Caffeine: A vitamin-like nutrient, or adaptogen
by Raymond Peat
咖啡因是一种类似维生素的营养素，或营养补剂
Questions about tea and coffee, cancer and other degenerative diseases, and the hormones.
关于茶和咖啡、癌症和其他退行性疾病以及激素的问题。
There is a popular health-culture that circulates mistaken ideas about nutrition, and coffee drinking has been a perennial target of this culture. It is commonly said that coffee is a drug, not a food, and that its drug action is harmful, and that this harm is not compensated by any nutritional benefit. Most physicians subscribe to most of these “common sense” ideas about coffee, and form an authoritative barrier against the assimilation of scientific information about coffee.
流行的“健康”文化在传播错误的营养观念，喝咖啡一直是这种文化的目标。凡人们常说咖啡是一种药物，而不是一种食物，它的药物作用是有害的，而且这种危害无法通过其任何营养益处来补偿的。多数医生同意关于咖啡的多数“常识”观点并形成了“权威的障碍”-反对学习接受关于咖啡有多棒的科学信息。
I think it would be good to reconsider coffee’s place in the diet and in health care.
但我认为重新考虑咖啡在饮食和保健中的地位对人类可是大大滴好。
Coffee drinkers have a lower incidence of thyroid disease, including cancer, than non-drinkers.
喝咖啡的人比不喝咖啡的人患甲状腺疾病(包括癌症)的几率要低。
Caffeine protects the liver from alcohol and acetaminophen (Tylenol) and other toxins, and coffee drinkers are less likely than people who don’t use coffee to have elevated serum enzymes and other indications of liver damage.
咖啡因可以保护肝脏免受酒精、对乙酰氨基酚(泰诺)和其他毒素的伤害，喝咖啡的人比不喝咖啡的人血清酶升高和其他肝损伤症状的可能性更小。
Caffeine protects against cancer caused by radiation, chemical carcinogens, viruses, and estrogens.
咖啡因可以预防由辐射、化学致癌物、病毒和雌激素引起的癌症。
Caffeine synergizes with progesterone, and increases its concentration in blood and tissues.
咖啡因与黄体酮协同作用，增加其在血液和组织中的浓度。
Cystic breast disease is not caused by caffeine, in fact caffeine’s effects are likely to be protective; a variety of studies show that coffee, tea, and caffeine are protective against breast cancer.
囊性乳房疾病不是由咖啡因引起的，事实上咖啡因的作用可能是有保护作用的;许多研究表明，咖啡、茶和咖啡因可以预防乳腺癌。
Coffee provides very significant quantities of magnesium, as well as other nutrients including vitamin B1.
咖啡提供了大量的镁以及其他营养物质-包括维生素B1。
Caffeine “improves efficiency of fuel use” and performance: JC Wagner 1989.
咖啡因“提高燃料使用效率”和性能:JC Wagner 1989。
Coffee drinkers have a low incidence of suicide.
喝咖啡的人自杀的几率较低。
Caffeine supports serotonin uptake in nerves, and inhibits blood platelet aggregation.
咖啡因可以帮助神经吸收血清素，抑制血小板聚集。
Coffee drinkers have been found to have lower cadmium in tissues; coffee making removes heavy metals from water.
喝咖啡的人体内组织中的镉含量较低;咖啡在制作过程中可以去除水中的重金属。
Coffee inhibits iron absorption if taken with meals, helping to prevent iron overload.
如果随餐饮用咖啡会抑制铁的吸收，有助于防止铁过载。
Caffeine, like niacin, inhibits apoptosis, protecting against stress-induced cell death, without interfering with normal cell turnover.
咖啡因和烟酸一样，能抑制细胞凋亡，防止应激诱导的细胞死亡，而不干扰正常的细胞更替。
Caffeine can prevent nerve cell death.
咖啡因可以防止神经细胞死亡。
Coffee (or caffeine) prevents Parkinson’s Disease (Ross, et al., 2000).
咖啡(或咖啡因)可以预防帕金森病(Ross等，2000年)。
The prenatal growth retardation that can be caused by feeding large amounts of caffeine is prevented by supplementing the diet with sugar.
摄入巨量咖啡因导致的先天发育迟缓可以通过每餐吃糖来预防。
Caffeine stops production of free radicals by inhibiting xanthine oxidase, an important factor in tissue stress.
咖啡因通过抑制黄嘌呤氧化酶来阻止自由基的产生，黄嘌呤氧化酶是组织应激的重要因素。
Caffeine lowers serum potassium following exercise; stabilizes platelets, reducing thromboxane production.
咖啡因会降低运动后的血清钾含量;稳定血小板，减少血栓烷的产生。
One definition of a vitamin is that it is an organic chemical found in foods, the lack of which causes a specific disease, or group of diseases. A variety of substances that have been proposed to be vitamins haven’t been recognized as being essential, and some substances that aren’t essential are sometimes called vitamins. Sometimes these issues haven’t had enough scientific investigation, but often nonscientific forces regulate nutritional ideas.
