評論
打印
Exercise and Longevity
健身與長壽的關系
ONE sure giveaway of quack medicine is the claim that a product can treat any ailment.
如果有人宣稱他的藥能包治百病，我們一般就能確定這是個庸醫。
There are, sadly, no panaceas.
因為世上根本沒有所謂的靈丹妙藥。
But some things come close, and exercise is one of them.
但有些事情卻類似這種藥，比如說健身就是其中之一。
As doctors never tire of reminding people,exercise protects against a host of illnesses,from heart attacks and dementia to diabetes and infection.
所以醫生們總是不厭其煩的建議人們，鍛煉身體可以讓人百病不侵，從心臟病到老年癡呆、糖尿病甚至細菌感染等等。
Dr Levine and her team were testing a theory that exercise works its magic,at least in part, by promoting autophagy.
萊文博士和她的團隊驗證了一個理論：鍛煉的神奇功效是通過、至少是部分通過促進細胞自噬作用來實現的。
This process, whose name is derived from the Greek for "self-eating",is a mechanism by which surplus,worn-out or malformed proteins and other cellular components are broken up for scrap and recycled.
這一過程的工作原理是將剩余的、代謝完的、或變質的蛋白質和其它細胞成分進行降解、破碎后，再循環利用的過程，其名稱源于希臘語的“自我吞噬”。
To carry out the test,Dr Levine turned to those stalwarts of medical research,genetically modified mice.
為了用實驗證明這一點，萊文博士使用了醫學研究中那些慣常用到的轉基因小白鼠。
Her first batch of rodents were tweaked so that their autophagosomes- structures that form around components which have been marked for recycling-glowed green.
她的第一批實驗小鼠細胞內的自噬體為被標記成了熒光綠色，自噬體是由包繞著待循環再利用的細胞成分所構成。
After these mice had spent half an hour on a treadmill,she found that the number of autophagosomes in their muscles had increased, and it went on increasing until they had been running for 80 minutes.
之后，小白鼠們放在跑步機上進行了半小時的鍛煉，她發現小鼠肌肉內的自噬體增多了，跑到80分鐘后這中增長就停止了。
To find out what, if anything,this exercise-boosted autophagy was doing for mice,the team engineered a second strain that was unable to respond this way.
如果說鍛煉促進了小白鼠自噬體的增加，那么為了找出原因，研究團隊對另一種小白鼠進行了試驗，但沒能收到相同的效果。
Exercise, in other words,failed to stimulate their recycling mechanism.
換句話說，鍛煉沒能夠刺激它們的再循環機制。
When this second group of modified mice were tested alongside ordinary ones,they showed less endurance and had less ability to take up sugar from their bloodstreams.
當這第二組轉基因小白鼠與普通小白鼠一同測試后，發現它們的耐力更差，從血液中獲取糖分的能力也更低。
There were longer-term effects, too.In mice, as in people, regular exercise helps prevent diabetes.
從長遠的效果來看，小白鼠和人類一樣，規律的鍛煉能起到預防糖尿病的作用。
But when the team fed their second group of modified mice a diet designed to induce diabetes,they found that exercise gave no protection at all.
但是，當研究團隊對第二組轉基因小白鼠飼喂一種專門能誘發糖尿病的食物后，她們發現鍛煉也沒法保護小鼠免遭糖尿病的侵害。
Dr Levine and her team reckon their results suggest that manipulating autophagy may offer a new approach to treating diabetes.
萊文博士和她的團隊對實驗結果進行分析后認為，人為控制自噬作用可為治療糖尿病提供新的方法。
And their research is also suggestive in other ways.
她們的研究對其它方面也有建設性的啟發。
Autophagy is a hot topic in medicine,as biologists have come to realise that it helps protect the body from all kinds of ailments.
細胞自噬機制成為了醫學領域的一項熱門課題，生物學家們逐漸意識到細胞自噬作用還能幫助人類機體抵御各種疾患。
