ways that they end socially is when everyone just sort of agrees that they have ended, when everyone is simply willing to tolerate more risk.

In other words, we sort of declare victory, maybe prematurely, or another way of thinking about it is we put our heads in the sand. Biologically, Covid still exists in the world and most of us would rather not catch it. But, if you're vaccinated, the risk of getting seriously ill is much lower, so it's reasonable to make plans to resume normal life.

When enough people do this, we 'declare victory', a phrase meaning 'to announce something to be finished before it actually is, but when it looks good enough'. The danger is that we declare victory 'prematurely' — 'too soon, before it's the best time to do so'. Professor Christakis uses another idiom for this — 'to bury your head in the sand', meaning 'to deliberately refuse to accept the truth about something you find unpleasant'.

It's also true that pandemics do not end in the same way for everyone, everywhere. Rich western countries with the resources to vaccinate their populations are in a better position than most. Professor Dora Vargha is an expert on the history of medicine.

She compares the Covid pandemic to an ongoing disease for which we have no cure and which has killed millions since its outbreak in the 1980s — HIV/Aids. Here is Professor Vargha speaking with the BBC World Service's The Inquiry. What happens in the case of HIV/Aids is that it became from being an immediate death sentence, basically, to a manageable chronic disease, but that happens in societies that have the means and the infrastructure to make that possible with medication, and that is not necessarily true for all parts of the world, but we don't think about the HIV/Aids pandemic as an ongoing pandemic.

Although HIV has no cure, modern medical drugs allow people to continue living with the disease for years. HIV is no longer a 'death sentence' — a phrase meaning 'the punishment of death for committing a crime, or from an incurable disease'. Nowadays, HIV is no longer fatal.

It has become a disease which can be controlled and is 'chronic', or 'long lasting'. We no longer think of Aids as a pandemic, but that's not true everywhere, only in countries which can provide the necessary medical drugs and support. Finding the right balance of Covid restrictions for communities of people exhausted by the pandemic isn't easy.

Many scientists are warning that we haven't yet reached the beginning of the end of Covid, but hopefully we're at least reaching the end of the beginning. Let's finish the programme on a hopeful note by remembering that diseases can and do eventually end, like in your quiz question, Sam. Ah, yes, I asked which disease was eradicated in 1977?

Neil said it was smallpox, which was the correct answer, well done, Neil! Smallpox no longer occurs naturally, but did you know that samples of smallpox do still exist, frozen in American and Soviet laboratories during the Cold War? As if the thought that the Covid pandemic might never end isn't scary enough!

Right, let's recap the vocabulary we've learnt starting with 'eradicate' — 'to completely get rid of something, such as a disease'. If you 'declare victory', you 'announce something to be finished before it actually is'. The danger in doing this is that you announce it 'prematurely', or 'too soon'.

The idiom 'bury your head in the sand' means 'to refuse to accept or look at a situation you don't like'. A 'death sentence' means 'the punishment of death for committing a crime, or from an incurable disease'. And finally, a 'chronic' disease is one which 'lasts for a long time'.

Even though the pandemic hasn't ended, our programme has, because our six minutes are up. — Bye for now! — Bye!

6 Minute English from BBC Learning English. Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English. I'm Alice.

And I'm Rob. You look very pale, Rob. Are you OK?

Well, I was at a rather boozy wedding party last night — and I had a bit too much champagne. — Oh! Do you know any good hangover cures?

A 'hangover' is 'the headache and sickness you can feel after drinking too much alcohol' and a 'cure' is 'something that makes you better'. Well, I'm 'teetotal' — I 'don't drink alcohol', so I'd say the best hangover cure is not to drink in the first place. You don't believe in 'hair of the dog' then?

No, Rob, I don't. 'Hair of the dog' is 'the belief that drinking more alcohol when you already have a hangover will make you feel better'. And 'boozy' means 'lots of alcohol'.

I can see I'm not going to get much sympathy from you, so I'm going to take a couple of painkillers and let you tell everyone what the subject of today's show is. All right then. Well, it's drinking too much, Rob, and I have a question for you.