维生素的定义是-食物中发现的有机化学物质，缺乏它会导致一种特定的疾病或一组疾病。许多被认为是维生素的物质并没有被认为是必需的，有些非必需的物质有时被称为维生素。有时这些问题还没有足够的科学调查，但通常是非科学力量规范营养观念。
The definition of “a disease” isn’t as clear as text-book writers have implied, and “causality”in biology is always more complex than we like to believe.
“疾病”的定义并不像教科书作者所暗示的那样清晰，生物学中的“因果关系”总是比我们愿意相信的要复杂得多。
Nutrition is one of the most important sciences, and should certainly be as prestigious and well financed as astrophysics and nuclear physics, but while people say “it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure that out,” no one says “it doesn’t take a nutritionist to understand that.” Partly, that’s because medicine treated scientific nutrition as an illegitimate step-child, and refused throughout the 20th century to recognize that it is a central part of scientific health care. In the 1970s, physicians and dietitians were still ridiculing the idea that vitamin E could prevent or cure diseases of the circulatory system, and babies as well as older people were given “total intravenous nutrition” which lacked nutrients that are essential to life, growth, immunity, and healing. Medicine and science are powerfully institutionalized, but no institution or profession has existed for the purpose of encouraging people to act reasonably.
营养学是最重要的科学之一，当然也应该像天体物理学和核物理学一样享有声望和得到资金支持，但当人们说“不需要脑外科医生就能弄明白”时，没人说“不需要营养学家就能理解”。在一定程度上，这是因为医学将科学营养视为不合法的继子，并在整个20世纪拒绝承认它是科学保健的核心部分。20世纪70年代，医生和营养师还在嘲笑维生素E可以预防或治疗循环系统疾病的想法，婴儿和老年人都被给予“全面静脉营养”，缺乏对生命、生长、免疫和康复至关重要的营养。医学和科学被有力地制度化了，但还没有一个机构或职业是为了鼓励人们合理行事而存在的。
In this environment, most people have felt that subtleties of definition, logic and evidence weren’t important for nutrition, and a great amount of energy has gone into deciding whether there were “four food groups” or “seven food groups” or a “nutritional pyramid.” The motives behind governmental and quasi-governmental nutrition policies usually represent something besides a simple scientific concern for good health, as when health care institutions say that Mexican babies should begin eating beans when they reach the age of six months, or that non-whites don’t need milk after they are weaned. In a culture that discourages prolonged breast feeding, the effects of these doctrines can be serious.
在这种环境下，大多数人都觉得定义、逻辑和证据的微妙之处对营养并不重要，大量的精力都投入到确定“四类食物”、“七类食物”或“营养金字塔”上。政府和准政府营养政策的幕后推手表现出了对除了基本简单健康科学以外事情的关注如卫生保健机构说墨西哥婴儿达到6个月月龄时可以吃豆类，或非白人断奶后不需要牛奶。在一个不鼓励长时间母乳喂养的文化中，这些教条的影响可能是严重的。
After a century of scientific nutrition, public nutritional policies are doing approximately as much harm as good, and they are getting worse faster than they are getting better..
经过一个世纪的科学营养，公共营养政策的好处和坏处差不多，而且它们恶化的速度比改善的速度快。
In this culture, what we desperately need is a recognition of the complexity of life, and of the political-ecological situation we find ourselves in. Any thinking which isn’t “system thinking” should be treated with caution, and most contemporary thinking about health neglects to consider relevant parts of the problem-system. “Official” recommendations about salt, cholesterol, iron, unsaturated and saturated fats, and soybeans have generally been inappropriate, unscientific, and strongly motivated by business interests rather than by biological knowledge.
在这种文化中，我们迫切需要认识到生活的复杂性，认识到我们所处的政治生态环境的复杂性。任何不是“系统思维”的思考都应该谨慎对待，大多数关于健康的当代思考都忽视了问题系统的相关部分。“官方”关于盐、胆固醇、铁、不饱和和饱和脂肪以及大豆的建议通常是不恰当的不科学的，而且强烈地受到商业利益而不是生物学知识的驱使。
Definitions have rarely distinguished clearly between nutrients and drugs, and new commercial motives are helping to further blur the distinctions.
营养素和药物的定义很少能明确区分，新的商业动机正在帮助进一步模糊两者的区别。
Essential nutrients, defensive (detoxifying, antistress) nutrients, hormone-modulating nutrients, self-actualization nutrients, growth regulating nutrients, structure modifiers, life extension agents, transgenerationally active (imprinting) nutrients–the line between nutrients and biological modifiers often depends on the situation. Vitamins D and A clearly have hormone-like properties, and vitamin E’s effects, and those of many terpenoids and steroids and bioflavonoids found in foods, include hormone-like actions as well as antioxidant and pro-oxidant functions. The concept of “adaptogen” can include things that act like both drugs and nutrients.
