VOA常速英语:Healthy Children Who Aren’t Growing, May Not Make Enough Human Growth Hormone

Eleven-year-old Spencer Damon is passionate about baseball.
11岁的Spencer Damon对棒球充满热情。

My goal is to play college baseball.
我的目标是上大学打棒球。

There was only one problem: Spencer was the shortest player on his team.I want to be as tall as these kids.
只是有个问题：Spencer是队里最矮的球员。我想和这些孩子一样高。

Gradually Spencer’s parents suspected something was wrong.It really set in one year coming out of winter into spring when he got out his cleats for spring baseball and he put them on they fit, and they never should have fit those were from the spring prior.
渐渐地，Spencer的父母怀疑有什么不对劲。发现不对劲是在一个冬末春初，他拿出前一年春天穿的球鞋套在脚上：大小正合适，按说前一年春天穿的鞋子应该小才对。

Spencer’s parents set up an appointment with Dr. Burt Bacharach, the chief of pediatric endocrinology at University of Missouri healthcare.After careful testing, Dr. Bacharach determined a growth hormone deficiency was causing Spencer’s growth failure.
Spencer的父母和密苏里大学医疗中心的儿科内分泌学主任Burt Bacharach约好见面。经过仔细的测试，Burt Bacharach医生确定是生长激素缺乏导致了Spencer的发育缓慢。

Growth hormone just doesn’t affect your growth...it affects your muscle mass and fat distribution so that affects your cholesterol that affects your overall.It also affects your overall sense of well-being.Growth hormone insufficiency is a disorder involving the pituitary gland which is a small pea-sized gland located at the base of the brain.It is this gland that produces human growth hormone among others.
生长激素不会影响你的生长…它影响你的肌肉块和脂肪分布，因此影响你的胆固醇，从而影响你的个头。它还会影响你的整体幸福感。生长激素不足是一种涉及脑下垂体的疾病，脑下垂体是位于大脑底部的一个豌豆大小的腺体。正是这个腺体产生了人类的生长激素。

Ready? Yeah.
准备好了吗?准备好了。

Since Spencer started getting a daily hormone injection two years ago, he has grown about 15 centimeters.Still he has a reminder written in each of his baseball caps. It says HDMH which means height doesn’t measure heart. And heart is something Spencer has plenty of.
自从两年前Spencer开始每天注射荷尔蒙以来，他已经长了15厘米。不过，他的每一顶棒球帽上都写着提示语：HDMH，意思是身高不是衡量勇气的标准。而勇气正是Spencer所不缺乏的。

Carol Pearson VOA news.
美国之音新闻记者Carol Pearson报道。