Brief hello, I'm a 38-year-old entrepreneur, biochemist, went to MIT, BU School of Medicine, and I've decided to dedicate my life to studying the gut and the gut microbiome.

簡短的你好，我是一名 38 歲的企業家，生物化學家，曾就讀於麻省理工學院和 BU 醫學院，我決定畢生研究腸道和腸道微生物組。

Six years ago, I even started a company to address this issue, and I'm a routine contributor to some of the publications that you see here as a specialist in gut health.

六年前，我甚至創辦了一家公司來解決這個問題，作為腸道健康專家，我經常為你們在這裡看到的一些出版品撰稿。

I've been really fortunate over the last few years to have worked with professional athletes and professional athletic teams to try to improve their gut health because it's so intimately related to things like increasing performance, decreasing sickness, and improving recovery time.

在過去的幾年裡，我非常幸運地與專業運動員和專業運動隊合作，嘗試改善他們的腸道健康，因為這與提高成績、減少疾病和改善恢復時間等密切相關。

So why am I here today?

那我今天為什麼會在這裡？

Well, I'm here to talk to you about what I think is the most important organ, and that is the gut microbiome.

好吧，我在這裡要跟你們談談我認為最重要的器官，那就是腸道微生物群。

So for those of you who don't know what the gut microbiome is, it's everything from your mouth to your colon, from entry to exit, all the bits in between, so your stomach, your small intestine, your large intestine, and all of the little critters that live in there, so bacteria, fungi, viruses, and cells.

是以，對於那些不知道腸道微生物群是什麼的人來說，它就是從你的口腔到結腸，從入口到出口，中間所有的部分，所以你的胃、你的小腸、你的大腸，以及生活在那裡的所有小動物，細菌、真菌、病毒和細胞。

There are trillions of these little critters that are living in there, and we'll talk about this a little bit more later, but diversity is so important in the gut.

腸道里生活著數以萬計的小動物，我們稍後會詳細討論這個問題，但多樣性在腸道中非常重要。

So why is it important to have a healthy gut?

那麼，為什麼擁有健康的腸道很重要呢？

Well, it's really important for long-term health.

這對長期健康非常重要。

So if you have a healthy gut, you're going to feel more energetic.

是以，如果你的腸道健康，你就會感覺更有活力。

You're going to get sick less often.

你會減少生病的次數。

You're going to have better mental clarity and ultimately have better emotional well-being, versus if you don't have a healthy gut, a lot of research is showing that this is related to things like autoimmune conditions, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's, and even emotional issues like anxiety and depression.

大量研究表明，腸道健康與自身免疫性疾病、糖尿病、阿爾茨海默氏症等神經退行性疾病，甚至焦慮和抑鬱等情緒問題有關。

So our theme for today is, you are what you eat.

是以，我們今天的主題是：你吃什麼，你就是什麼。

So you're probably sitting there thinking, yeah, you know, as a kid, my parents always used to tell me, you are what you eat, as they tried to foist broccoli off on me, or if you were really, really lucky, Brussels sprouts and other things like that.

所以，你可能坐在那裡想，是啊，你知道，小時候，我父母總是告訴我，你吃什麼，你就是什麼，因為他們試圖把西蘭花強塞給我，如果你真的非常幸運的話，還能吃到球芽甘藍和其他類似的東西。

But the reality is, they're actually right.

但實際上，他們是對的。

Eating poorly can do really two things.

吃得不好其實有兩種後果。

So the first, one, it can prevent you from getting the nutrients that you need to stay healthy.

是以，首先，它會妨礙你獲得保持健康所需的營養。

And second, it can actually damage and change the entire composition of your gut, which will render it unable to digest things properly and create the nutrients that you need to function.

其次，它實際上會破壞和改變整個腸道的組成，使其無法正常消化食物和製造人體運作所需的營養物質。

So today we're going to look at three molecules that you get from dietary intake.

是以，今天我們要了解從膳食中獲取的三種分子。

You have to eat these things.

你必須吃這些東西。

So the first is something called tryptophan.

第一種是色氨酸。

You've probably heard of this.

你可能聽說過這個。

Thanksgiving comes, everybody talks about the tryptophan-induced coma that happens after you have your food.

感恩節到了，每個人都會談論吃完食物後色氨酸引起的昏迷。

It's found in turkey, but it's also found in things like eggs and chia seeds.

火雞肉中含有它，但雞蛋和奇亞籽等食物中也含有它。

So your body takes tryptophan and converts it into a lot of other really important molecules, two of which we're going to talk about today.