必需营养素、防御(解毒、抗应激)营养素、激素调节营养素、自我实现营养素、生长调节营养素、结构调节剂、寿命延长剂、世代活性(印记)营养素——营养素和生物调节剂之间的界线往往取决于具体情况。维生素D和维生素A显然具有类似激素的特性，而维生素E以及食物中发现的许多萜类、类固醇和生物类黄酮的作用，包括类似激素的作用以及抗氧化和促氧化功能。“适应原”的概念包括药物和营养成分。
Some studies have suggested that trace amounts of nutrients could be passed on for a few generations, but the evidence now indicates that these transgenerational effects are caused by phenomena such as “imprinting.” But the hereditary effects of nutrients are so complex that their recognition would force nutrition to be recognized as one of the most complex sciences, interwoven with the complexities of growth and development.
一些研究表明，微量的营养物质可以传给几代人，但现在的证据表明，这些代际效应是由“印记”等现象造成的。但是，营养物质的遗传效应是如此复杂，以至于对它们的认识将迫使营养学被认为是最复杂的科学之一，与生长和发育的复杂性交织在一起。
The idea that poor nutrition stunts growth has led to the idea that good nutrition can be defined in terms of the rate of growth and the size ultimately reached. In medicine, it is common to refer to an obese specimen as “well nourished,” as if quantity of food and quantity of tissue were necessarily good things. But poisons can stimulate growth (“hormesis”), and food restriction can extend longevity. We still have to determine basic things such as the optimal rate of growth, and the optimal size.
营养不良阻碍生长的观点导致了一种观点，即营养良好可以根据生长速度和最终达到的体型来定义。在医学上，肥胖的标本通常被称为“营养良好”，就好像食物的数量和组织的数量必然是好的东西一样。但是毒素可以刺激生长(“激效”)，限制食物可以延长寿命。我们仍然需要确定最优增长速度和最优规模等基本问题。
Nutrition textbooks flatly describe caffeine as a drug, not a nutrient, as if it were obvious that nutrients can’t be drugs. Any of the essential nutrients, if used in isolation, can be used as a drug, for a specific effect on the organism that it wouldn’t normally have when eaten as a component of ordinary food. And natural foods contain thousands of chemicals, other than the essential nutrients. Many of these are called nonessential nutrients, but their importance is being recognized increasingly. The truth is that we aren’t sure what they “aren’t essential”for. Until we have more definite knowledge about the organism I don’t think we should categorize things so absolutely as drugs or nutrients.
营养教科书直截了当地把咖啡因描述成一种药物而不是一种营养物质，似乎营养物质显然不能成为药物。任何必需营养素单独使用都可以作为药物，对生物体产生特殊的作用，而这是作为普通食物的成分食用时所不能达到的。天然食物除了必需的营养素外，还含有数千种化学物质。其中许多被称为非必需营养素，但它们的重要性正日益得到认识。事实是我们不确定它们“不重要”的原因是什么。在我们对生物体有更明确的认识之前，我认为不应该把东西绝对地归为药物或营养物质。
The bad effects ascribed to coffee usually involve administering large doses in a short period of time. While caffeine is commonly said to raise blood pressure, this effect is slight, and may not occur during the normal use of coffee. Experimenters typically ignore essential factors. Drinking plain water can cause an extreme rise in blood pressure, especially in old people, and eating a meal (containing carbohydrate) lowers blood pressure. The increased metabolic rate caffeine produces increases the cellular consumption of glucose, so experiments that study the effects of coffee taken on an empty stomach are measuring the effects of increased temperature and metabolic rate, combined with increased adrenaline (resulting from the decrease of glucose), and so confuse the issue of caffeine’s intrinsic effects.
咖啡的不良作用通常在短时间服用大剂量咖啡时显现。虽然人们常说咖啡因会使血压升高，但这种影响是轻微的-在正常饮用咖啡时几乎不会发生。实验者通常会忽略基本因素：喝白开水会导致血压急剧升高，尤其是老年人，而吃一顿含碳水化合物的餐可以降低血压。咖啡因增加的代谢率会增加细胞对葡萄糖的消耗，因此研究空腹喝咖啡效果的实验被测出温度（体温）升高、代谢率升高、肾上腺素增加(葡萄糖减少导致)，所以咖啡因的内在作用被混淆了。
In one study (Krasil’nikov, 1975), the drugs were introduced directly into the carotid artery to study the effects on the blood vessels in the brain. Caffeine increased the blood volume in the brain, while decreasing the resistance of the vessels, and this effect is what would be expected from its stimulation of brain metabolism and the consequent increase in carbon dioxide, which dilates blood vessels.
在一项研究(Krasil’nikov, 1975)中，这些药物被直接引入颈动脉，以研究其对大脑血管的影响。咖啡因增加了大脑的血容量，同时降低了血管的阻力，这是它刺激大脑代谢和随之而来的二氧化碳增加所预期的效果，而二氧化碳会扩张血管。
In the whole body, increased carbon dioxide also decreases vascular resistance, and this allows circulation to increase, while the heart’s work is decreased, relative to the amount of blood pumped. But when the whole body’s metabolism is increased, adequate nutrition is crucial.
