(单词翻译:单击)
Your brain works together with the rest of your body in lots of different ways.
你的大脑和身体的其他部位有很多不同的协作方式 。
If things go wrong with some organs, like if your heart stops pumping,
如果某些器官出了问题,比如心脏停止跳动,
your brain's obviously going to have a bad time.
显然,你的大脑也不会好过 。
But sometimes the connection is a little less straightforward.
但有时这种联系不那么直接 。
Take the liver, for example: you need it for things
以肝脏为例,你需要它做的工作是
like filtering blood, storing vitamins, and lots of other processes that keep you alive.
过滤血液、储存维生素以及许多其它维持生存的过程等 。
So, basically, what happens in the liver doesn't stay in the liver.
所以,基本上,肝脏的毛病不会只停留在肝脏处 。
And an issue there can cause a chain reaction across your body that seriously affects your brain.
一个身体问题会引起它的连锁反应并严重影响大脑 。
Patients with many kinds of liver damage or disease
病人的多种肝脏损伤或疾病
can develop a condition called hepatic encephalopathy or HE.
可以发展成一种叫做肝性脑病(HE)的疾病 。
Hepatic refers to the liver, and encephalopathy means brain disease, damage or malfunction.
“Hepatic”是指肝脏,“encephalopathy”是指脑部疾病、脑损伤或脑故障 。
Physicians think of HE as a spectrum of symptoms
医生认为肝性脑病有一系列的症状,
that can affect personality, movement, cognition, and even levels of consciousness.
可以影响性格、运动、认知甚至意识水平 。
They can range from mild, like mood swings, to severe, like a coma.
它们的范围可以从情绪波动等轻微症状到昏迷等严重症状 。
And HE is mainly caused by substances that build up when the liver stops working as well as it should.
肝性脑病主要是由肝脏停止正常工作时积累的物质引起的 。
In a healthy liver, chemicals from the rest of the body are filtered out of the blood
在健康的肝脏中,身体其余部位的化学物质会从血液中过滤出来,
and broken down by specialized cells and enzymes.
并被特殊的细胞和酶分解 。
If the liver becomes damaged, like from certain drugs, a bad diet,
如果因为某些药物、糟糕的饮食、
or some other kind of injury or disease, the tissue changes structure and gets all scarred.
或者其他伤害或疾病等引起肝脏受损,肝组织就会改变结构并受到创伤 。
This scar tissue isn't able to function like normal liver cells.
这种疤痕组织不能像正常肝细胞那样运转 。
Plus, all those structural changes make it harder for blood to get in for detoxification.
此外,所有这些结构上的变化使血液更难进入其中排毒 。
And in really severe cases, a lot of blood may bypass the liver entirely.
在肝脏受损非常严重的情况下,大量血液可能直接绕过肝脏 。
One important toxin your liver deals with is ammonia,
肝脏处理的一种重要毒素是氨 。
which mostly comes from the digestion of proteins in your gut.
它主要来自于肠道内蛋白质的消化 。
Ammonia gets turned into urea, which is excreted in pee.
氨转变成尿素,后者从尿中排泄出去 。
So a damaged liver can lead to a buildup of ammonia in the bloodstream, which is bad news for the brain.
因此,肝脏受损会导致血液中的氨堆积,这对大脑来说是个坏消息 。
Ammonia can cross the blood-brain barrier,
氨可以穿过血脑屏障,
which is a membrane that blocks a lot of molecules in your bloodstream from circulating around your brain,
后者是一种膜,可以阻止血流中大量的分子在大脑周围循环,
to protect it from potential damage.
保护它免受潜在伤害 。
Once ammonia slips past, it's mostly taken up by astrocytes,
一旦氨滑过血脑屏障,就会被星形胶质细胞占用,
which are brain cells that help out neurons in a lot of different ways.
星形胶质细胞是一种脑细胞,可以通过不同的方式帮助神经元 。
And astrocytes have enzymes that convert ammonia into the amino acid glutamine to help protect the neurons.
它拥有把氨转化成氨基酸的酶来帮助保护神经元 。
If they do this too much, though, studies have found that their structure gets messed up.
但是,研究发现,如果它们的工作量过大,就会导致结构混乱 。
Cell-damaging molecules called free radicals get produced,
被称为自由基的细胞破坏分子由此产生,
and their mitochondria stop working as efficiently, which means they can't make as much energy.
而且它们的线粒体会停止高效工作,这意味着它们不能产生尽可能多的能量 。
As the astrocytes lose function, they stop getting rid of ammonia,
当它们失去功能时,就会停止去除氨,
and everything gets even more messed up.
一切变得更加混乱 。
Too much ammonia can affect the storage, production, and use of neurotransmitters across the whole brain.
过多的氨会影响整个大脑中神经递质的储存、生产以及使用 。
In other words, your neurons can't really communicate,
换句话说,你的神经元无法真正交流,
which can cause a whole range of problems with mood, movement ... pretty much anything.
这可能会导致情绪、运动等一系列问题,几乎是所有问题 。
Even though ammonia is a significant part of HE, other toxins might be involved too.