是以，你的身體會吸收色氨酸並將其轉化為許多其他非常重要的分子，我們今天要討論的就是其中的兩種。

So one called serotonin.

其中一種叫做血清素。

Serotonin is something that makes you happy, super important, and something called melatonin, which actually helps you to sleep.

血清素能讓人快樂，超級重要，還有一種叫做褪黑激素的東西，實際上有助於睡眠。

So imagine if you don't have any tryptophan or you're not consuming enough tryptophan.

是以，想象一下，如果你沒有色氨酸，或者你攝入的色氨酸不足。

Well, no matter how many roses or diamonds or chocolates your significant other brings you, it's just not going to make you happy, and that's kind of sad.

好吧，無論你的另一半給你帶來多少玫瑰、鑽石或巧克力，都不會讓你快樂，這有點可悲。

So you won't be able to sleep.

所以你會睡不著覺。

So you won't be able to count sheep at night.

這樣，你晚上就沒法數羊了。

Another example is a compound called tyrosine.

另一個例子是一種叫做酪氨酸的化合物。

So tyrosine, another amino acid, is found in foods like almonds, but it's also found in lentils and seeds and edamame.

酪氨酸是另一種氨基酸，存在於杏仁等食物中，但也存在於扁豆、種子和毛豆中。

Tyrosine is converted to a variety of really important things as well.

酪氨酸還能轉化成各種非常重要的物質。

So we'll talk about dopamine.

那我們就來談談多巴胺。

Dopamine is a compound that you may have heard of, and it's essentially, it motivates you to do stuff.

多巴胺是一種你可能聽說過的化合物，從本質上講，它能激勵你去做事情。

So it's this initiative-oriented behavior that it helps to propel.

是以，它有助於推動這種以主動性為導向的行為。

And epinephrine, which is also known as adrenaline, the fight-or-flight molecule, which is really helpful when you're up on this stage.

腎上腺素也被稱為腎上腺素，是 "戰鬥或逃跑 "分子，當你站在這個舞臺上時，它真的很有用。

So imagine if you don't have these things, what would happen?

想象一下，如果你沒有這些東西，會發生什麼？

Well, here's what would happen.

那麼，會發生什麼呢？

One, you'd be drooling on your couch.

第一，你會在沙發上流口水。

Or worse yet, if you were being chased by a mountain lion, which I'm sure, who knows, may happen at some point in everybody's life, the emoji being, you know, huh?

或者更糟的是，如果你被一頭山獅追趕，我敢肯定，誰知道呢，這可能會發生在每個人生命中的某個時刻，這個表情符號就是，你知道，嗯？

You don't want this to happen, right?

你也不想這樣吧？

You need a body to respond to these types of situations.

你需要一個身體來應對這類情況。

Third, we're going to talk about something called indole-3-lactic acid.

第三，我們要談談一種叫做吲哚-3-乳酸的東西。

So it's really important.

所以，這真的很重要。

It's found in fermented foods, things like pickles, sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir.

它存在於發酵食品中，如泡菜、酸菜、泡菜和酸乳酒。

ILA is super important because your body takes it in, and there's certain bacteria in the gut that actually convert the ILA into something called IPA, indolepropionic acid.

ILA 超級重要，因為你的身體會吸收它，而腸道中的某些細菌實際上會將 ILA 轉化為一種叫做 IPA 的東西，即吲哚丙酸。

That indolepropionic acid is actually one of the strongest antioxidants in the body.

實際上，吲哚丙酸是人體內最強的抗氧化劑之一。

And again, you guys might have heard of this word antioxidant, but I'll explain what it does.

再說一遍，你們可能聽說過抗氧化劑這個詞，但我會解釋它的作用。

So in your body, you have a variety of different chemical processes that happen, and many of them create things called free radicals.

是以，在人體內會發生各種不同的化學過程，其中許多過程會產生被稱為自由基的東西。

These are bad.

這些都很糟糕。

They're reactive species that go and damage your cells.

它們是會損害細胞的活性物質。

They damage DNA, and then ultimately can lead to things like cancer.

它們會損傷 DNA，最終導致癌症等疾病。

So these antioxidants come in and actually break down your free radicals, keeping you healthy longer.

是以，這些抗氧化劑能真正分解自由基，讓你的健康更長久。

IPA, very important.

IPA，非常重要。

So clearly eating certain types of foods is really necessary to keep you healthy, but it's not sufficient.