在整个身体中，增加的二氧化碳也降低了血管阻力，这使得循环增加，而相对于泵出的血液量，心脏的工作减少了。但当整个身体的新陈代谢增加时，充足的营养是至关重要的。
In animal experiments that have been used to argue that pregnant women shouldn’t drink coffee, large doses of caffeine given to pregnant animals retarded the growth of the fetuses. But simply giving more sucrose prevented the growth retardation. Since caffeine tends to correct some of the metabolic problems that could interfere with pregnancy, it is possible that rationally constructed experiments could show benefits to the fetus from the mother’s use of coffee, for example by lowering bilirubin and serotonin, preventing hypoglycemia, increasing uterine perfusion and progesterone synthesis, synergizing with thyroid and cortisol to promote lung maturation, and providing additional nutrients.
在动物实验中，孕妇不应该喝咖啡，因为实验结果显示大剂量的咖啡因给怀孕的动物会阻碍胎儿的生长。但其实只要增加蔗糖含量就可以防止胎儿生长迟缓（咖啡+糖）。由于咖啡因倾向于纠正一些可能影响妊娠的代谢问题，所以合理构建的实验可能表明母亲饮用咖啡对胎儿有益，例如降低胆红素和血清素，防止低血糖，增加子宫灌注和孕酮合成，协同甲状腺和皮质醇促进肺成熟，并提供额外的营养。
One of the most popular misconceptions about caffeine is that it causes fibrocystic breast disease. Several groups demonstrated pretty clearly that it doesn’t, but there was no reason that they should have had to bother, except for an amazingly incompetent, but highly publicized, series of articles–classics of their kind–by J. P. Minton, of Ohio State University. Minton neglected to notice that the healthy breast contains a high percentage of fat, and that the inflamed and diseased breast has an increased proportion of glandular material Fat cells have a low level of cyclic AMP, a regulatory substance that is associated with normal cellular differentiation and function, and is involved in mediating caffeine’s ability to inhibit cancer cell multiplication. Minton argued that cAMP increases progressively with the degree of breast disease, up to cancer, and that cAMP is increased by caffeine. A variety of substances other than caffeine that inhibit the growth of cancer cells (as well as normal breast cells) act by increasing the amount of cyclic AMP, while estrogen lowers the amount of cAMP and increases cell growth. Minton’s argument should have been to use more caffeine, in proportion to the degree of breast disease, if he were arguing logically from his evidence. Caffeine’s effect on the breast resembles that of progesterone, opposing estrogen’s effects.
关于咖啡因最常见的误解之一是它会导致纤维囊性乳腺疾病。不少组织相当清楚地明白事实并非如此，但他们并没有费心。但俄亥俄州立大学(Ohio State University)的j·p·明顿(J. P. Minton)发表了一系列令人惊讶的蹩脚文章，但却被大肆宣传，堪称此类低质量文章的经典之作。明顿忘了注意健康的乳房含有高百分比的脂肪；而发炎和病变乳房腺体材料的比例增加脂肪细胞有低环腺苷酸水平。监管物质与正常细胞分化和功能有关并参与调节咖啡因抑制癌细胞增殖的能力。明顿认为cAMP随着乳腺疾病程度的增加而逐渐增加，直至癌症，而cAMP是由咖啡因增加的。除了咖啡因之外，还有许多物质可以通过增加cAMP的含量来抑制癌细胞(以及正常乳腺细胞)的生长，而雌激素则可以降低cAMP的含量，从而促进细胞生长。如果明顿的论据符合逻辑，他的论据应该是根据乳房疾病的程度，摄入更多的咖啡因。咖啡因对乳房的作用类似于孕酮，与雌激素的作用相反。
Many studies over the last 30 years have shown caffeine to be highly protective against all kinds of carcinogenesis, including estrogen’s carcinogenic effects on the breast. Caffeine is now being used along with some of the standard cancer treatments, to improve their effects or to reduce their side effects. There are substances in the coffee berry besides caffeine that protect against mutations and cancer, and that have shown strong therapeutic effects against cancer. Although many plant substances are protective against mutations and cancer, I don’t know of any that is as free of side effects as coffee.
To talk about caffeine, it’s necessary to talk about uric acid.
Uric acid, synthesized in the body, is both a stimulant and a very important antioxidant, and its structure is very similar to that of caffeine. A deficiency of uric acid is a serious problem. Caffeine and uric acid are in the group of chemicals called purines.
过去30年的许多研究表明，咖啡因对各种致癌物质都有很强的保护作用，包括雌激素对乳房的致癌作用。咖啡因现在与一些标准的癌症治疗方法一起使用，以提高疗效或减少副作用。除了咖啡因，咖啡浆果中还有一些物质可以防止突变和癌症，这些物质对癌症有很强的治疗作用。虽然许多植物物质能预防突变和癌症，但我不知道有哪一种物质像咖啡一样没有副作用。
谈到咖啡因就有必要谈谈尿酸。尿酸是人体合成的，是一种兴奋剂，也是一种非常重要的抗氧化剂，其结构与咖啡因非常相似。尿酸缺乏是个严重的问题。咖啡因和尿酸属于嘌呤一类的化学物质。
Purines (along with pyrimidines) are components of the nucleic acids, DNA and RNA, but they have many other functions. In general, substances related to purines are stimulants, and substances related to pyrimidines are sedatives.
