科學家揭祕如何延緩衰老

Reach the age of 90 and your body won’t get any older, it was claimed last night. Michael Rose, a professor of evolutionary biology, says that if you are lucky enough to live that long, you stop ageing. To actually get to that moment, he suggests adopting a ‘Stone Age’ diet from the age of around 30. Grains and dairy products should be avoided and seafood, fruits, nuts and vegetables embraced.

努力在各種化妝品、保養品上“砸重金”的男男女女們注意了，最新調查顯示，當你的年齡到達一定歲數的時候就無需繼續塗抹任何保養品，身體的“老化程序”會自動停止，當然科學家要站出來澄清，這都是在假設大家有幸運能活到90歲的情況下的說法了。真正到了90歲的時候，還不能自然停止老化程序，專家建議30歲開始，就要嘗試“石器時代套餐”----一切以穀物製品爲主，日常飲食要避免海鮮、水果以及堅果、蔬菜等等。

Writing in this week’s New Scientist, he says that switching to the sort of diet favoured by our hunter-gatherer ancestors could speed up the advent of the healthy part of old age. For those in doubt, the University of California professor practises what he preaches. He says: ‘I have been following such a diet – avoiding grass-derived foods, such as grains, rice, corn and sugar cane, and anything made from milk – for two years and the results have been good.’

據悉，該研究在英國雜誌《新科學家》上發表，這種被冠以“石器時代套餐”的穀物類食品被我們遠古時代的先知們所採用，這種飲食方式可以加快身體新陳代謝的速度，使得年老身體部分保持年輕的形態。來自加里福利亞大學的教授嘗試了這種飲食方式，他說：“2年來，我一直遵循石器時代的飲食法則，食用穀物、大米、玉米以及甘蔗以及奶製品，我覺得我的身體狀況十分良好。”

While your health may not be great, it is not getting worse. The professor says the answer could lie in our genes having adapted to do different things at different ages. The older we get, the more chance there is that these adaptations will clash, causing ill health.

分析年老多病的原因時，科學家這樣解釋，我們的基因在不同的年齡階段需要有不一定的適應性，當年紀越大，基因的適應能力就越差，當某些適應不起作用的時候，疾病就隨之而來。

But, get old enough and you reach a stage at which our genes are no longer affected by such demands because so few reach such an age. This means the body doesn’t face any new problems, beyond those already present at 90. Professor Rose says that those wanting to fast-forward to this ‘coasting’ stage should look to their diet.

然而，科學家分析當您90歲的時候，這種自然老化程序就會隨之而停止，當然了，能活到這份上的人畢竟是在少數。這就意味着，90歲的身體不再像之前一樣，面臨這樣或者那樣的問題，然而要是真想在90歲時，就停止老化速度就必須得認認真真的從飲食上做起。

He says that when we are young, our bodies are probably better able to cope with modern diets. But as we age, we would be better suited to a caveman diet. He concludes: ‘The discovery that ageing stops suggests that the age-old desire to radically extend the human life span is a real possibility.’ But other experts on ageing urged caution, saying that Professor Rose had dismissed solid evidence into the causes of ageing.

專家說，當我們身體還處在年輕狀態時，我們可以適應花樣翻新的現代食物，但是，當我們逐漸衰老，我們需要回歸原始，吃一些真正天然的東西了。通過飲食方式來拖延老化速度的可能性大增。當然，也有不少人對這一觀點持譏諷看法，有教授說：“90歲已經是高齡中的高齡，在這樣高的年齡段來做一些所謂的停止衰老程度的實驗顯然是荒謬可笑的，停止衰老的食品爲何不能在稍早的年齡層適用呢？難道還非要活到90歲不成？”