访谈录 Interview 2007-05-09&11, 喝酒会导致大脑变小？

This morning on Health Watch, we’re talking about alcohol actually shrinking the brain. That happens to people who drink a lot, according to the latest research. Doctor Robert Millman is a psychiatrist¹ and a substance abuse expert at New York Presbyterian Hospital Weill Cornell Medical Center. Good morning.

Good morning.

Now when we talk about people who are drinking a lot and that shrinking your brain, what qualifies as drinking a lot?

According to the study of 1,800… er, 14 drinks a week was classified as a lot of drinking, 7 to 14 was moderate. When you think about it, 14 drinks a week is not so much for a lot of people, 6 beers in one day adds up, if you drink for a couple of days, putting up a lot was 14.

And a drink is classified as a glass of wine, a bottle of beer, right?

Or an ounce and a half of Vodka.

Of, of Vodka. So what happens here is they discovered that people who drink a lot that their brains were more than one and a half percent smaller than people who don’t drink, does this fall in line with what we heard before.

Er, it’s been known for years or thought for years, that if you drank a lot, your brain shrank, you’ll get some sort of atrophy² of the brain. But it’s never been shown in this kind of er systematic³ way and it’s never been with this many people. This is actually a remarkable⁴ study, showing that the more you drink, the more your brain shrinks, (Wow) up to about 1.6%, which isn't huge, but it’s significant.

Well, and it’s more significant for women, because it affects women greater than it does men, correct?

Correct.

And why is that?

Alcohol affects women more than it does men, partly ‘cause men are bigger, men have more body water, so it’s more dilute⁵. But more important than any of other things is women lack of enzyme⁶ or lack as much as the enzyme that inactivates⁷ alcohol. So they, when they drink, something like they’re a quarter of the degradation⁸ than men do, in other words men, men get rid of the alcohol and women don't get rid of the alcohol and remains⁹ much more toxic¹⁰.

They don’t metabolize it .

They don’t metabolize it.

So, and I know you say that alcohol can actually become poison. But we hear so much about alcohol, a moderate amount being good for your cardiac health, so what’s your best advice for people, in terms of how much to drink?

A little.

A little. One or two drinks a night, but not every night, is the way to drink, er, take alcohol seriously as a sacrament, but have lots of days off, the big danger is to drink every day without a break and more than 3 drinks a day, I think is dangerous.

And the real good news here is that, if you actually stop drinking, you can recover some of that, that brain loss.

I think that’s remarkable. A paper was recently published that showed that with abstinence, there was good recovery showing that maybe you are not knocking off parts of the brain, (Right) that’s just ah, weakening.

Doctor Robert Millman, thanks so much.

1 psychiatrist   

n.精神病专家；精神病医师

参考例句：

• He went to a psychiatrist about his compulsive gambling.他去看精神科医生治疗不能自拔的赌瘾。
• The psychiatrist corrected him gently.精神病医师彬彬有礼地纠正他。

2 atrophy   

n./v.萎缩，虚脱，衰退

参考例句：

• Patients exercised their atrophied limbs in the swimming pool.病人们在泳池里锻炼萎缩的四肢。
• Many hoped he would renew the country's atrophied political system.很多人都期望他能使该国萎靡的政治体系振作起来。

3 systematic   

adj.有系统的，有计划的，有方法的

参考例句：

• The way he works isn't very systematic.他的工作不是很有条理。
• The teacher made a systematic work of teaching.这个教师进行系统的教学工作。

4 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

5 dilute   

vt.稀释，冲淡；adj.稀释的，冲淡的

参考例句：

• The water will dilute the wine.水能使酒变淡。
• Zinc displaces the hydrogen of dilute acids.锌置换了稀酸中的氢。

6 enzyme   

n.酵素，酶

参考例句：

• Above a certain temperature,the enzyme molecule will become unfolded.超过一定温度，酶分子将会展开。
• An enzyme that dissolves the fibrin of blood clots.能溶解血凝块中的纤维的酶。

7 inactivates   

v.使不活泼，阻止活动（inactivate的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• Formaldehyde slowly inactivates many viruses. 甲醛能慢慢使多种病毒失去活性。 来自辞典例句
• Moist heat treatment inactivates the antinutritional factors present. 温热处理可以抑制抗营养的因素出现。 来自辞典例句

8 degradation   

n.降级；低落；退化；陵削；降解；衰变

参考例句：

• There are serious problems of land degradation in some arid zones.在一些干旱地带存在严重的土地退化问题。
• Gambling is always coupled with degradation.赌博总是与堕落相联系。

9 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

10 toxic   

adj.有毒的，因中毒引起的

参考例句：

• The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
• There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。