When the basic purine structure is oxidized, it becomes in turn hypoxanthine, xanthine, and uric acid, by the addition of oxygen atoms. When methyl groups (CH3) are added to nitrogens in the purine ring, the molecule becomes less water soluble. Xanthine (an intermediate in purine metabolism) has two oxygen atoms, and when three methyl groups are added, it becomes trimethyl xanthine, or caffeine. With two methyl groups, it is theophylline, which is named for its presence in tea. We have enzyme systems which can add and subtract methyl groups; for example, when babies are given theophylline, they can convert it into caffeine.
嘌呤(与嘧啶一起)是核酸、DNA和RNA的组成部分，但它们还有许多其他功能。一般来说，与嘌呤有关的物质是兴奋剂，与嘧啶有关的物质是镇静剂。
当碱性嘌呤结构被氧化时，通过氧原子的加入，它依次变成次黄嘌呤、黄嘌呤和尿酸。当甲基(CH3)加到嘌呤环中的氮上时，分子的水溶性降低。黄嘌呤(嘌呤代谢的一种中间体)有两个氧原子，当添加三个甲基时，它就变成了三甲基黄嘌呤或咖啡因。它有两个甲基，是茶碱，因其在茶中的存在而得名。我们有酶系统可以加减甲基;例如，当婴儿服用茶碱时，他们可以将其转化为咖啡因。
We have enzymes that can modify all of the methyl groups and oxygen atoms of caffeine and the other purine derivatives. Caffeine is usually excreted in a modified form, for example as a methylated uric acid.
我们有酶可以修饰咖啡因和其他嘌呤衍生物的所有甲基和氧原子。咖啡因通常以一种改变的形式排出体外，例如甲基化的尿酸。
One of the ways in which uric acid functions as an “antioxidant” is by modifying the activity of the enzyme xanthine oxidase, which in stress can become a dangerous source of free radicals. Caffeine also restrains this enzyme. There are several other ways in which uric acid and caffeine (and a variety of intermediate xanthines) protect against oxidative damage. Coffee drinkers, for example, have been found to have lower levels of cadmium in their kidneys than people who don’t use coffee, and coffee is known to inhibit the absorption of iron by the intestine, helping to prevent iron overload.
尿酸作为“抗氧化剂”的作用之一是通过改变黄嘌呤氧化酶的活性，而黄嘌呤氧化酶在压力下会成为自由基的危险来源。咖啡因也会抑制这种酶。尿酸和咖啡因(以及各种中间黄嘌呤)还有其他几种方式可以防止氧化损伤。例如，研究发现，喝咖啡的人的肾脏中镉的含量比不喝咖啡的人要低，而且众所周知，咖啡会抑制肠道对铁的吸收，有助于防止铁超载。
Toxins and stressors often kill cells, for example in the brain, liver, and immune system, by causing the cells to expend energy faster than it can be replaced. There is an enzyme system that repairs genetic damage, called “PARP.” The activation of this enzyme is a major energy drain, and substances that inhibit it can prevent the death of the cell. Niacin and caffeine can inhibit this enzyme sufficiently to prevent this characteristic kind of cell death, without preventing the normal cellular turnover; that is, they don’t produce tumors by preventing the death of cells that aren’t needed.
毒素和压力源通常会杀死细胞，例如大脑、肝脏和免疫系统的细胞，导致细胞消耗能量的速度快于能量的补充速度。有一种修复基因损伤的酶系统，叫做PARP。这种酶的激活是一个主要的能量消耗，抑制它的物质可以防止细胞的死亡。烟酸和咖啡因可以充分抑制这种酶，以防止这种典型的细胞死亡，而不阻止正常的细胞周转;也就是说，它们不会通过阻止不需要的细胞的死亡而产生肿瘤。
The purines are important in a great variety of regulatory processes, and caffeine fits into this complex system in other ways that are often protective against stress. For example, it has been proposed that tea can protect against circulatory disease by preventing abnormal clotting, and the mechanism seems to be that caffeine (or theophylline) tends to restrain stress-induced platelet aggregaton.
嘌呤在许多调节过程中都很重要，而咖啡因以其他方式融入这个复杂的系统，通常可以防止压力。例如，有人提出，茶可以通过防止异常凝血来预防循环系统疾病，其机制似乎是咖啡因(或茶碱)倾向于抑制应激诱导的血小板聚集。
When platelets clump, they release various factors that contribute to the development of a clot. Serotonin is one of these, and is released by other kinds of cell, including mast cells and basophils and nerve cells. Serotonin produces vascular spasms and increased blood pressure, blood vessel leakiness and inflammation, and the release of many other stress mediators. Caffeine, besides inhibiting the platelet aggregation, also tends to inhibit the release of serotonin, or to promote its uptake and binding.
