囧研究：女性有了啤酒肚，發生骨折機率小

At last, some good news for women whose waistlines wobble.
腰粗的女性終於能聽到點兒好消息了。

Females with pot bellies and muffin tops are less likely to break bones than those with perfectly toned tums, research has found.
研究發現，相較於腰線完美的人，有啤酒肚和小肚腩的女性不容易骨折。

Men, however, can’t take similar solace in their beer bellies, as the link between waist size and bone strength was apparent only for females.
不過，對於男性而言，有啤酒肚也沒有這個福利，因爲腰圍尺寸與骨骼強度的這種關聯僅限於女性。

Researchers tracked the health of more than 1,000 men and women aged 50-plus for an average of five years.
研究者們利用平均五年的時間跟蹤觀察了1000多位年齡在50歲以上的男性和女性。

During that time, 19 of the men and 107 of the women broke a bone.
在這段時間裏，一共有19位男性和107位女性摔斷了骨頭。

Factoring in the amount of abdominal fat revealed a link between big bellies and breaks in the women. Specifically, the 25 per cent of women with fattest middles were 40 per cent less likely to have broken a bone than those with the flattest midriffs, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology reports.
腹部脂肪的量揭示了女性大肚腩和骨折的關係。據《臨牀內分泌與代謝》雜誌報道，25%腰部肥胖的女性比小腹平坦的女性發生骨折的機率要小40%。

The researchers, from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said the benefit could be due to the extra force placed on bones strengthening them. Fat can also provide valuable padding if an individual falls.
來自悉尼加文醫學研究所的研究者表示，這可能是因爲外部施加於骨頭上的壓力增強了骨骼強度。當人摔倒時，脂肪也可以充當襯墊作用。

However, they believe the most likely explanation involves the female sex hormone oestrogen.
然而，他們認爲最可能的解釋是雌性激素。

Women who store fat around their middle tend to have higher levels of oestrogen, and the hormone is good for the bones. The researchers said that their finding could help explain why the number of fractures has gone down as obesity rates have risen around the world.
腰部脂肪較多的女性雌性激素水平高，而這些激素對骨骼有益。研究者表示，他們的發現能幫助解釋爲什麼隨着世界範圍內肥胖的增加，發生骨折的數量減少。

Project leader Professor Tuan Nguyen said: ‘This study appears to be consistent with the fact that obesity levels are rising worldwide at the same time that fracture incidence is decreasing.’
該項目負責人Tuan Nguyen教授說：“這項研究顯然與某個事實一致，那就是隨着世界範圍內肥胖人數的上升，骨折事故機率下降。”

However, with fat stored around the middle known to pose a particular danger to the heart, as well as raise the risk of diabetes, the researchers are not advocating that women start to cultivate pot bellies.
然而，腹部脂肪的堆積容易增加心臟危險，同時也會增加患糖尿病的風險，研究者們並不提倡女性長出啤酒肚。

They also stressed that those who benefited were overweight, rather than obese.
他們也強調，得益於此的人只是超重，而不是過度肥胖。

The study is not the first to suggest that, a bit of extra weight is good for health. Researchers who crunched together the results of almost 100 studies involving millions of men and women revealed that those of normal weight, and so usually considered to be in the best health, were more likely to die than those who were slightly overweight.
這並不是第一個暗示人們略微超重對健康有利的案例。研究者們整理了近100項涉及上百萬男性和女性的研究，揭示出一個答案，即相比於略微超重的人，那些體重正常，狀態最佳的人死亡機率更大。

Being slightly obese also appeared to do little harm. However, those who were any bigger than pleasantly plump were around a third more likely to die during the months or years they were being studied than those of normal weight.
略微肥胖並沒有太大壞處。不過，在研究過程中，那些超過豐滿範圍的肥胖人士比正常體重的人死亡機率高1/3。

Explanations given include the possibility that those who start out slightly heavier have more reserves to call on if they lose weight due to ill health as they get older.
對此的解釋是有可能那些略微肥胖的人體內儲存量多，即使老了後因爲身體健康原因體重減輕，身體內的存量也夠用。