A new study by a Penn State College of Medicine research team found that honey is a better and safer treatment for children than cough medicines.
Ian Paul, the study’s lead researcher, was motivated to test honey because treating coughs in children has recently become a sticky subject. Coughing is the body’s way of clearing irritated (受刺激的) airways to help you breathe. But too much coughing can irritate your lungs and throat even more. It can also make it tough to get the sleep your body needs to heal. Hoping to ease the suffering of their children, parents often give them cough medicines.
But there have never been any good studies showing that they work. Cough and cold medicines may also cause serious side effects. Hundreds of kids die in the hospital each year after receiving too much cough medicine by mistake. Last October, the US Food and Drug Administration suggested that parents should not give cough medicines to children under 6.
In order to search for a different solution, Paul designed a study that involved 105 kids who were sick with coughs and other cold conditions. At bedtime, the kids took buckwheat (荞麦) honey, honey-flavored (蜂蜜味的) DM (one of the most common ingredients in cough medicines)
, or no treatment. Parents and kids in the no-
-treatment group knew they weren’t getting anything, but the other two groups weren’t told which treatment they were getting.
The surveys showed that kids who swallowed about 2 teaspoons of buckwheat honey before bedtime coughed less and slept better than kids in the other groups. “When parents want something for their kids to take,” Paul says, “honey seems like the best option”.
But what gives honey its healing power? Substances called antioxidants (抗氧化剂) may be
part of the answer. All honey contains antioxidants that protect our cells from damage. Studies show that antioxidant levels in the body rise after someone swallows honey.
68. Which of the following can be the best title for this passage?
A. No cough medicines to children
B. Sweet solution to kids’ coughing
C. Best treatment for your cold
D. Cough medicines don’t work
69. We can learn from Paragraph 2 that coughing ______.
A. sometimes does good to people
B. can cure lung and throat diseases
C. is more harmful to children
D. helps improve children’s diet
70. During Paul’s experiment, the kids who received treatment ______.
A. seemed much worse than before
B. knew they weren’t getting anything
C. coughed less and slept better
D. had no idea what they swallowed