What is the name of the main process involved in producing alcohol? Is it a) fermentation? b) hydration?

Or c) purification? OK, I know it has something to do with water, so I'm going to go for b) hydration. It rings a bell from my chemistry lessons at school.

Ah, well, we'll find out later on in the show whether you were listening carefully in class, Rob. Well, um, no comment. Well, most people are aware of the links between smoking and cancer, but fewer are aware that drinking alcohol is linked to an increased risk of future health problems.

The UK government is currently trying to raise awareness with their new guidelines on how much is safe to drink. Let's hear what DrMichael Moseley has to say about health risks. Unfortunately, whatever level of alcohol you are drinking, it is likely to increase your risk of some forms of cancer, particularly breast cancer, but also other rarer forms of cancer, like head, neck, and the throat.

The risks are quite low at moderate drinking, but they do rise rapidly. So any drinking at all, even one small glass of wine with your evening meal, raises your risk of cancer? Is that right?

Yes and the health risk increases with the amount you drink. But I thought wine was supposed to be good for you? Mm, it's a popular belief, but medical evidence doesn't seem to support this view.

Let's listen to DrMichael Moseley again on this. Now, there's long been this idea there is this marvellous stuff in red wine called resveratrol, which is said to reduce your risk of all sorts of things. Unfortunately, the amount you'd have to consume would be so huge that the downsides of drinking red wine would swiftly overwhelm them.

And the 'downside' of something means 'the disadvantages'. Now, Alice, what's your favourite tipple? Well, I don't have one, Rob, because I'm teetotal, remember?

A 'tipple' is another way of saying 'an alcoholic drink'. I enjoy beetroot and kale smoothies with a dash of turmeric and ground pepper. Kale?

Oh, yuck, that's disgusting! Now, a 'smoothie' is 'a thick drink made of fruit or vegetables, blended with milk or yoghurt or water'. Well, I like sweet stuff, maybe a banana smoothie with some honey, but beetroot and kale sounds disgusting!

'Don't knock it until you've tried it'. And that means 'to try something before you criticise it'. OK, OK, but seriously.

A glass of wine makes me happy and relaxed and there are health studies that suggest being happy is good for your health. That's true, but eating and drinking healthily makes me happy! Now, moving on, it's important to put the risk of drinking alcohol.

. . Or horrible vegetable smoothies!

. . in context.

Statistically, drinking alcohol regularly represents just under 1% lifetime risk of death, but actually, an hour of TV watching or eating a bacon sandwich a couple of times a week is more dangerous. Well, that's what I like to hear! Though what if I'm watching TV, enjoying a beer and a lovely bacon sandwich, does that triple my lifetime risk of death?

Well, Rob, you'd better ask Professor David Spiegelhalter at the University of Cambridge that question. I was quoting him earlier about the TV watching and the bacon sandwich. He works with statistics, but this is for another programme.

Now, let's get on to the serious matter of today's quiz question. I asked what is the name of the main process involved in producing alcohol? Is it a) fermentation?

b) hydration? Or c) purification? Well, I said b) hydration.

Though you were sceptical, weren't you, Alice? Mm, yes, and I was right to be 'sceptical', which means 'doubtful', because b) is the wrong answer, I'm afraid, Rob. The main process involved in producing alcohol is 'fermentation', which is 'the process in which yeast or bacteria changes sugar into alcohol'.

'Hydration' is 'the process of making your body absorb water'. And 'purification' is 'the act of removing some harmful things from something'. Actually, have this glass of water, Rob.

'Hydration' is a good 'hangover cure', much better than 'hair of the dog'! Ah, cheers, Alice! Now, let's hear the words we learned today.

They are 'hangover', 'cure', 'teetotal', 'hair of the dog', 'boozy', 'downside', 'tipple', 'don't knock it until you've tried it', 'sceptical', 'fermentation'. Well, that's the end of today's 6 Minute English. Keep hydrated and don't forget to join us again soon.

— Bye-bye. — Bye-bye. 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English.