为什么酒精对人体有害？
饮酒，至少是适量饮酒，曾经被视为一种无害甚至健康的放纵，可以增强心脏功能，甚至延长寿命。但在许多科学界，现在几乎任何数量的酒精都被视为有毒物质
Why, Exactly, Is Alcohol So Bad for You?
(From TIME)
On Jan. 3,outgoingSurgeon General Vivek Murthy released an advisory warning that alcohol consumption raises the risk of at least seven types of cancer. Shortly afterward, a second federal report warned that people who consume more than nine drinks per week have a one in 100 chance of dying from their habit, due to alcohol’s links to a range of health problems.
1月3日，即将离任的卫生总监维韦克-穆尔西（Vivek Murthy）发布警告称，饮酒会增加至少七种癌症的患病风险。不久之后，第二份联邦报告警告说，由于酒精与一系列健康问题有关，每周饮酒超过九杯的人有百分之一的机会死于饮酒习惯。
重点词汇
❶outgoing/ˈaʊt.ɡoʊ.ɪŋ/
表示（人）开朗的，外向的，友好的，爱交际的，举个🌰：She has an outgoing personality.她性格开朗。
也表示离开的；即将离职的，即将卸任的；即将结业的，举个🌰：the outgoing vice-president即将离任的副总统
But alcohol is an ancient and natural beverage, made by fermenting grains, fruits, or vegetables—all of which are part of a balanced diet in their original forms. So what’s so bad aboutbooze, exactly?
但是，酒精是一种古老而天然的饮料，是由谷物、水果或蔬菜发酵制成的，所有这些食物的原始形态都是均衡饮食的一部分。那么，酒到底有什么不好呢？
重点词汇
❶booze /buːz/
表示酒，举个🌰：The partys at Kates on Friday night - bring some booze.聚会周五晚上在凯特家举行——带些酒来。
It creates a toxic byproduct它会产生一种有毒的副产品
Ethanol breaks down into abyproductcalled acetaldehyde, and that’s where the trouble begins, says Dr. Eden Bernstein, an assistant professor and internal-medicine physician at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. If I were to point to one thing that alcohol does that’s harmful to the body, Bernstein says, it would relate to the production of acetaldehyde.
科罗拉多大学医学院助理教授、内科医生伊登-伯恩斯坦博士说，乙醇会分解成一种叫做乙醛的副产品，而这正是麻烦的开始。伯恩斯坦说："如果要我指出酒精对身体有害的一件事，那就是乙醛的产生。
重点词汇
❶toxic /ˈtɑːk.sɪk/
表示有毒的；引起中毒的，如：toxic waste/chemicals/effluent有毒的废料／化学品／废水。
❷byproduct副产品
Acetaldehyde is very toxic to a lot of different tissues, says Dr. Sarah Wakeman, senior medical director for substance-use disorder at Mass General Brigham. It can damage body parts that are directly involved in alcoholmetabolism, such as the liver, pancreas, and brain, as well as DNA itself. Exposure to acetaldehyde can result in DNA damage and mutations that lead to cancer, Bernstein explains.
乙醛对许多不同的组织都有剧毒，马萨诸塞州布里格姆综合医院药物滥用障碍高级医疗主任Sarah Wakeman博士说。它能损害直接参与酒精代谢的身体部位，如肝脏、胰腺和大脑，以及DNA本身。伯恩斯坦解释说，接触乙醛会导致DNA损伤和突变，从而引发癌症。
重点词汇
❶metabolism /məˈtæb.əl.ɪ.zəm/
表示新陈代谢，举个🌰：Exercise is supposed to speed up your metabolism.运动被认为可加速新陈代谢。
Plenty of factors influence how damaging acetaldehyde is to the body, Wakeman says. The most obvious is the amount of alcohol consumed; a heavy drinker will be exposed to moreacetaldehydethan a light drinker, leading to more damage. But even two people who drink the same amount may be affected differently, depending on their genes and other risk factors.
