《经济学人》双语：如何保持大脑健康？

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《经济学人》双语：如何保持大脑健康？

原文标题：
Medicine and the brain
Thinking outside the box
Neuroscience is experiencing a renaissance. Not before time
医学与大脑
创新思维
神经科学正在经历复兴。为时不晚。

How to keep the brain healthy
如何保持大脑健康

[Paragraph 1]
DISORDERS OF THE brain are a growing worry.
大脑紊乱越来越令人担忧。

Twelve mental-health conditions affect about 970m people around the world according to the Global Burden of Disease Project: more than one in ten of the population.
根据全球疾病负担项目的数据，有12种精神健康问题影响着全球约9.7亿人:超过十分之一的人口。

Patchy data mean that this figure could well be an underestimate.
不完整的数据意味着这个数字很可能被低估了。

On top of that, neurological problems, such as stroke, dementia, migraine, Parkinson’s, epilepsy and brain injury are collectively the leading global source of disability.
除此之外，中风、痴呆、偏头痛、帕金森症、癫痫和脑损伤等神经系统问题是全球健康缺陷的主要来源。

Ageing populations with unhealthy ways of life are likely to make this problem much worse everywhere.
人口老龄化和不健康的生活方式可能会加剧世界各地的脑神经疾病。

[Paragraph 2]
In an ideal world science would be coming to the rescue.
在一个理想的世界里，科学会来拯救我们的大脑。

But the brain is a complex organ—sometimes described as the most complex structure in the known universe.
但大脑是一个复杂的器官——有时被描述为已知宇宙中最复杂的结构。

Through good fortune and subsequent diligence, 20th-century science provided some pharmacological tools with which to treat some of the things that go wrong with it.

由于运气和前赴后继的努力，20世纪的科学提供了一些药理学工具，用来治疗与之相关的一些问题。

But its fundamental mysteries have proved difficult to unravel.
但事实证明，它的基本奥秘很难解开。

As a result, progress has been much slower than in treatments for the heart or cancer.
因此，它的进展比心脏或癌症的治疗要慢得多。

[Paragraph 3]
Indeed, it has sometimes been hard to discern much progress at all.
事实上，有时很难看出有多少进展。

The private sector spent an estimated $43bn on research into therapies for Alzheimer’s disease between 1998 and 2017 and came up empty-handed.
1998年至2017年期间，私营企业在阿尔茨海默病疗法研究上投入了约430亿美元，但最终空手而归。

That epic failure is perhaps the biggest reason why, in the 2010s, many drug firms abandoned or cut back on neuroscience research.
这种巨大失败可能是2010年代许多制药公司放弃或削减神经科学研究的最大原因。

[Paragraph 4]
Happily, there are signs of a change afoot.
令人欣慰的是，有迹象表明情况正在发生改变。

In our Technology Quarterly this week we report on a renaissance in neuroscience, with many drug companies, some of them big ones, showing renewed interest in the field.
在本周的《科技季刊》中，我们报道了神经科学的复兴。许多制药公司，不乏一些大公司，重新展现了对这一领域的兴趣。

This fresh energy is coming from a variety of techniques and ideas.

日新月异的技术和想法给这一领域注入了新能量。

Optogenetics, which uses genetic manipulation to get animal brains to reveal their workings—and open them up to change—through the use of light, is transforming brain science in the laboratory, as is the growth of tiny brain-like “organoids”.

光遗传学使用光学和基因操作技术来揭露动物大脑的运行方式，还可以让动物大脑发生变化。就像“类器官”对脑科学的改变一样，光遗传学正在改变实验室中的脑科学。

More precise diagnosis and well-validated biomarkers, which reveal the course of disease, are improving clinical trials.

通过更精确的诊断和充分验证的生物标记揭示来病程，这些方法正在改善临床试验。

A growing openness to the investigation of previously recreational and stigmatised drugs is widening the range of possible medicines.
越来越多的人对以前的娱乐性和污名化药物的调查持开放态度，这扩大了药物的可选范围。

New kinds of treatment, such as gene therapy, are expanding the range of diseases that can be tackled.
新的治疗方法，如基因疗法，正在扩大可治疗疾病的范围。

Other advances are spurring progress in dealing with chronic pain.
其他方面的进步也在推动治疗慢性疼痛方面的进展。

[Paragraph 5]
At the same time a growing mound of “cohort” data is proving critical to understanding the biological roots of brain dysfunction.
同时，越来越多的“队列”数据是理解大脑功能障碍的生物学基础的关键。

Projects like the UK Biobank track tens or even hundreds of thousands of individuals over a generation or more.
像英国“生物银行”这样的项目追踪了一代人甚至几代人群中的数万乃至数十万人的数据情况。

They should help answer questions about the roots of brain disorders such as dementia that may take decades to emerge.
它们应该有助于回答有关痴呆症等脑部疾病根源的问题，这些问题可能需要几十年才能显现。

[Paragraph 6]
As hopes rise for tackling this final frontier of biomedicine, it is worth remembering that the secrets to a healthy brain are not only going to come from a pill or psychotherapist’s couch.
科学家有望攻克生物医学的最终边界，值得记住的是，让大脑健康的秘诀不仅来自于药物或心理治疗。

The health of the brain is influenced by what goes on outside it, such as nutrition, exercise, the abuse of alcohol, education, social connections and pollution.
大脑的健康受到外界的影响，如营养、锻炼、酗酒、教育、社会关系和污染。

Of particular relevance these days is air pollution—which could have a negative influence on brain health at both the beginning and the end of life.

如今，空气污染与大脑健康尤为相关–空气污染可能会对人一辈子的大脑健康产生负面影响。

None of this should be surprising: the health of the brain is tied to the health and the well-being of the body that it sits in.
这些都不足为奇:大脑的健康与人体健康及幸福感息息相关。

保持大脑健康是一项投资，在未来几十年里，它将继续为个人和社会带来红利。

（恭喜读完，本篇英语词汇量650左右）
原文出自：2022年9月24日《The Economist》Leaders版块。

精读笔记来源于：自由英语之路

本文翻译整理: Maree

本文编辑校对: Irene
仅供个人英语学习交流使用。

【补充资料】（来自于网络）
光遗传学（Optogenetics）是近几年正在迅速发展的一项整合了光学、软件控制、基因操作技术、电生理等多学科交叉的生物工程技术。研究人员使用一种新的光控方法选择并打开了某种生物的一类细胞。这也帮助科学家解答一个长期存在的难题，即关于脊髓中某类神经元的特殊功能的研究。光遗传学结合遗传工程与光来操作个别神经细胞的活性，发现脑部如何产生γ波（gamma oscillations），并为它们在调控脑部功能中的角色提供新证据，这将有助于发展一系列脑相关失调的新疗法。

类器官属于三维（3D）细胞培养物，包含其代表器官的一些关键特性。此类体外培养系统包括一个自我更新干细胞群，可分化为多个器官器官特异性的细胞类型，与对应的器官拥有类似的空间组织并能够重现对应器官的部分功能，从而提供一个高度生理相关系统 。

【重点句子】（3个）
Ageing populations with unhealthy ways of life are likely to make this problem much worse everywhere.
人口老龄化和不健康的生活方式可能会加剧世界各地的脑神经疾病。

But its fundamental mysteries have proved difficult to unravel.
但事实证明，大脑的基本奥秘很难解开。

The health of the brain is influenced by what goes on outside it, such as nutrition, exercise, the abuse of alcohol, education, social connections and pollution.
大脑的健康受到外界的影响，如营养、锻炼、酗酒、教育、社会关系和污染。

自由英语之路