是以，要保持健康，吃某類食物顯然是必要的，但這還不夠。

A healthy microbiome is needed to be able to execute these conversion processes that we're talking about, to take things in, to digest them, and to spit out other molecules that are really important to your health.

需要一個健康的微生物群來執行我們所說的這些轉換過程，吸收東西，消化它們，並吐出對健康非常重要的其他分子。

So let's talk a little bit about what makes a healthy microbiome.

讓我們來談談什麼是健康的微生物群。

So I've tried to simplify this a bit, but essentially each emoji is a type of bacteria.

是以，我試圖簡化一下，但基本上每個表情符號都是一種細菌。

You have different ones, right?

你有不同的，對嗎？

So you've got some that digest veggies, some that digest meats and breads and oils, and your gut is populated by many, many different types of things.

是以，你的腸道里有一些能消化蔬菜，有一些能消化肉類、麵包和油，你的腸道里有很多很多不同類型的東西。

So in a healthy gut, you have very diverse species in there.

是以，在健康的腸道中，有非常多樣的物種。

Let's say you decide that you are just going to eat foods that are really high in fat.

比方說，你決定只吃脂肪含量非常高的食物。

Things like hot dogs and ice cream and pizza, although pizza sounds really good right now.

比如熱狗、冰淇淋和披薩，雖然披薩現在聽起來很不錯。

If you train your system to do this, your gut's going to start producing more and more of the type of bacteria that are used to seeing the kinds of foods that you eat, and eventually you're going to skew the ratios.

如果你訓練你的系統這樣做，你的腸道就會開始產生越來越多的細菌，這些細菌習慣於看到你所吃的食物種類，最終你就會偏離比例。

Those bacteria are going to out-compete the other types that are there, because they're just not being used.

這些細菌將超越其他類型的細菌，因為它們沒有被使用。

And then you'll end up with a situation where you can have a very unhealthy, not diverse set of bacteria in your gut.

這樣一來，你的腸道中就會出現非常不健康、不多樣化的細菌。

Now you might ask, can you reverse that?

現在你可能會問，你能逆轉嗎？

Yes, but it often takes a lot of time and energy to do.

是的，但這往往需要花費大量的時間和精力。

Sometimes you actually can't.

有時你真的做不到。

Sometimes you just, you know, once those bacteria are gone, it's really tough to bring them back.

有時候，細菌一旦消失，就很難再回來了。

So what's really interesting is the body tries to actually generate the right building blocks, even if you've damaged your gut.

是以，真正有趣的是，即使你的腸道受損，身體也會嘗試生成正確的構建模塊。

So again, on the bottom right-hand side, you can see there's a silhouette.

同樣，在右下角，你可以看到有一個剪影。

You can see the little emojis down at the bottom.

你可以看到底部的小表情符號。

They've taken in food, but you don't have a diverse set of bacteria in there.

它們攝入了食物，但裡面的細菌種類並不豐富。

They've taken in your food, and they're trying to create these compounds to keep you healthy, but there's just not enough of them.

它們攝入了你的食物，並試圖製造出這些化合物來保持你的健康，但它們的數量實在不夠。

They're not working the right way.

他們的工作方式不對。

Whereas on the other side, you've got a silhouette where the person has lots of diversity, lots of different bacteria emojis, and they're being able to take in the food, digest it, and spit out many things that are really important to keep you healthy.

而在另一邊，你看到的是一個人的剪影，這個人有很多多樣性，有很多不同的細菌表情符號，他們能夠吸收食物，消化食物，並吐出很多對保持健康非常重要的東西。

Now, here's the sad part.

現在，悲傷的部分來了。

Many of the things that we do in our life are, in fact, completely lethal to the microbiome.

事實上，我們在生活中所做的很多事情對微生物群來說都是致命的。

I love chips, sadly.

很遺憾，我喜歡薯片。

You don't find a lot of healthy stuff in most chips.

在大多數薯片中，你都找不到很多健康的東西。

You're not going to find tyrosine, tryptophan, or ILA here.

這裡找不到酪氨酸、色氨酸或 ILA。

Antibiotics, medicines, helpful, but they kill bacteria, and they don't just kill bad bacteria.

抗生素、藥物很有用，但它們會殺死細菌，而且不只是殺死壞細菌。

They kill all bacteria.

它們能殺死所有細菌。

Oftentimes after you've gone through a course of antibiotics, you kill off your microbiome.

通常情況下，使用抗生素後，微生物群會被殺死。

Sometimes it never rebuilds properly again.