当血小板凝结时，它们会释放各种因素，促进血栓的形成。血清素就是其中之一，它由其他类型的细胞释放，包括肥大细胞、嗜碱性细胞和神经细胞。血清素会导致血管痉挛、血压升高、血管渗漏和炎症，以及许多其他压力介质的释放。咖啡因，除了抑制血小板聚集，也倾向于抑制血清素的释放，或促进其摄取和结合。
J. W. Davis, et al., 1996, found that high uric acid levels seem to protect against the development of Parkinson’s disease. They ascribed this effect to uric acid’s antioxidant function. Coffee drinking, which lowers uric acid levels, nevertheless appeared to be much more strongly protective against Parkinson’s disease than uric acid.
J. W. Davis等人，1996年发现高尿酸水平似乎可以预防帕金森病的发展。他们把这种作用归因于尿酸的抗氧化功能。喝咖啡虽然能降低尿酸水平，但对帕金森病的预防作用似乎比尿酸强得多。
Possibly more important than coffee’s ability to protect the health is the way it does it. The studies that have tried to gather evidence to show that coffee is harmful, and found the opposite, have provided insight into several diseases. For example, coffee’s effects on serotonin are very similar to carbon dioxide’s, and the thyroid hormone’s. Noticing that coffee drinking is associated with a low incidence of Parkinson’s disease could focus attention on the ways that thyroid and carbon dioxide and serotonin, estrogen, mast cells, histamine and blood clotting interact to produce nerve cell death.
可能比咖啡保护健康的能力更重要的是它保护健康的方式。一些研究试图收集证据证明咖啡是有害的，结果却恰恰相反，这为了解几种疾病提供了线索。例如，咖啡对血清素的影响与二氧化碳和甲状腺激素非常相似。注意到喝咖啡与帕金森氏病的低发病率有关，可以将注意力集中在甲状腺、二氧化碳、血清素、雌激素、肥大细胞、组胺和血液凝块相互作用的方式上，从而导致神经细胞死亡。
Thinking about how caffeine can be beneficial across such a broad spectrum of problems can give us a perspective on the similarities of their underlying physiology and biochemistry, expanding the implications of stress, biological energy, and adaptability.
通过思考咖啡因如何在广泛的问题中发挥作用，可以让我们关注其潜在的生理和生物化学的相似性，开拓其对压力、生物能量的影响和其适应性。
The observation that coffee drinkers have a low incidence of suicide, for example, might be physiologically related to the large increase in suicide rate among people who use the newer antidepressants called “serotonin reuptake inhibitors.” Serotonin excess causes several of the features of depression, such as learned helplessness and reduced metabolic rate, while coffee stimulates the uptake (inactivation or storage) of serotonin, increases metabolic energy, and tends to improve mood. In animal studies, it reverses the state of helplessness or despair, often more effectively than so-called antidepressants.
例如，对喝咖啡的人自杀率较低的观察，可能与使用新型抗抑郁药物“血清素再摄取抑制剂”的人自杀率大幅上升的生理相关。5 -羟色胺过量会导致抑郁症的几个特征，比如习得性无助和代谢率降低，而咖啡会刺激5 -羟色胺的吸收(失活或储存)，增加代谢能量，并倾向于改善情绪。在动物实验中，它能扭转无助或绝望的状态，通常比所谓的抗抑郁药更有效。
The research on caffeine’s effects on blood pressure, and on the use of fuel by the more actively metabolizing cells, hasn’t clarified its effects on respiration and nutrition, but some of these experiments confirm things that coffee drinkers usually learn for themselves.
关于咖啡因对血压的影响，以及对新陈代谢更活跃的细胞消耗能量的研究还没有阐明它对呼吸和营养的影响，但其中几个实验证实了咖啡饮用者通常可从自己身上发现的东西。
Often, a woman who thinks that she has symptoms of hypoglycemia says that drinking even the smallest amount of coffee makes her anxious and shaky. Sometimes, I have suggested that they try drinking about two ounces of coffee with cream or milk along with a meal. It’s common for them to find that this reduces their symptoms of hypoglycemia, and allows them to be symptom-free between meals. Although we don’t know exactly why caffeine improves an athlete’s endurance, I think the same processes are involved when coffee increases a person’s “endurance” in ordinary activities.
通常自认为有低血糖症状的女性会说，即使喝一点点咖啡也会让她焦虑和颤抖。有时我建议他们试着在吃饭的时候喝两盎司的加奶油咖啡或牛奶。这会减轻低血糖症状，让她们在两餐之间没有任何症状。虽然我们不知道咖啡因为什么能提高运动员的耐力，但我认为咖啡在日常活动中提高一个人的“耐力”也涉及同样的过程。
Caffeine has remarkable parallels to thyroid and progesterone, and the use of coffee or tea can help to maintain their production, or compensate for their deficiency. Women spontaneously drink more coffee premenstrually, and since caffeine is known to increase the concentration of progesterone in the blood and in the brain, this is obviously a spontaneous and rational form of self-medication, though medical editors like to see things causally reversed, and blame the coffee drinking for the symptoms it is actually alleviating. Some women have noticed that the effect of a progesterone supplement is stronger when they take it with coffee. This is similar to the synergy between thyroid and progesterone, which is probably involved, since caffeine tends to locally activate thyroid secretion by a variety of mechanisms, increasing cyclic AMP and decreasing serotonin in thyroid cells, for example, and also by lowering the systemic stress mediators.
