大力水手驚呆了 吃菠菜或引發老年癡呆症

Spinach may cause Alzheimer's disease in at-risk people, research suggests.
研究表明，菠菜也許會使高危人羣患上阿茲海默症（老年癡呆症）。

The salad leaf's iron-rich content may damage the brain similar to how the compound causes metal to rust, according to the researchers.
研究人員指出，沙拉菜葉中富含鐵的部分也許會損害大腦，原理類似於化合物使金屬生鏽。

People with high levels of iron alongside the protein amyloid, which has previously been associated with Alzheimer's, are more likely to experience rapid cognitive decline, a study found.
先前的研究顯示，澱粉樣蛋白與阿茲海默症有關。這項研究發現，體內鐵和澱粉樣蛋白含量高的人，更容易發生認知能力的迅速衰退。

Those with high amyloid but low iron levels are less at-risk of the disease, the research adds.
研究還表示，體內澱粉樣蛋白含量高但鐵含量低的人們，患阿茲海默症的風險相對較小。

Removing such 'rust' from the brain could prevent or delay the degenerative condition, the researchers add.
研究人員補充道，將“鐵鏽”從大腦中移除可以預防或延緩退化性疾病的發生。

Rusting in the brain
腦中生鏽

Lead author Dr Scott Ayton from the University of Melbourne, said: 'The rusting you see on iron metal is the same rusting reaction that occurs in the brain,' The Express reported.
據《每日快報》報道，來自墨爾本大學的首席作者斯科特•艾頓博士說：“金屬鐵表面的生鏽過程和大腦中發生的生鏽反應是一樣的。”

Although iron is important for energy, it can cause cellular stress and their subsequent death.
儘管鐵對人體能量很重要，但它會引發細胞應激甚至使其死亡。

The researchers plan to conduct a five-year trial investigating whether an anti-iron drug could treat Alzheimer's.
研究人員計劃開展一項爲期5年的試驗，調查抗鐵藥物能否治療阿茲海默症。

Treatments that focus on altering amyloid levels have had limited success.
以改變澱粉樣蛋白水平爲主的治療方法收效甚微。

Dr Ayton said: 'Given the data from our study, it seems reasonable to hypothesise that lowering iron in the brain would slow the progression of the disease, but we can only know that by testing it, which is what we are now going to do.'
艾頓博士說道：“我們的研究數據顯示，降低大腦中的鐵含量會使疾病進程減緩這一假設似乎是合理的，但我們必須通過測試才能確知，而這也是我們現在將要做的。”

Do not cut back on dietary iron
不要減少攝入膳食中的鐵

The researchers do not recommend people cut back on their dietary iron intake to reduce their Alzheimer's risk.
研究人員不建議人們通過減少膳食中鐵的攝入量來降低患阿茲海默症的機率。

This is because the amount of the iron in the brain appears unrelated to levels in the blood or a person's food intake.
這是因爲大腦中鐵的含量與血液含鐵水平或是個人食物的攝入似乎都無關。

Dr Ayton said: 'We don't have any evidence that the amount of iron you eat, or the amount that is measured in your blood, has any impact on the amount of iron in your brain, so we are not recommending people change what they eat based on our research.'
艾頓博士說道：“我們沒有任何證據說明你攝入的鐵或是你血液中測量出來的鐵，對你大腦中的鐵含量有任何的影響。因此我們不會基於本研究去建議人們改變飲食。”