托福阅读材料之女性有了啤酒肚，发生骨折几率小

At last, some good news for women whose waistlines wobble.

腰粗的女性终于能听到点儿了。

Females with pot bellies and muffin tops are less likely to break bones than those with perfectly toned tums, research has found.

研究发现，相较于腰线完美的人，有啤酒肚和小肚腩的女性不容易骨折。

Men, however, can’t take similar solace in their beer bellies, as the link between waist size and bone strength was apparent only for females.

不过，对于男性而言，有啤酒肚也没有这个福利，因为腰围尺寸与骨骼强度的这种关联仅限于女性。

Researchers tracked the health of more than 1,000 men and women aged 50-plus for an average of five years.

研究者们利用平均五年的时间跟踪观察了1000多位年龄在50岁以上的男性和女性。

During that time, 19 of the men and 107 of the women broke a bone.

在这段时间里，一共有19位男性和107位女性摔断了骨头。

Factoring in the amount of abdominal fat revealed a link between big bellies and breaks in the women. Specifically, the 25 per cent of women with fattest middles were 40 per cent less likely to have broken a bone than those with the flattest midriffs, the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology reports.

腹部脂肪的量揭示了女性大肚腩和骨折的关系。据《临床内分泌与代谢》杂志报道，25%腰部肥胖的女性比小腹平坦的女性发生骨折的几率要小40%。

The researchers, from Sydney’s Garvan Institute of Medical Research, said the benefit could be due to the extra force placed on bones strengthening them. Fat can also provide valuable padding if an individual falls.

来自悉尼加文医学研究所的研究者表示，这可能是因为外部施加于骨头上的压力增强了骨骼强度。当人摔倒时，脂肪也可以充当衬垫作用。

However, they believe the most likely explanation involves the female sex hormone oestrogen.

然而，他们认为最可能的解释是雌性激素。

Women who store fat around their middle tend to have higher levels of oestrogen, and the hormone is good for the bones. The researchers said that their finding could help explain why the number of fractures has gone down as obesity rates have risen around the world.

腰部脂肪较多的女性雌性激素水平高，而这些激素对骨骼有益。研究者表示，他们的发现能帮助解释为什么随着世界范围内肥胖的增加，发生骨折的数量减少。

Project leader Professor Tuan Nguyen said: ‘This study appears to be consistent with the fact that obesity levels are rising worldwide at the same time that fracture incidence is decreasing.’

该项目负责人Tuan Nguyen教授说：“这项研究显然与某个事实一致，那就是随着世界范围内肥胖人数的上升，骨折事故几率下降。”

However, with fat stored around the middle known to pose a particular danger to the heart, as well as raise the risk of diabetes, the researchers are not advocating that women start to cultivate pot bellies.

然而，腹部脂肪的堆积容易增加心脏危险，同时也会增加患糖尿病的风险，研究者们并不提倡女性长出啤酒肚。

They also stressed that those who benefited were overweight, rather than obese.

他们也强调，得益于此的人只是超重，而不是过度肥胖。

The study is not the first to suggest that, a bit of extra weight is good for health. Researchers who crunched together the results of almost 100 studies involving millions of men and women revealed that those of normal weight, and so usually considered to be in the best health, were more likely to die than those who were slightly overweight.

这并不是个暗示人们略微超重对健康有利的案例。研究者们整理了近100项涉及上百万男性和女性的研究，揭示出一个答案，即相比于略微超重的人，那些体重正常，状态的人死亡几率更大。

Being slightly obese also appeared to do little harm. However, those who were any bigger than pleasantly plump were around a third more likely to die during the months or years they were being studied than those of normal weight.

略微肥胖并没有太大坏处。不过，在研究过程中，那些超过丰满范围的肥胖人士比正常体重的人死亡几率高1/3。

Explanations given include the possibility that those who start out slightly heavier have more reserves to call on if they lose weight due to ill health as they get older.

对此的解释是有可能那些略微肥胖的人体内储存量多，即使老了后因为身体健康原因体重减轻，身体内的存量也够用。