有時，它再也無法正常重建。

Stress, you hear this.

壓力，你聽到了嗎？

Stress kills things.

壓力會殺死一切。

Stress is bad.

壓力是不好的。

We could have a whole 30-minute talk on the impact of stress on the microbiome.

我們可以就壓力對微生物組的影響進行整整 30 分鐘的討論。

Stress is, in fact, extremely bad for the microbiome.

事實上，壓力對微生物群極為不利。

Your central nervous system, your brain, is intimately connected to your gut.

你的中樞神經系統，也就是你的大腦，與你的腸道緊密相連。

The two talk back and forth to each other.

兩人來回交談。

Think about it.

想想看

When you're stressed, you have a headache, you feel terrible.

壓力大的時候，你會頭痛，感覺很糟糕。

You often feel that stress in your stomach, butterflies in your stomach, anxiety.

你經常會感到胃裡有壓力，胃裡有蝴蝶，焦慮不安。

Sometimes you have to go to the bathroom more.

有時，你必須多上幾次廁所。

The two talk to each other all the time.

兩人一直在交談。

They're intimately connected.

它們緊密相連。

The more stressed you are, the more likely it is that you will damage your microbiome.

壓力越大，就越有可能破壞微生物群。

Lastly, we live in a very aseptic society.

最後，我們生活在一個非常無菌的社會。

This is bad.

這很糟糕。

It decreases the diversity of bacteria in the gut.

它會降低腸道內細菌的多樣性。

One of my favorite examples is back many years ago, kids would play in the dirt, and they'd be exposed to all kinds of different things.

我最喜歡的一個例子是，很多年前，孩子們會在泥土裡玩耍，他們會接觸到各種不同的東西。

Now kids come inside, they watch TV, they play on their phones, and a lot of diseases are actually being connected to the lack of diversity in the gut.

現在，孩子們進屋看電視、玩手機，很多疾病實際上都與腸道缺乏多樣性有關。

Things like autism, ADHD.

比如自閉症、多動症。

So super important to get outside.

是以，走出戶外超級重要。

So what can we do about this?

那麼，我們能做些什麼呢？

Well, the good news is not all is lost.

好消息是，並不是一切都完了。

It is possible to improve your gut.

改善腸道是可能的。

And this is one of the things that I get to do every day, and I'm so fortunate in my job.

這是我每天都要做的事情之一，我很幸運能從事這份工作。

My company actually is trying to measure the functional state of the gut, define what that is, and then to create interventions to improve it.

實際上，我所在的公司正試圖測量腸道的功能狀態，確定它是什麼，然後制定干預措施來改善它。

We call this improving your internal fitness.

我們稱其為 "改善內部健康"。

So what are some simple things that you can do to help improve your gut?

那麼，您可以做哪些簡單的事情來幫助改善腸道呢？

Well, one, we've talked about changing your diet.

首先，我們已經討論過改變飲食習慣的問題。

Two, we've talked about stress management techniques.

第二，我們已經討論過壓力管理技巧。

Incorporating mindfulness, meditation, breathing exercises to minimize your stress, or exercise is great.

融入正念、冥想、呼吸練習以最大限度地減輕壓力，或進行鍛鍊都很好。

15, 20 minutes of walking a day can help to keep you regular.

每天步行 15-20 分鐘有助於保持生活規律。

We talk about that in front of the group, but that's what we do.

我們會在小組面前討論這個問題，但這就是我們的工作。

It can help to mitigate your stress, and it can actually help to promote the growth of certain types of bacteria.

它可以幫助減輕你的壓力，實際上還有助於促進某些類型細菌的生長。

And then lastly, targeted supplementation.

最後，有針對性地補充營養。

I'm not saying to take lots of different supplements, I'm saying if there's certain things that your body needs, you might actually take a supplement.

我不是說要吃很多不同的保健品，我是說如果你的身體需要某些東西，你可能真的需要吃一些保健品。

Sometimes there's a lot of fish that you have to eat in order to get the equivalency of one pill, but make sure it's what you need.

有時，你必須吃很多魚才能獲得相當於一粒藥丸的效果，但要確保這是你所需要的。

So the next time that you're lying on the couch feeling lethargic and not sure why, or you're sick for the fifth time in a year, listen to your gut.

所以，下次當你躺在沙發上昏昏欲睡卻不知道為什麼，或者一年中第五次生病時，請聽從你的直覺。

Thank you.

謝謝。