VOA健康报道2024 少喝或不喝酒更有助于身体健康（在线收听）

Less or No Alcohol Is Better for Health

From VOA Learning English, this is the Health & Lifestyle report.

这是来自美国之音慢速英语的健康和生活方式报道。

Alcohol is often consumed in social gatherings from happy hours after work to birthday parties on the weekend. Drinking some alcohol is normal and believed to be good for heart health.

无论是下班后的欢乐时光还是周末的生日聚会，人们经常在这些社交聚会上喝酒。喝点酒是正常的，而且被认为对心脏健康有好处。

However, new research may have put an end to that idea.

然而，一项新的研究可能会为这种想法画上句号。

Dr. Timothy Naimi directs the Canadian Institute for Substance Use Research at the University of Victoria. He said, "Drinking less is a great way to be healthier."

蒂莫西?纳伊米博士是维多利亚大学加拿大物质使用研究所的主任。他说:“少喝酒是保持健康的好方法。”

Are drinking guidelines changing?

饮酒指南正在改变吗?

Guidelines, or advice, for drinking alcohol differ greatly from country to country. But overall, the advice has been moving toward drinking less.

各国的饮酒指南或建议差别很大，但总的来说，建议一直是少喝酒。

Britain, France, Denmark, Holland, and Australia recently reviewed new evidence and lowered the suggested amount of alcohol consumption.

英国、法国、丹麦、荷兰和澳大利亚最近审查了新的证据，并降低了建议饮酒量。

Ireland went further than most. It will require cancer warning descriptions on alcohol starting in 2026.

爱尔兰比大多数国家走得更远。从2026年开始，它将要求对酒精饮料进行癌症警告说明。

Carina Ferreira-Borges is an adviser for alcohol at the World Health Organization office for Europe. She said scientists see "evidence linking alcohol to over 200 health conditions, including cancers, cardiovascular diseases and injuries."

卡琳娜?费雷拉-博尔赫斯（Carina Ferreira-Borges）是世界卫生组织欧洲办事处的饮酒顾问。她说，科学家发现“有证据表明饮酒与200多种健康状况有关，包括癌症、心血管疾病和伤害。”

Overall, people may have already been moving toward drinking less alcohol. Social calendar events called "Dry January" and "Sober October" are celebrated with non-alcoholic drinks. "Dry" means no alcohol. And a sober person is not affected by alcohol.

总的来说，人们可能已经开始少喝酒了。“一月戒酒”和“十月清醒”的社交活动以无酒精饮料来庆祝。"Dry"是指不含酒精。一个清醒的人不受酒精的影响。

"People my age are way more accepting of it," said Tessa Weber. The 28-year-old from Austin, Texas said she stopped drinking for Dry January after seeing how alcohol increased her anxiety. She liked the results — better sleep, more energy — and has stuck with it.

泰莎?韦伯说：“我这个年纪的人更容易接受。”这位来自德克萨斯州奥斯汀的28岁女孩说，在看到酒精会增加她的焦虑感后，她在“一月戒酒”期间戒了酒。她喜欢这样做所带来的效果——更好的睡眠，更有活力，她坚持了下来。

Flawed studies on alcohol

有缺陷的酒精研究

The idea that alcohol can be heart-friendly came from imperfect studies comparing groups of people by how much they drink.

酒精对心脏有益的观点来自于一些不完善的研究，这些研究比较了不同人群的饮酒量。

Usually, alcohol consumption was measured at one point in time. And none of them compare drinkers and non-drinkers. As a result, these studies could not prove cause and effect.

通常，酒精消耗量是在一个时间点测出的。没有人比较饮酒者和不饮酒者。因此，这些研究无法证明因果关系。

People who report drinking an average amount of alcohol usually have higher income, education, and better health care. "It turns out that when you adjust for those things, the benefits tend to disappear," Dr. Naimi said.

报告饮酒量为平均水平的人通常收入较高，受教育程度较高，医疗保健水平较高。纳伊米博士说：“事实证明，当你对这些因素进行调整时，益处往往会消失，” 

Most studies also did not include younger people. And almost half of the people who die from alcohol-related causes die before the age of 50.