即使氨是HE的重要组成部分,但其他的毒素也可能参与其中 。
And researchers are still figuring out exactly what they are and how they might make HE worse.
研究人员仍在研究它们到底是什么,以及它们如何让肝性脑病变得更糟 。
Besides waste products like ammonia,
除了氨这样的废物,
your liver also has a huge impact on how long lots of drugs, from aspirin to LSD,
肝脏也会对从阿斯匹林到麦角酸二乙基酰胺(LSD)等很多药物的时效产生巨大影响,
stay in your system before they're flushed out.
它们在被排出前都会待在你体内 。
A healthy liver takes drug molecules from your bloodstream and converts them into different chemicals.
健康的肝脏从血液中提取药物分子,并将其转化为不同的化学物质 。
Sometimes they're the active form of a drug,
这些化学物质有时是药物的活性形式,
but eventually they become more water-soluble compounds that can be peed out.
但最终它们大多会变成可以被排出体外的水溶性化合物 。
To do this, it mostly uses a system of enzymes known as the cytochrome p450 family,
为了做到这一点,肝脏主要使用一种酶系统,即细胞色素p450家族,
which may be responsible for up to 75% of drug metabolism.
它们可能负责多达75%的药物代谢 。
So if a disease damages liver cells or directly interferes with these enzymes, things can go sour.
所以,如果一种疾病损害了肝细胞或者直接干扰了这些酶,事情就会变糟 。
Even just as we age naturally, the activity of cytochrome p450 enzymes seems to dip.
我们自然衰老的时候,细胞色素p450的酶活性似乎也在下降 。
Slower drug metabolism can mean a normally fine painkiller,
缓慢的药物代谢意味着正常的止痛药,
like acetaminophen, may build up until it hits toxic levels.
如扑热息痛,可以累积到有毒水平 。
This can lead to more damage, and eventually we're right back to hepatic encephalopathy.
这会导致更多的损伤,最终会导致肝性脑病 。
Now some brain diseases are linked to toxic substances that some people intentionally put in their bodies,
现在一些脑部疾病与人们故意注入体内的有毒物质有关,
which their livers have to process, like ethanol from alcoholic drinks.
因此他们的肝脏需要处理它们,如酒精饮料中的乙醇等 。
Basically, in the process of breaking down ethanol,
基本上,在乙醇分解的过程中,
the byproducts can cause tissue damage and trigger inflammation.
它的副产物可以引起组织损伤并引发炎症 。
And if your liver keeps getting damaged, it won't be able to handle ethanol as well.
如果你的肝脏继续受损,就不能处理乙醇了 。
It's a vicious cycle.
这是一个恶性循环 。
It turns out that too much ethanol can affect your cells' ability to take up,
事实证明,过量乙醇会影响细胞从饮食中吸收、
store and use thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, from your diet.
存储以及使用硫胺素(维生素B1)的能力 。
Some enzymes that depend on thiamine are a key part of glycolysis,
一些依赖硫胺素的酶是糖酵解的关键,
a process your body uses to break down glucose molecules and make energy.
糖酵解是指你的身体分解葡萄糖分子和制造能量的过程 。
So a lack of thiamine can limit the amount of energy your body can get from food.
因此,缺乏硫胺素可能限制你的身体从食物中获得能量 。
And since the brain is basically an energy-hungry monster, that is a recipe for disaster.
因为大脑基本上是一个能量饥渴的怪物,是灾难之源 。
And it can lead to Korsakoff syndrome, one of the lesser-known diseases that affects memory.
它还会导致柯萨可夫综合症,一种不太为人所知的影响记忆的疾病 。
Patients find themselves basically frozen in time, with retrograde and anterograde amnesia.
患者会感到时间冻结,有逆行性和顺行性遗忘 。
So they can't recall large chunks of their past, or form new memories going forward.
所以他们不能回忆起大部分过去,也不能形成新的记忆 。
Specifically, in patients' MRIs, we've seen shrinking in the medial thalamus,
具体来说,在病人的核磁共振成像中,我们看到他们的内侧丘脑、
mammillary bodies and nearby areas, which are all linked with memory.
乳头体及附近区域萎缩了,这些部位都与记忆有关 。
With treatments aimed at getting thiamine and other nutrient levels back to normal,
利用让硫胺素和其他营养水平恢复正常的治疗,
many Korsakoff's patients can at least partly recover.
许多科萨科夫患者至少可以部分恢复 。
But, basically, if you want to keep your brain in tip-top condition,
但是从根本上说,如果你想让自己的大脑保持最佳状态,
remember to take good care of the rest of you as well.
记住要好好照顾身体的其他部位 。
And take special care of your liver, just a good ol'...wherever it is.
还要特别照顾你的肝脏,它是一个好的ol……无论是哪儿都要照顾好 。
Thanks for watching this episode of SciShow Psych!
感谢您收看本期的心理科学秀!
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如果你想和我们继续学习人类大脑,
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可以登录youtube.com/scishowpsych点击订阅!