咖啡因与甲状腺和黄体酮有着惊人的相似之处，喝咖啡或茶可以帮助维持它们的分泌，或弥补它们的不足。女性在月经前会自发地喝更多咖啡，由于咖啡因会增加血液和大脑中孕酮的浓度，这显然是一种自发的、理性的自我治疗形式，尽管医学编辑希望看到事情的因果颠倒，并将其实际上缓解的症状归咎于喝咖啡。一些女性已经注意到，当她们与咖啡一起服用黄体酮补充剂时，它的效果会更强。这类似于甲状腺和孕酮之间的协同作用，这可能是相关的，因为咖啡因倾向于通过多种机制局部激活甲状腺分泌，例如增加环AMP和减少甲状腺细胞中的血清素，也通过降低全身压力介质。
Medical editors like to publish articles that reinforce important prejudices, even if, scientifically, they are trash. The momentum of a bad idea can probably be measured by the tons of glossy paper that have gone into its development. Just for the sake of the environment, it would be nice if editors would try to think in terms of evidence and biological mechanisms, rather than stereotypes.
医学编辑喜欢发表强化重要偏见的文章，甚至从科学角度讲，这些文章是垃圾。一个坏主意的势头大概可以用它发展过程中所使用的大量光面纸来衡量。仅仅是为了环境着想，如果编辑们能试着从证据和生物机制的角度来思考问题，而不是从刻板印象的角度来思考问题，那就太好了。
REFERENCES
引用文献
Fiziol Zh SSSR Im I M Sechenova 1975 Oct;61(10):1531-8. [Changes in the resistance and capacity of the cerebral vascular bed under the influence of vasoactive substances].[Article in Russian] Krasil'nikov, V.G. Effects of intracarotid injections of vasoactive agents on cerebrovascular resistance (CVR) and cerebral blood volume (CBV) were studied in hemodynamically isolated brain of cats. Perfusion pressure shifts at a constant blood volume perfusion reflected CVR changes, and changes of venous outflow - CBV alterations. Administration of adrenaline, serotonin, and angiotensine was followed mainly by an increase of CVR and a decrease of CBV. The CVR could be reduced by isopropilnoradrenaline, acetylcholine, histamine, and caffeine. CBV was decreased after isopropilnoradrenaline, acetycholine, histamine injections and increased by caffeine. The possible role of the active changes of cerebral capacitance vessels in the transcapillary fluid exchange is discussed. Capacitance vessels active responses are supposed to entail wrong results when using certain techniques for measurement of cerebral blood flow and metabolism.
Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 1999 Apr;220(4):244-8. The prevention of lung cancer induced by a tobacco-specific carcinogen in rodents by green and black Tea. Chung FL “The oxidation products found in black tea, thearubigins and theaflavins, also possess antioxidant activity, suggesting that black tea may also inhibit NNK-induced lung tumorigenesis. Indeed, bioassays in A/J mice have shown that black tea given as drinking water retarded the development of lung cancer caused by NNK.” “We conducted a 2-year lifetime bioassay in F344 rats to determine whether black tea and caffeine are protective against lung tumorigenesis induced by NNK. Our studies in both mice and rats have generated important new data that support green and black tea and caffeine as potential preventive agents against lung cancer, suggesting that a closer examination of the roles of tea and caffeine on lung cancer in smokers may be warranted.”
Pharmacol Biochem Behav 2000 May;66(1):39-45. Caffeine-induced increases in the brain and plasma concentrations of neuroactive steroids in the rat. Concas A, Porcu P, Sogliano C, Serra M, Purdy RH, Biggio G. “A single intraperitoneal injection of caffeine induced dose- and time-dependent increases in the concentrations of pregnenolone, progesterone, and 3alpha-hydroxy-5alpha-pregnan-20-one (allopregnanolone) in the cerebral cortex.” “Caffeine also increased the plasma concentrations of pregnenolone and progesterone with a dose-response relation similar to that observed in the brain . . .”“Moreover, the brain and plasma concentrations of pregnenolone, progesterone, and allopregnanolone were not affected by caffeine in adrenalectomized-orchiectomized rats.”