Wakeman说，影响乙醛对人体损害程度的因素很多。最明显的是饮酒量；大量饮酒的人比少量饮酒的人接触到的乙醛更多，导致的损害也更大。但是，即使两个人的饮酒量相同，他们受到的影响也可能不同，这取决于他们的基因和其他风险因素。
重点词汇
❶acetaldehyde/ ˌæseˈtældəˌhaɪd /
表示[有化]乙醛；醋醛，举个🌰：Acetaldehyde is toxic and has been shown to damage DNA.乙醛是有毒物质，会损害人体的DNA。
After ethanol becomes acetaldehyde, it continues breaking down into non-toxic byproducts. But some people’s enzymes work more slowly than others, which leaves them exposed to acetaldehyde and its toxic effects longer, Wakeman says. Damage can alsocompoundif someone has multiple risky habits, like drinking heavily and smoking cigarettes, she adds.
乙醇变成乙醛后，会继续分解成无毒的副产品。但有些人的酶的工作速度比其他人慢，这就使他们接触乙醛及其毒性作用的时间更长，Wakeman说。她补充说，如果一个人有多种危险的生活习惯，如酗酒和吸烟，那么损害也会加剧。
重点词汇
❶compound /ˈkɑːm.paʊnd/
表示化合物，举个🌰：Salt is a compound of sodium and chlorine.盐是钠和氯的化合物。
Alcohol creates inflammation酒精引发炎症
Drinking alcohol also leads toinflammationin the body. This, too, happens when booze is metabolized. The process creates what’s known asoxidativestress, or an imbalance between different types of molecules that results in inflammation.
饮酒也会导致身体发炎。这也是在酒精代谢时发生的。这一过程会产生所谓的氧化应激，或导致炎症的不同类型分子之间的不平衡。
重点词汇
❶inflammation /ˌɪn.fləˈmeɪ.ʃən/
表示炎（症），举个🌰：an inflammation of the eye/toe/ear眼睛／脚趾／耳朵发炎
❷oxidative /ˈɑːk.sɪˌdeɪ.t̬ɪv/
表示氧化的，举个🌰：oxidative damage氧化损伤
Alcohol alsodisruptsthe colonies of microbes that live in your mouth, intestines, and gut, Bernstein explains, which can lead to overgrowth of bad bacteria. Booze can also damageintestinalcells, allowing pathogens that are normallyconfinedto the GI tract to travel throughout the bloodstream. These effects can result in inflammation-causing immune responses.
伯恩斯坦解释说，酒精还会扰乱生活在口腔、肠道和肠道中的微生物群落，从而导致坏细菌过度生长。酒还会损害肠道细胞，使通常局限于肠道的病原体进入血液。这些影响会导致引起炎症的免疫反应。
重点词汇
❶disrupt /dɪsˈrʌpt/
表示打断，中断，扰乱，举个🌰：Heavy snow disrupted travel into the city this morning.今晨的大雪扰乱了入城交通系统的正常运行。
❷intestinal肠的
➌confine/kənˈfaɪn/
表示把…局限在，限制，举个🌰：Please confine your use of the phone to business calls.请注意电话仅限于办公用途。
Drinking may affect hormones饮酒可能影响荷尔蒙
Drinking-related cancers are typically seen in parts of the body that alcohol directly touches: the mouth, throat, stomach, and so on. But there’s also a unique relationship around breast cancer risk and alcohol use, Wakeman says.
与饮酒有关的癌症通常发生在酒精直接接触的身体部位：口腔、喉咙、胃等。但是，乳腺癌风险与饮酒之间也存在着独特的关系，Wakeman说。
Drinking alcohol seems to change the way the body metabolizesestrogen, leading to higher levels of thehormone. This may translate to an increased risk of estrogen-related breast cancers. Researchers are still learning about exactly how alcohol affects hormones, according to the recent Surgeon General report.
