日常英語 腸道微生物或有助延長鍛煉時間

The microbes in our intestines help keep us healthy, strengthening our immune systems and promoting metabolism. But they may also give us a leg up when it comes to moving our legs up—and down again, rapidly and repeatedly—because a new study finds that mice that are fed bacteria isolated from elite athletes log more time on the treadmill than other mice that are treated only to bacteria found in yogurt. The results appear in the journal Nature Medicine.

我們腸道中的微生物幫助我們保持健康，增強(qiáng)我們的免疫系統(tǒng)，并促進(jìn)新陳代謝。但當(dāng)我們的腿迅速且頻繁地提起放下時，微生物可能也會幫助我們，因為一項新研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，與僅喂食酸奶中所含細(xì)菌的老鼠相比，被喂食從優(yōu)秀運動員體內(nèi)所分離細(xì)菌的老鼠，在跑步機(jī)上堅持的時間更長。研究結(jié)果發(fā)表在《自然醫(yī)學(xué)》期刊上。

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Aleksandar Kostic, a microbiologist at Harvard Medical School, was initially interested in how the gut microbes of people with diabetes8 might differ from folks without the condition—the idea being that tweaking the microbiome might help to treat the disease. But the question of enhancing overall health and fitness can also come from the other direction:

哈佛醫(yī)學(xué)院的微生物學(xué)家亞歷山大·庫斯迪最初感興趣的是，糖尿病患者的腸道微生物與沒有糖尿病者的有何不同——想法是，調(diào)整微生物群可能有助于治療糖尿病。但增強(qiáng)整體健康和體格的問題也可能來自另一個方向：

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"But here the question was more, what's unique in the gut microbiome of someone who is supremely healthy? And can we use that feature of the microbiome to transfer into other people to potentially make them healthier?"

“但這里的問題更多，極其健康的人的腸道微生物群有何獨特之處？我們能否利用微生物群的這一特性將其轉(zhuǎn)移到其他人身上，使他們更健康？”

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And a handy window into the gut is poop. So Kostic and his crew asked 15 runners who competed in the Boston Marathon in 2015 to provide daily stool samples from a week before the race to a week after. They also collected samples from 10 people who are decidedly more sedentary, and they tallied the bacteria present in each.

進(jìn)入腸道的便利方法是大便。因此，庫斯迪及其團(tuán)隊要求參加2015年波士頓馬拉松的15名選手在比賽前后一周提供每日糞便樣本。他們還收集了10個明顯久坐不動者的樣本，并計算了每個樣本中的細(xì)菌數(shù)量。

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"And when we looked at this data, there was really one thing that really jumped out at us, and it was this genus of bacteria that isn't so well studied: Veillonella. We found that it was very significantly higher in abundance in the gut after the marathon. But not only that, it was found much more frequently in elite marathon runners than in the general population."

“我們觀察這些數(shù)據(jù)時，確實有一件事引起了我們的注意，那就是未經(jīng)深入研究的細(xì)菌：韋榮氏球菌屬。我們發(fā)現(xiàn)，在馬拉松比賽后，選手腸道中這種細(xì)菌的含量顯著提高。不僅如此，與普通人相比，在馬拉松優(yōu)秀選手體內(nèi)發(fā)現(xiàn)這種細(xì)菌的頻率要高得多?！?/p>

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To see whether this microbe might provide the athletes with any benefit, they gave some to mice and then let the little rodents run. And they found that the mice loaded with Veillonella spent more time on the treadmill than those that got Lactobacillus.

為了研究這種微生物是否會為運動員提供好處，他們給老鼠注射了一些細(xì)菌，然后讓這些小型嚙齒類動物奔跑。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，與攜帶乳酸菌屬的老鼠相比，攜帶韋榮氏球菌屬的老鼠在跑步機(jī)上奔跑的時間更長。

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"And this was an increase of 13 percent... I think any endurance athlete or any athlete in general will tell you that a 13 percent increase is pretty significant."

“時間增加了13%……我認(rèn)為任何耐力運動員或一般的運動員都會告訴你，增長13%意義非凡?！?/p>

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Now, the interesting thing about Veillonella is that they thrive on lactate, which is a chemical produced by fatigued muscle. The bacteria consume lactate and convert it into a fatty acid called propionate. Then mice that were treated to proprionate, which was delivered via teeny tiny enemas to mimic its release by gut bacteria, similarly extended their treadmill time.

韋榮氏球菌屬的有趣之處在于，它們靠乳酸生長，乳酸是疲勞的肌肉產(chǎn)生的一種化學(xué)物質(zhì)。韋榮氏球菌屬消耗乳酸，并將其轉(zhuǎn)化為名為“丙酸鹽”的脂肪酸。老鼠被注入丙酸鹽，即用微量灌腸劑傳遞該物質(zhì)，模擬腸道細(xì)菌釋放丙酸鹽的過程，這同樣延長了老鼠在跑步機(jī)上的奔跑時間。

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"And so this creates a kind of a positive feedback loop and helps us to understand why Veillonella might be enriched in elite athletes in the first place."

“因此，這創(chuàng)造了一種正反饋循環(huán)，并幫助我們理解，為什么優(yōu)秀運動員體內(nèi)一開始就有大量榮氏球菌屬?！?/p>

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Exercise produces lactate, which feeds Veillonella. Veillonella produces propionate, which somehow promotes endurance, at least in treadmill-trotting mice. Which means that gut microbes may hold the secret to extending that workout—without getting pooped.

鍛煉產(chǎn)生乳酸，乳酸可以喂養(yǎng)韋榮氏球菌屬。韋榮氏球菌屬產(chǎn)生丙酸鹽，這在某種程度上提升了耐力，至少對在跑步機(jī)上跑步的老鼠來說如此。這意味著腸道微生物可能掌握著延長鍛煉時間且不會精疲力竭的秘密。