1 . When colds and flu hit, many people naturally turn to over-the-counter(OTC) medicines (非处方药) to push through and treat their symptoms. Although these medicines are easily accessible and widely used, it might come as a surprise to many people to learn that they are not risk-free. A study estimated that every year, 26, 735 people went to the emergency room for problems related to OTC cold and cough medicines.

When two or more drugs are used together, their interactions can sometimes produce unexpected harmful effects. Doctors are typically knowledgeable about possible drug interactions, so it is very important for patients to ask their healthcare providers which OTC medicines are safe for them to use.

It is important to read the package ingredients (成分) of OTC medicines closely to avoid duplication of doses (剂量重复). Cold medicines are typically made up of various ingredients, including pain relievers, nasal decongestants and cough suppressants or expectorants. A person who takes a single-ingredient medicine paired with one of these multi-ingredient medicines can receive an unsafe dose of that ingredient.

While everyone could experience bad effects from cold and flu medicines, some groups —including older adults, children and pregnant women—may be at greater risk.

Older people who are using prescribed (处方的) drugs to treat different health conditions may have a higher risk of drug interactions because of the higher number of medicines being used at the same time to treat different conditions. The aging body is not as expert at absorbing, distributing and clearing medicines as younger bodies are. This can put older adults at higher risk for an overdose and drug-to-drug interactions with some medicines.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention do not recommend giving cold medicines to children under age 4. Because of a variety of factors, young children have a higher risk of an accidental overdose and adverse events that could lead to death.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a health care system in which patients     1     (treat) with natural plant, animal, and mineral remedies (药物). It is believed, for a person to be healthy,     2     yin and yang forces should be in balance. Imbalance causes illness or injury. TCM is about     3     (restore) the balance between yin and yang forces in patients. It has been a major part of traditional Chinese culture and continues to play     4     vital role in medical treatment in China today.

According to the World Health Organization, nearly 80 percent of the world’s population depends for its primary health care needs     5     , medicines from plants and animals. This is especially true in countries where traditional medicines are     6     (wide) used.

Increasingly, however, modern medicines also contain substances from animals and plants. Given growing populations, increasing wealth, and the     7     (spread) popularity of natural remedies around the world the demand for these medicines and remedies     8     (rise) now .The rising demand,     9     (combine) with reduced habitat, has put a number of plant and animal species used for medicinal purposes at risk for many years.

For instance, TCM uses about 1,000 plant and 36 animal species, including the tiger, rhinoceros (犀牛), and sea horse,     10     are all in danger.

4 . With the widespread use of smartphones, emojis(表情符号)have become a popular medium for expressing emotions and ideas. Researchers now believe these expressive symbols can play a significant role in medicine, increasing the response rate of health surveys(调查).

Scientists say that employing emojis in healthcare communications has several benefits, such as general recognition across diverse populations. So the study authors strongly support the use of emojis to bolster communication between patients and physicians.

“By promoting more effective communication between patients and care providers, as well as between physicians themselves, an emoji-based language system with a common agreement of meanings can be developed,” says Professor Kendrick Davis, who is an associate professor at the UCR School of Medicine. The professor has been working on creating an emoji-based measurement system for the past two years. And he has even conducted a study using emojis to measure health among college students.

Davis further explains that a significant part of medical communication includes surveys, which are often areas of communication breakdown. “Surveys are usually passed to patients in a variety of different stages of their care. But many surveys are explained with language that can introduce an obstacle. This is where emojis, which are friendly and widely used, come into play by replacing survey language that can be hard for some patients to understand,” he says. The authors also point out that while effective communication is important for successful treatment and care, certain health conditions such as brain injury can cause major obstacles. In such cases, emojis could be helpful.

However, Davis also acknowledges the importance of qualitative(定性的)methods. He expresses an interest in partnering researchers whose methodologies are heavily qualitative.