大多数研究也没有包括年轻人。几乎一半死于酒精相关疾病的人在50岁之前死亡。

"If you're studying people who survived into middle age, didn't quit drinking because of a problem and didn't become a heavy drinker, that's a very select group," Naimi said. "It creates an appearance of a benefit for moderate drinkers."

纳伊米说:“如果你研究的是那些活到中年，没有因为某个问题而戒酒，也没有成为酗酒者的人，这是一个精选的群体。”“这给适度饮酒者制造了一种喝酒有益的假象。”

Other studies challenge the idea that alcohol has benefits.

其它研究对喝酒有益的观点也提出了质疑。

These studies compare people with a certain gene variant that makes it unpleasant to drink to people without this gene variant. People with this gene tend to drink very little or not at all. One of these studies found people with the gene variant have a lower risk of heart disease. This may supply more proof that alcohol does not protect people from heart problems.

这些研究比较了具有某种基因变体和没有这种基因变体的人，这种基因变体会使喝酒不舒服。携带这种基因的人往往很少喝酒或根本不喝酒。其中一项研究发现，携带这种基因变体的人患心脏病的风险较低。这可能会提供更多的证据，证明酒精并不能保护人们免受心脏问题的困扰。

How many drinks per day is safe?

每天喝多少杯是安全的?

So, how many alcoholic drinks can people safely have every day? That depends.

那么，人们每天可以安全饮用多少酒呢?那得看情况。

Drinking alcohol raises the risk of several kinds of cancer, including colon, liver, breast, mouth, and throat. Alcohol breaks down in the body into a substance called acetaldehyde. This substance can damage your cells and stop them from repairing themselves. That creates the conditions for cancer to grow.

饮酒会增加患癌症的风险，包括结肠癌、肝癌、乳腺癌、口腔癌和咽喉癌。酒精在体内分解成一种叫做乙醛的物质。这种物质会损害你的细胞，阻止它们自我修复。这就为癌症的生长创造了条件。

Thousands of U.S. deaths per year could be prevented if people follow the U.S. government's guidelines. They advise men to limit themselves to two drinks or fewer per day and women to one drink or fewer per day, Naimi said.

如果人们遵循美国政府的指导方针，美国每年可以避免数千人死亡。纳伊米说，他们建议男性每天喝两杯或更少，女性每天喝一杯或更少。

One drink is the equivalent of about one can of beer, a glass of wine, or a very small glass of hard alcohol.

一杯相当于一罐啤酒、一杯葡萄酒或一小杯烈性酒。

Naimi served on an advisory committee. That committee wanted to lower the guideline for men to one drink per day. However, that advice was rejected when the federal guideline came out in 2020.

纳伊米在一个咨询委员会任职。该委员会希望将男性的饮酒量降低到每天一杯。然而，当2020年联邦指南出台时，这一建议遭到了拒绝。

"The simple message that's best supported by the evidence is that, if you drink, less is better when it comes to health," Naimi said.

纳伊米说:“最能得到证据支持的一个简单信息是，如果你喝酒，对健康来说越少越好。”

On its website, the National Institute of Health says some people should not consume alcohol at all. The agency says to avoid alcohol completely if you are: 

美国国家卫生研究院在其网站上表示，有些人根本不应该饮酒。该机构表示，以下情况应该完全避免饮酒:

Taking medications that interact with alcohol

服用与酒精相互作用的药物

Having a medical condition that can be made worse by drinking

患有可能因饮酒而恶化的疾病

Under the age of 21, the minimum legal drinking age in the U.S.

未满21岁，这是美国的最低合法饮酒年龄

Recovering from alcohol use disorder or unable to control the amount you drink

正从酒精使用障碍中恢复或无法控制饮酒量

Pregnant or might become pregnant

怀孕或可能怀孕

And that's the Health & Lifestyle report. I'm Anna Matteo.

Words in This Story

consume – v. to eat or drink especially in great quantity

anxiety – n. fear or nervousness about what might happen

benefit – n. something that produces good or helpful results or effects or that promotes well-being

tend – v. to be likely

moderate – adj. avoiding extremes of behavior or expression : observing reasonable limits

variant – n. someone or something that exhibits variation from a type or norm