In recent years, some research has suggested that a high-fat diet may be bad for the brain, at least in lab animals. Can exercise protect against such damage? That question may have particular relevance now, with the butter-and cream-laden holidays fast approaching. And it has prompted several new and important studies.
近年來，一些研究表明高脂飲食可能對大腦有害，至少動物實(shí)驗(yàn)的情況如此。那么，運(yùn)動能否幫助我們抵抗這種損害呢?隨著節(jié)日到來，一大波充斥著黃油和奶酪的食品正在襲來，這個問題有了特殊的重要性，由此也帶來了一些新的重要實(shí)驗(yàn)。
The most captivating of these, presented last month at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans, began with scientists at the University of Minnesota teaching a group of rats to scamper from one chamber to another when they heard a musical tone, an accepted measure of the animals' ability to learn and remember.
上個月，在新奧爾良神經(jīng)科學(xué)學(xué)會(Society for Neuroscience in New Orleans)年會上，明尼蘇達(dá)州大學(xué)(University of Minnesota)的科學(xué)家們提交了一個最為吸引人的發(fā)現(xiàn)：他們令一組大鼠聽到音樂后從一個小室疾走到另一個小室，這是一個被普遍認(rèn)可的測量動物學(xué)習(xí)和記憶能力的實(shí)驗(yàn)。
For the next four months, half of the rats ate normal chow. The others happily consumed a much greasier diet, consisting of at least 40 percent fat. Total calories were the same in both diets.
接下來四個月，一半的老鼠正常飲食，另一半則愉快地享用更為油膩的飲食，其中包含至少40%的脂肪。兩種飲食的總卡路里量是一樣的。
After four months, the animals repeated the memory test. Those on a normal diet performed about the same as they had before; their cognitive ability was the same. The high-fat eaters, though, did much worse.
四個月后，動物們再次接受記憶測試。正常飲食的大鼠表現(xiàn)與之前一樣;認(rèn)知能力也一樣。而高脂飲食組的表現(xiàn)就差得多了。
Then, half of the animals in each group were given access to running wheels. Their diets didn't change. So, some of the rats on the high-fat diet were now exercising. Some were not. Ditto for the animals eating the normal diet.
接下來，兩組各有一半大鼠被提供了滾輪裝置。它們的飲食沒有變化。這樣，高脂飲食組的一半大鼠開始運(yùn)動，另一半則沒有運(yùn)動。正常飲食組的大鼠也是同樣的情況。
For the next seven weeks, the memory test was repeated weekly in all of the groups. During that time, the performance of the rats eating a high-fat diet continued to decline so long as they didn't exercise.
接下來的七周中，所有組別每周進(jìn)行一次記憶測試。在這一階段中，高脂飲食組的大鼠如果沒有運(yùn)動，表現(xiàn)繼續(xù)下降。
But those animals that were running, even if they were eating lots of fat, showed notable improvements in their ability to think and remember.
但是，那些在滾輪上跑步的大鼠雖然也攝入了大量脂肪，但思考和記憶能力有了明顯的提升。
After seven weeks, the animals on the high-fat diet that exercised were scoring as well on the memory test as they had at the start of the experiment.
七周后，高脂飲食的運(yùn)動大鼠在記憶測試方面的評分已經(jīng)恢復(fù)到了試驗(yàn)開始時的水平。
Exercise, in other words, had "reversed the high-fat diet-induced cognitive decline," the study's authors concluded.
研究作者得出了結(jié)論：運(yùn)動“逆轉(zhuǎn)高脂飲食帶來的認(rèn)知下降”。
That finding echoes those of another study presented last month at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. In it, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan gathered a group of mice bred to have a predisposition to developing a rodent version of Alzheimer's disease and its profound memory loss.
這一發(fā)現(xiàn)與另一項(xiàng)神經(jīng)科學(xué)學(xué)會會議發(fā)表的研究互相呼應(yīng)。在那項(xiàng)研究中，日本京都大學(xué)(Kyoto University)的研究人員喂食一組小鼠，使之易于患上嚙齒動物的阿爾茨海默癥和嚴(yán)重的記憶喪失。
Earlier studies by the same scientists had shown that a high-fat diet exacerbated the animals' progression to full-blown dementia, and that both a low-fat diet and exercise slowed the animals' mental decline.
同一批科學(xué)家早先的研究已經(jīng)表明，高脂飲食會加劇動物病情進(jìn)展為完全性癡呆，而低脂飲食和運(yùn)動都能減緩動物的智力下降。
But it hadn't been clear in these earlier experiments which was more effective at halting the loss of memory, a leaner diet or regular rodent workouts.
但是，這些早期試驗(yàn)并未明確，清淡的飲食或有規(guī)律的運(yùn)動，哪個對阻止記憶喪失更有效。
So the scientists set out now to tease out the effects of each intervention by first feeding all of their mice a high-fat diet for 10 weeks, then switching some of them to low-fat kibble, while moving others to cages equipped with running wheels.
所以，科學(xué)家開始梳理出不同干預(yù)措施的效果，他們首先給所有小鼠喂食高脂飲食10周，然后讓其中一部分改吃低脂粗糧，另一些轉(zhuǎn)移到裝有滾輪的籠子里。
A third group began both a low-fat diet and an exercise routine, while the remainder of the mice continued to eat the high-fat diet and didn't exercise.
第三組則予以低脂飲食和規(guī)律鍛煉，而其余小鼠喂養(yǎng)高脂飲食且不運(yùn)動。
After an additional 10 weeks, this last group, the animals that ate lots of fat and lounged around their cages, had developed far more deposits of the particular brain plaques associated with Alzheimer's disease than the other mice. They also performed much more poorly on memory tests.
又過了10周后，最后一組進(jìn)食大量脂肪而宅在籠子里不運(yùn)動的小鼠，生成了與阿爾茨海默癥有關(guān)的特殊大腦斑塊，斑塊的量遠(yuǎn)甚于其他小鼠。它們在記憶測試中也表現(xiàn)得遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)遜色。
The mice that had been switched to a low-fat diet had fewer plaques and better memories than the control group.
相比對照組，低脂飲食組的小鼠斑塊較少，記憶力也更好。
But the mice that were exercising had even healthier brains and better memory scores than the low-fat group -- even if they had remained on a high-fat diet. In other words, exercise was "more effective than diet control in preventing high-fat diet-induced Alzheimer's disease development," the authors write.
但是，相比低脂組，運(yùn)動的小鼠大腦更為健康，記憶評分也更高——盡管它們是高脂飲食的。作者在論文中寫到，換言之，運(yùn)動“在預(yù)防高脂飲食帶來的阿爾茨海默癥進(jìn)展中比飲食節(jié)制更有效”。
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