《中英對照讀新聞》Sitting Too Much Ages You By 8 Years 久坐不起讓你老8歲

◎陳正健

Women who spend too much time sitting down speed up the ageing process. Sitting for more than ten hours a day gives women a ’biological age’ up to eight years older than it should be, according to a new study.

花太多時間久坐的婦女會加速老化過程。根據一項新研究，一天久坐超過10小時，將使女性的「生物年齡」較其應有的程度還老8歲之多。

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The researchers, who tracked the movements of 1,481 women over the age of 64, found a strong link between a sedentary lifestyle and the premature ageing of cells in the body. Women who were more sedentary had shorter and more frayed telomeres, which scientists use to calculate ’biological age’.

研究人員追蹤1481名64歲以上婦女的活動，發現久坐生活型態與體內細胞提早老化有強烈關聯。坐更久的婦女擁有較短、更磨損的端粒，科學家使用端粒來計算「生物年齡」。

Telomeres naturally shorten with age, but health and lifestyle factors － such as smoking and obesity － can accelerate the process. Shortened telomeres are linked with heart disease, diabetes and cancer. However, just half an hour of moderate exercise might undo the damage.

端粒會隨著年齡增長自然縮短，但健康及生活型態因素──例如吸菸和肥胖──會加速這個過程。縮短的端粒與心臟病、糖尿病和癌症有關。不過，只要半小時的溫和運動，即可抵消這個損害。

"We found that women who sat longer did not have shorter telomere length if they exercised for at least 30 minutes a day," said lead author Aladdin Shadyab.

研究主筆阿拉汀．莎迪耶指出：「我們發現，坐得較久的婦女未必端粒長度會較短，但前提是一天運動至少30分鐘。」

新聞辭典

sedentary：形容詞，久坐的，坐慣的。例句：A sedentary person, no matter how busy he is, should take time out for exercise.（一個坐久的人，無論他有多忙，都應該抽出時間運動。）

premature：形容詞，早熟的，過早的。例句：Babies born before completion of week 37 are premature.（嬰兒在滿37週以前出生算是早產。）

fray：動詞，使…磨損，使…緊張。例句：His shirt was frayed at the neck.（他的襯衫領口磨損。）