時差N小時:咖喱的力量

If you like curry then you must be delighted to learnthat scientists in Ireland have found a certain typeof curry spice can kill off cancer cells. The chemical—curcumin—can be found in the bright yellow curryspice turmeric. It's long thought to have healingpowers.

如果你喜歡咖喱，有個消息肯定會讓你高興：愛爾蘭科學家發(fā)現了一種能殺死癌細胞的咖喱香料。這種化學物質——姜黃色素——能夠在亮黃色的咖喱香料姜黃中找到。姜黃一直被認為是具有治療功效。

Tests by a team at the Cork Cancer Research Centreshow it can destroy gullet cancer cells in the lab. The cancer cells began to digest themselvesafter the curcumin triggered lethal cell death signals. And this process started within 24 hours.

科克癌癥研究中心小組經實驗證明它能破壞食道癌細胞。姜黃素觸發(fā)致命的細胞死亡信號之后，癌細胞就開始自身消化。且這一過程在24小時之內發(fā)生。

Dr Lesley Walker, director of cancer information at Cancer Research UK, said: “This is aninteresting research which opens up the possibility that natural chemicals found in turmericcould be developed into new treatments for oesophageal cancer.”

英國癌癥研究院癌癥信息主任萊斯利·沃克醫(yī)生說道：“這是項有趣的研究，它開啟了在姜黃中發(fā)現的天然化合物能研發(fā)出治療食道癌新方法的可能性。”

Cancers of the oesophagus kill more than 500,000 people across the world each year. It's thesixth most common cause of cancer death in the UK. The tumours are especially deadly, withfive-year survival rates of just 12 to 31 percent.

全世界每年有五十多萬人死于食道癌。食道癌是英國第六大常見的致死癌癥。這種癌癥尤為致命，患者存活5年的概率只有12%到31%。

However Dr Sharon McKenna, lead researcher on the study says turmeric is broken down in theblood once ingested. A way is needed to be found to ensure it stayed in the circulatory systemfor longer to give it time to kill cancer cells. Asked if people with oesophageal cancer should nowstart eating lots of curries, she said turmeric was just one spice that was found in curry.

然而，該項研究的首席研究員麥肯納博士說，姜黃一旦注入到血液，就會立刻分解。因此需要研究出一種的方法使姜黃在循環(huán)系統(tǒng)中更持久，這樣就有時間殺死癌癥細胞。被問及食道癌患者是否應該開始吃許多咖喱，她回答道姜黃只是在咖喱里發(fā)現的其中一種香料。

“A curry contains a lot of other heavy spices that would not necessarily be good for you at all,”she said：“When you eat it, you are not applying it directly to the cancer cells as we were in thelaboratory.” So there's no excuse to binge on curry meals after you've read this. Maintaining abalanced diet remains our best option to a healthy lifestyle.

“咖喱里含有許多其它重味香料，且它們不一定對你的身體有好處，”她說：“并且吃咖喱的時候，姜黃并沒有直接作用于癌細胞，正如我們在實驗中發(fā)現的那樣”。因此讀完這篇文章，你沒有理由在吃飯時大吃特嚼咖喱。保持飲食平衡仍是最健康的生活方式。