饮酒似乎会改变人体代谢雌激素的方式，导致体内雌激素水平升高。这可能会增加罹患与雌激素相关的乳腺癌的风险。根据最近的卫生总监报告，研究人员仍在了解酒精究竟是如何影响荷尔蒙的。
重点词汇
❶estrogen /ˈes.trə.dʒən/雌性激素
❷hormone /ˈhɔːr.moʊn/
表示荷尔蒙，激素，举个🌰：male and female hormones雄性和雌性激素；growth hormones生长激素。
Alcohol and injury酒精与伤害
In addition to the complexdomino effectthat alcohol sets off inside the body, intoxication has direct effects on health through people falling and crashing cars and getting in all kinds of other accidents, says William Kerr, scientific director of the Alcohol Research Group at the Public Health Institute in California. More than 30% of alcohol-related deaths recorded in the U.S. from 2020 to 2021 were due to acute issues including accidents and injuries.
加利福尼亚州公共卫生研究所酒精研究小组科学主任威廉-科尔说：除了酒精在人体内引发的复杂多米诺骨牌效应外，醉酒还会通过人们摔倒、撞车和发生其他各种事故而直接影响健康"。2020年至2021年，美国记录在案的与酒精有关的死亡案例中，超过30%是由于事故和受伤等急性问题造成的。
重点短语
❶domino effect多米诺效应
当一个事件引发一系列类似事件时产生的累积效应。
What about those heart benefits?对心脏有什么好处？
For a long time, researchers thought moderate drinking—that nightly glass of red wine—improved heart health, and some studies continue to suggest that. In contrast to other recent reports on alcohol, a December 2024 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine concluded with moderate certainty that moderate drinking is associated with a lower risk of dying from any cause, including cardiovascular disease, compared to never drinking. (It also found, however, that moderate drinking likely raises the risk of some cancers.)
长期以来，研究人员认为适量饮酒--每晚一杯红葡萄酒--可改善心脏健康，一些研究也继续表明这一点。与近期其他关于酒精的报告不同，美国国家科学、工程和医学研究院2024年12月发布的一份报告以中等程度的确定性得出结论：与从不饮酒相比，适量饮酒与任何原因（包括心血管疾病）导致的死亡风险较低有关。(不过，报告还发现，适量饮酒可能会增加罹患某些癌症的风险）。
But many researchers now believe that design flaws in older studies falselyinflatedthe cardiovascular benefits of drinking. In some studies that correct for thoseflaws, booze’s apparent health benefits disappear. Contrary to popular opinion, alcohol is not good for the heart, the World Heart Foundation wrote in a 2022 policy brief. Drinking in excess is, in fact, linked to high blood pressure, abnormal heartrhythms, and sometimes even heart failure, according to American Heart Association researchers.
但现在许多研究人员认为，旧研究中的设计缺陷错误地夸大了饮酒对心血管的益处。在一些修正了这些缺陷的研究中，饮酒对健康的明显益处消失了。世界心脏基金会在2022年的一份政策简报中写道："与流行观点相反，酒精对心脏并无益处。美国心脏协会的研究人员指出，事实上，过量饮酒会导致高血压、心律异常，有时甚至会导致心力衰竭。
重点词汇
❶inflated /ɪnˈfleɪ.t̬ɪd/
表示（价格、成本、数目等）过高的，过多的，举个🌰：He sang as he walked, and he walked as he sang, and got more inflated every minute.他边走边唱，边唱边走，每一分钟都变得越来越膨胀。
❷flaw
表示错误；缺点；缺陷，瑕疵，举个🌰：a character flaw性格上的缺陷
➌rhythm /ˈrɪð.əm/
表示（音乐、诗歌和舞蹈的）节奏，韵律，节律，举个🌰：He beat out a jazz rhythm on the drums.他击出爵士乐节奏的鼓点。
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