为什么饮食可能对心理健康至关重要

When it comes to physical health, mountains of evidence will tell you that a healthy diet is important.

谈到身体健康时，大量证据会告诉你健康饮食很重要。

And it is.

而且确实是这样的。

But a growing body of research is showing that diet is important for mental health, too.

但越来越多的研究表明，饮食对心理健康也很重要。

And before you click away, no, I'm not about to show you 10 superfoods to cure your depression! or anything.

在你点击离开之前，不，我不会给你展示十种超级食品来治愈你的抑郁症！或者别的什么。

Mental health is way more complicated than that, and everything from your genetics to your environment can affect it.

心理健康比这复杂得多，从你的基因到环境都会影响它。

But there is some evidence that diet also plays a role here.

但有一些证据表明，饮食也起到了一定的作用。

Studies have found a link between what people eat and their risk of mental illness — even when it comes to the severity of their symptoms.

研究发现人们的饮食和他们患精神疾病的风险之间存在联系，即使是涉及到症状的严重性时也是如此。

And if diet contributes to these conditions, well, maybe it can help treat them, too.

如果饮食引发了这些症状，那么，也许它也能帮助进行治疗。

There are all kinds of studies showing how diet and mental health are related.

有各种各样的研究表明，饮食和心理健康是如何联系在一起的。

Some focus on food in general — like a 2013 meta-analysis, which found that diets high in fruit, vegetables, fish, and whole grains may be associated with a reduced risk of depression.

一些研究关注的是一般性食物，比如2013年的一项元分析研究，该研究发现，富含水果、蔬菜、鱼类和全谷类的饮食可能与降低抑郁风险有关。

But other studies have found something more specific.

但是其他的研究发现了一些更具体的东西。

They've reported that, when it comes to mental health, it's not just about having a generally "healthy" or "unhealthy" diet.

他们报告说，当涉及到心理健康，不再只是普遍性“健康”或“不健康”饮食的问题。

Instead, specific nutrients are sometimes involved.

相反，有时也会在其中涉及特定的营养成分。

For example, in a 2017 paper, researchers used data from a long-term health study to look at older adults diagnosed with depression.

例如，在2017年的一篇论文中，研究人员使用了一项长期健康研究的数据来考察被诊断患有抑郁症的老年人。

And they found that participants' levels of vitamins B12, B6, and folate all decreased in the year leading up to their diagnosis.

他们发现，在确诊前一年，被试体内维生素B12、B6和叶酸的水平都有所下降。

Several other studies have also found that participants with depression and schizophrenia tended to have lower levels of folate than the general population.

其他几项研究也发现，抑郁和精神分裂症患者的叶酸水平往往低于一般人群。

Admittedly, this relationship is based on correlations, which means they don't say a nutrient caused anything.

诚然，这种关系建立在相关性的基础上，这意味着它们无法证实营养就是原因。

But it seems like there could be something going on here.

但似乎有什么事在发生。

And if so, there's a pretty good explanation for why: Those nutrients all act as antioxidants.

如果真是这样，有一个很好的解释：这些营养素都是抗氧化剂。

During daily life, chemical reactions in your body can split oxygen molecules into atoms with unpaired electrons, which are called free radicals.

在日常生活中，体内的化学反应会将氧分子分裂成带有未配对电子的原子，这些电子称为自由基。

Without a second electron, these free radicals are unstable, so they scavenge other cells to find an electron to pair with.

如果没有第二个电子，这些自由基是不稳定的，因此它们会清除其他细胞，以找到一个与之配对的电子。

That puts the body under stress and can ultimately cause inflammation or other damage.

这会让身体处于压力之下，并最终导致炎症或其他损伤。

Antioxidants are molecules that fight that stress by handing over their own electrons without becoming unstable themselves.

抗氧化剂是通过传递自己的电子，而不使自身变得不稳定的分子来对抗这种压力。

What does that have to do with mental health?

这和心理健康有什么关系？

Well, there's a lot of evidence for a link between certain mental health symptoms and inflammation.

有很多证据表明某些精神健康症状和炎症之间有联系。

The link is especially strong for depression, but papers have found some support for this connection with ADHD, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder as well.

这种联系对于抑郁症尤其重要，但是论文也发现了一些关于儿童多动症、精神分裂症和双相情感障碍的证据。

The research is ongoing, but the general idea seems to be that inflammatory molecules may affect how chemicals are released in the brain.

这项研究正在进行中，但总体观点似乎是炎症分子可能影响化学物质在大脑中的释放。

In any case, the relationship has come up enough that some researchers have wondered

无论如何，这种关系已经发展到一定程度，以至于一些研究人员想知道，

if giving a patient nutrient supplements that fight inflammation could help ease their symptoms.

给患者提供对抗炎症的营养补充剂是否有助于缓解他们的症状。

And amazingly, it might — at least, in some cases.