Cancer Res 1998 Sep 15;58(18):4096-101. Inhibition of lung carcinogenesis by black tea in Fischer rats treated with a tobacco-specific carcinogen: caffeine as an important constituent. Chung FL, Wang M, Rivenson A, Iatropoulos MJ, Reinhardt JC, Pittman B, Ho CT, Amin SG. “The NNK-treated group, given 2% black tea, showed a significant reduction of the total lung tumor (adenomas, adenocarcinomas, and adenosquamous carcinomas) incidence from 47% to 19%, whereas the group given 1% and 0.5% black tea showed no change. The 2% tea also reduced liver tumor incidence induced by NNK from 34% in the group given only deionized water to 12%.” “The most unexpected finding was the remarkable reduction of the lung tumor incidence, from 47% to 10%, in the group treated with 680 ppm caffeine, a concentration equivalent to that found in the 2% tea. This incidence is comparable to background levels seen in the control group. This study demonstrated for the first time in a 2-year lifetime bioassay that black tea protects against lung tumorigenesis in F344 rats, and this effect appears to be attributed, to a significant extent, to caffeine as an active ingredient of tea.”
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Nutr Cancer 1998;30(1):21-4. Association of coffee, green tea, and caffeine intakes with serum concentrations of estradiol and sex hormone-binding globulin in premenopausal Japanese women. Nagata C, Kabuto M, Shimizu H. “Although the effect of caffeine cannot be distinguished from effects of coffee and green tea, consumption of caffeine-containing beverages appeared to favorably alter hormone levels associated with the risk of developing breast cancer.”
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J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 1994;13(2):81-8. Enhancement by caffeine of mammary gland lobulo-alveolar development in mice: a function of increased corticosterone.Welsch CW, VanderPloeg LC. Previously we have reported that the stimulatory effect of caffeine on lobulo-alveolar development in the mammary glands of female Balb/c mice is not due to a direct action of the drug on the mammary gland but appears to be due to a caffeine-induced alteration of a yet to be defined systemic physiological process (VanderPloeg et al., J Environ Pathol Toxicol Oncol 11:177-189, 1992). “In the present study, we administered caffeine (via the drinking water, 500 mg/L) to ovariectomized, estrogen- and progesterone-treated Balb/c mice. After 30 days of caffeine treatment, a significant (p < 0.001) enhancement of lobulo-alveolar development in the mammary glands of the hormone-treated mice, compared with hormone treated control mice, was observed.”
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Yakugaku Zasshi 1997 Jul;117(7):448-54. [Effect of tea extracts, catechin and caffeine against type-I allergic reaction]. [Article in Japanese] Shiozaki T, Sugiyama K, Nakazato K, Takeo T. “Caffeine also showed a inhibitory effect on the PCA reaction. These results indicate that tea could provide a significant protection against the type-I allergic reaction. These findings also suggest that tea catechins and caffeine play an important role in having an inhibitory effect on the type-I allergic reaction.”
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Farmakol Toksikol 1983 Sep-Oct;46(5):107-11 [Use of the swimming test for demonstrating antidepressive activity of drugs during single and repeated administration]. [Article in Russian] Rusakov DIu, Val'dman AV. “The use of the “swimming test” made it possible to identify the activity of tricyclic (desipramine, chlorimipramine, amitryptyline) and atypical antidepressants (befuralin, zimelidine, trazodon), that of pyrazidol (type A MAO inhibitor) and of a number of new compounds–derivatives of benzofuran and morpholine upon single and chronic administration. To define the method specificity, use was made of the neuroleptic haloperidol, the tranquilizer diazepam, and of nembutal, which did not exhibit any activity in the test in question. Psychostimulants (amphetamine, caffeine) dramatically increased the time of active swimming. The effect lasted throughout all the 30 minutes of testing, which is not characteristic for antidepressants.”
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Ind Health 2000 Jan;38(1):99-102. Effects of coffee consumption against the development of liver dysfunction: a 4-year follow-up study of middle-aged Japanese male office workers. Nakanishi N, Nakamura K, Suzuki K, Tatara K. .
Biochim Biophys Acta 1992 Dec 15; 1175(1):114-22. Caffeine promotes survival of cultured sympathetic neurons deprived of nerve growth factor through a cAMP-dependent mechanism. Tanaka S, Koike T.
Int J Epidemiol 1998 Jun;27(3):438-43. Coffee consumption and decreased serum gamma-glutamyltransferase and aminotransferase activities among male alcohol drinkers. Tanaka K, Tokunaga S, Kono S, Tokudome S, Akamatsu T, Moriyama T, Zakouji H. “. . . recent epidemiological studies have suggested unexpected, possibly beneficial effects of coffee against the occurrence of alcoholic liver cirrhosis and upon serum liver enzyme levels.” “Increased coffee consumption was strongly and independently associated with decreased GGT activity among males (P trend < 0.0001); the inverse association between coffee and serum GGT was more evident among heavier alcohol consumers (P < 0.0001), and was absent among non-alcohol drinkers.” “Similar inverse associations with coffee and interactions between coffee and alcohol intake were observed for serum aspartate aminotransferase and alanine aminotransferase. Intake of green tea, another popular source of caffeine in Japan, did not materially influence the liver enzyme levels. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that coffee may inhibit the induction of GGT in the liver by alcohol consumption, and may possibly protect against liver cell damage due to alcohol.”
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