|
How Exercise Keeps Us Young Active older people resemble much younger people physiologically, according to a new study of the effects of exercise on aging. The findings suggest that many of our expectations about the inevitability of physical decline with advancing years may be incorrect and that how we age is, to a large degree, up to us. 一项关于运动对衰老影响的最新研究表明，从生理学角度讲，经常运动的老年人更接近于年轻人。我们一直以为，随着岁月的流逝，体能的下降不可避免，但这一新发现表明，上述那些观点可能有很多并不正确，我们年龄几何在很大程度上取决于我们自己。 Aging remains a surprisingly mysterious process. A wealth of past scientific research has shown that many bodily and cellular processes change in undesirable ways as we grow older. But science has not been able to establish definitively whether such changes result primarily from the passage of time — in which case they are inevitable for anyone with birthdays — or result at least in part from lifestyle, meaning that they are mutable. 老龄化对于我们来说依旧是一个十分神秘的过程。过去的许多科学研究都表明，随着年龄的增长，身体和细胞中的许多进程都会出现不利的变化。但科学一直未能明确发生这些变化的主要原因是时间的推移还是（至少从一定程度上说）个人的生活方式。如果是前者，它们就是每个人从出生起就不可避免的；但如果是后者，这就意味着，它们可以被改变。 This conundrum is particularly true in terms of inactivity. Older people tend to be quite sedentary nowadays, and being sedentary affects health, making it difficult to separate the effects of not moving from those of getting older. 在考虑运动量不足这个因素时，这个谜题显得尤其复杂难解。当下的老年人往往容易久坐不动，这种生活习惯会影响健康，因此很难区分运动量不足的后果和单纯因为年纪渐长造成的影响。 In the new study, which was published this week in The Journal of Physiology, scientists at King’s College London and the University of Birmingham in England decided to use a different approach. 本周发表于《生理学杂志》(The Journal of Physiology)上的新研究中，英国伦敦国王学院(King’s College London)和伯明翰大学(University of Birmingham)的科学家们决定使用一种不同的方法。 They removed inactivity as a factor in their study of aging by looking at the health of older people who move quite a bit. 他们选择了坚持大量运动的健康老年人作为研究对象，这样就把运动量不足这个因素从研究中去除了。 “We wanted to understand what happens to the functioning of our bodies as we get older if we take the best-case scenario,” said Stephen Harridge, senior author of the study and director of the Centre of Human and Aerospace Physiological Sciences at King’s College London. 该研究的责任作者，伦敦大学国王学院人类和航空航天生理科学中心(Centre of Human and Aerospace Physiological Sciences)主任史蒂芬·哈里吉(Stephen Harridge)说：“我们希望了解在最佳情况下，当我们衰老时身体的功能运作会是怎样的。” To accomplish that goal, the scientists recruited 85 men and 41 women aged between 55 and 79 who bicycle regularly. The volunteers were all serious recreational riders but not competitive athletes. The men had to be able to ride at least 62 miles in six and a half hours and the women 37 miles in five and a half hours, benchmarks typical of a high degree of fitness in older people. 为了实现这个目标，科学家们招募了年龄介于55岁至79岁之间，且经常骑自行车的85名男性和41名女性。这些志愿者们都是正儿八经的骑车爱好者，但并非竞技运动员。参与研究的男性必须能在六个半小时内骑行至少62英里，女性则需要能在五个半小时内骑行37英里，对于老年人而言，能达到这个标准通常身体都非常强健。 The scientists then ran each volunteer through a large array of physical and cognitive tests. The scientists determined each cyclist’s endurance capacity, muscular mass and strength, pedaling power, metabolic health, balance, memory function, bone density and reflexes. They also had the volunteers complete the so-called Timed Up and Go test, during which someone stands up from a chair without using his or her arms, briskly walks about 10 feet, turns, walks back and sits down again. 科学家们对每名志愿者都进行了大量生理和认知测试。他们测定了每名骑车运动者的耐力、肌肉量和力量、蹬力、新陈代谢健康、平衡力、记忆力、骨密度和反射等，还要求志愿者们完成名为“计时起立行走(Timed Up and Go)”的测试，即，不借助手臂的力量从椅子上站起，快步走出大约10英尺的距离，然后转身走回，再度坐下。 The researchers compared the results of cyclists in the study against each other and also against standard benchmarks of supposedly normal aging. If a particular test’s numbers were similar among the cyclists of all ages, the researchers considered, then that measure would seem to be more dependent on activity than on age. 研究人员对参与研究的各位骑车运动者的测试结果进行了两两比较，还将这些数据与理论上正常衰老下的基准数据进行了比较。如果某一特定测试的结果在所有年龄段的骑车运动者中大致相同，那么研究人员就认定该指标更多地取决于体育运动，而不是年龄。 As it turned out, the cyclists did not show their age. On almost all measures, their physical functioning remained fairly stable across the decades and was much closer to that of young adults than of people their age. As a group, even the oldest cyclists had younger people’s levels of balance, reflexes, metabolic health and memory ability. 分析结果证明，年龄对这些骑车运动者的影响并不明显。从几乎所有的指标上都能看出，数十年来，他们的生理机能保持得相当稳定。在这方面，他们与同龄人之间的差距远远大于他们与年轻人之间的差距。就整个群体而言，哪怕是其中年纪最大的骑车运动者的平衡力、反射、新陈代谢健康和记忆力都处于年轻人的水平。 And their Timed Up and Go results were exemplary. Many older people require at least 7 seconds to complete the task, with those requiring 9 or 10 seconds considered to be on the cusp of frailty, Dr. Harridge said. But even the oldest cyclists in this study averaged barely 5 seconds for the walk, which is “well within the norm reported for healthy young adults,” the study authors write. 他们的“计时起立行走”测试的结果就是一个典范。哈里吉博士指出，许多老年人都至少需要7秒才能完成任务，如果需要9秒或10秒，则认为他们的体制较弱。但在该研究中，即便是年纪最大的骑车运动者平均也仅需5秒就能完成任务，这“完全是健康的年轻成年人的能力范畴”，论文作者写道。 Some aspects of aging did, however, prove to be ineluctable. The oldest cyclists had less muscular power and mass than those in their 50s and early 60s and considerably lower overall aerobic capacities. Age does seem to reduce our endurance and strength to some extent, Dr. Harridge said, even if we exercise. 然而，研究也证明，衰老的某些方面确实不可避免。年纪最大的骑车运动者的肌肉力量和肌肉量都少于50多岁和60岁刚出头的参与者，且他们的整体有氧能力也有大幅降低。哈里吉博士说：就算进行体育锻炼，年龄也确乎会在一定程度上降低我们的耐力和力量。 But even so, both of those measures were higher among the oldest cyclists than would be considered average among people aged 70 or above. 但即便如此，研究中年纪最大的骑车运动者的这两项指标也均高于70岁或70岁以上人群的平均水平。 All in all, the numbers suggest that aging is simply different in the active. 总而言之，研究数据表明，在经常进行体育运动的人中，衰老程度完全不同。 “If you gave this dataset to a clinician and asked him to predict the age” of one of the cyclists based on his or her test results, Dr. Harridge said, “it would be impossible.” On paper, they all look young. 哈里吉博士说：“如果你把这个数据集交给临床医生，他很可能无法根据其中某一骑车运动者的测试结果预测出其真实年龄。”单就纸面数据而言，这些人看起来都像是年轻人。 |
|
|