令人惊讶的是，至少在某些情况下是这样的。

In September 2019, a huge meta-review was published in World Psychiatry, and it took a big-picture look at nutritional supplements and mental health conditions.

2019年9月，《世界精神病学》发表了一篇提供后设意见的综述，对营养补充剂和精神健康状况进行了全面考察。

Now, a meta-review is a re-analysis of the data from a bunch of meta-analyses, which themselves are re-analyses of the data from a bunch of individual studies.

现在，提供后设意见是对一系列元分析数据的重新分析，这些数据本身就是对一系列个人研究数据的再次分析。

So suffice it to say, this paper looked at a ton of data.

所以可以说，这篇论文研究了大量的数据。

And what it found was kind of encouraging.

这篇论文中的发现令人鼓舞。

For one, it found that folate — which fights inflammation — was helpful for depression symptoms when it was used as an add-on to existing treatment.

首先，它发现抗炎的叶酸当用作现有治疗的补充时，有助于缓解抑郁症状。

It also found emerging evidence that a kind of antioxidant amino acid could be a useful treatment for depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorder.

研究还发现了新的证据，一种抗氧化氨基酸可能是一种治疗抑郁症、精神分裂症和双相情感障碍的有效疗法。

The big stars of the paper, though, were omega-3s, which are types of fatty acids with anti-inflammatory properties.

不过，这篇论文的大牌是奥米加三型脂肪酸，这是一种具有抗炎作用的脂肪酸。

There are a bunch of them, but the most effective one in this review was EPA.

奥米加三型脂肪酸有很多，但这篇综述中最有效的是EPA。

In the paper, there was some evidence that omega-3 supplements helped with ADHD.

在论文中，有一些证据表明奥米加三型脂肪酸补充剂对儿童多动症有帮助。

And there was a bunch of evidence that they helped with depression.

有很多证据表明它们有助于治疗抑郁症。

Like, these supplements were demonstrated to reduce depressive symptoms in people with major depressive disorder over 13 studies involving more than 1200 participants.

类似地，涉及1200名被试的超过13项研究证实，这些补充剂可减少抑郁症患者的抑郁症状。

That's a lot of participants!

参与者人数很多！

Especially for psych research!

尤其是对于心理研究来说！

Now, one thing this review didn't say was that all supplements are effective all the time.

现在，这篇综述中没有提及的一件事，是所有的补充剂总是有效。

Like, it didn't find that omega-3s were helpful for schizophrenia or other mental illnesses.

比如，它没有发现奥米加三型脂肪酸对精神分裂症或其他精神疾病有帮助。

And despite what smaller studies have found, the review found little evidence for the effectiveness of zinc, magnesium, or vitamin C or E supplements.

尽管一些规模较小的研究有所发现，但这篇综述没有找到锌、镁、维生素C或E补充剂有效性的证据。

Vitamin D even fell short, although the authors noted that there is some growing evidence that it could help treat depression.

尽管研究者指出，有越来越多的证据表明维生素D有助于治疗抑郁症，但维生素D甚至还缺乏。

Overall, the authors say we need more research examining individual nutrients and their effects on specific mental illnesses.

总的来说，作者表示，我们需要进行更多的研究来检验个人营养及其对特定精神疾病的影响。

But the takeaway is that supplements could be really helpful for some patients, depending on their situation.

但另一个好处是，根据患者的病情，补充剂确实能给他们带来帮助。

Of course, there's also a big thing to keep in mind here: Even for the nutrients that showed promise, these supplements are not a cure-all.

当然，也要记住一件重要的事：即使营养素显示出了不错的前景，但它们也不是万能的。

Diet is only one potential factor in someone's mental health, and it's completely possible to have a nutrient-rich diet and a mental illness.

饮食只是一个人心理健康的一个潜在因素，完全有可能存在饮食上营养丰富，但却患有精神疾病。

Like I said earlier, mental health is complicated.

就像我之前所说的那样，心理健康是复杂的。

And just because supplements could help doesn't mean they're the only way to get help.

仅仅因为补充剂有帮助，并不意味着它们是获得帮助的唯一途径。

Ultimately, those kinds of decisions are up to a person and their doctor.

最终，这些决定取决于个人和他们的医生。

If nothing else, though, this kind of research does remind us that our brains aren't separate from the rest of our bodies.

不过，如果没有别的方法，这类研究确实提醒我们，大脑并不是与身体的其他部分相分离的。

And eating a healthy diet is likely one way to take care of them both.

而健康饮食可能是照顾好这两个方面的一种方式。

If you want to learn more about mental health, you might enjoy our episode about how there's more than one type of bipolar disorder.

如果你想了解更多关于心理健康的知识，你可能会喜欢我们有关多种双相情感障碍的那集节目。

But as always, thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!

但还是要感谢你们收看这一集《心理科学秀》！

We know there's a lot of content online these days, and we're thankful you're spending some of your time getting smarter with us.

我们知道现在网上的节目很多，很感谢你们花时间和我们一起变得更聪明。

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