比步数排行有新的好处了！可以预防抑郁！

Few of us give much thought to how we put one foot in front of the other, but scientists are investigating whether changing the way we walk can protect our physical and mental health.

很少有人考虑过我们怎么迈出步伐，但是科学家正在研究改变走路的方式是否可以保护我们的身心健康。

One promising focus is on how altering our gait can reduce our risk of knee arthritis. The most common type is osteoarthritis, which typically begins in middle age and gradually leads to the destruction of cartilage.

一个焦点是改变我们的步态可以降低膝关节炎的风险。其最常见的类型是骨关节炎，通常在中年开始发作并逐渐导致软骨的破坏。

Cathy Holt, a professor of biomechanics and orthopaedic engineering at Cardiff University, is studying how the way people walk can trigger this.

卡迪夫大学生物力学和骨科工程教授凯茜霍尔特正在研究人们走路的方式如何引发这种情况。

She believes that teaching people to change their gait in middle age may save them decades of pain — and avoid the need for later knee replacement surgery.

她认为，教导人们在中年改变步态可以避免他们之后几十年的痛苦 - 并避免后期膝关节置换的手术。

'The damage can come about through poor walking habits,' says Professor Holt.

霍尔特教授说，这种损害可能是由于不良的行走习惯造成的。

Put simply, walking with your knees too far apart, or too close together, can put excess strain on the inside of the knee.

简而言之，走路时膝盖隔得太远或太近，都可能会对膝盖内侧造成过大的压力。

'Some people may be naturally a bit bow-legged or knock-kneed,' says Professor Holt, who is also a spokesperson for the charity Versus Arthritis.

霍尔特教授说，有些人可能本来有点弓腿或膝盖受伤，他也是慈善机构Versus Arthritis的发言人。

'However, the way people walk may be affected by a small injury such as a cartilage tear or deformation. As a result, their knees are pushed out from their proper alignment when they take a step.

'但是，人们走路的方式可能受到诸如软骨撕裂或变形等小伤害的影响。因此，当他们迈出一步时，他们的膝盖被推离了正确的位置。

Such overloading of one side can trigger a cascade of cellular damage.

一侧膝盖的这种过载可以引发一系列细胞损伤。

In healthy knees, the cartilage and joint bone beneath it stay in constant communication, with the cartilage instructing the bone to release new cells that rejuvenate tissues to compensate for wear and tear. 'If your tissues are being loaded as they are expecting to be loaded, the system works well,' says Professor Holt. 'But when you overload it, this changes the signals between the tissues and they respond badly.'

在健康的膝盖中，软骨和其下方的关节骨保持不断的交流，软骨指示骨骼释放新的细胞，使组织恢复活力以补偿磨损。霍尔特教授说，如果你的组织在有预期的情况下承受压力，系统依旧会运作良好。 “但是当你超负荷时，它会改变组织之间的信号并且反应会变得很差。”

The system then over-produces osteoclasts — cells that break down tissue as part of the normal process of our bones continually renewing themselves.

然后这个系统就会过度生成破骨细胞 - 分解组织的一种细胞，这是我们骨骼正常自我更新过程的一部分。

This overproduction degrades the bone joints and cartilage.

这种过度生产会使骨关节和软骨退化。

'At the same time, the system also overproduces cytokines — immune cells that cause inflammation and the classic burning arthritis pain,' says Professor Holt. She and her team are researching gait-correcting retraining therapies for people in their 40s and 50s.

霍尔特教授说，与此同时，该系统还会过度生成细胞因子 - 这种细胞会引起炎症和典型的关节炎疼痛。她和她的团队正在为40多岁和50多岁的人们研究改善步态的再训练疗法。

Other studies have focused on changing the gait to alleviate arthritis pain. For example, in 2013, Pete Shull, a professor of mechanical engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, asked ten people with knee arthritis to walk on a treadmill while wearing monitoring equipment that gave them feedback on how well they were walking.

其他研究的重点是改变步态以减轻关节炎疼痛。例如，2013年，上海交通大学机械工程系皮特舒尔教授要求10名膝关节炎患者在跑步机上行走，同时佩戴监控设备然后给他们反馈行走情况。

Participants learned how to shift the walking load to the optimum parts of the knee joints. After the retraining, the patients reported that their pain had reduced by nearly a third — and their ability to walk had improved by a similar amount. Professor Shull and colleagues at Stanford University in California are now developing wearable equipment.

参与者学会了如何将行走负荷转移到膝关节的最佳部位。再培训后，患者报告他们的疼痛减少了近三分之一 - 并且他们的行走能力提高了相似的数量。舒尔教授及其加州斯坦福大学的同事正在开发可穿戴设备。

Meanwhile, Professor Holt is trialling ways to teach individuals to change their gait.

与此同时，霍尔特教授正在试验教导个人改变步态的方法

'We ask them to walk with different styles — such with a wider gait — to see if that can make a beneficial difference,' she says.

她说，我们要求他们以不同的风格行走 - 比如更大的步伐 - 看看能否产生有益的影响

Other studies suggest that changing your walking style could also help prevent depression.

其他研究表明，改变行走方式也有助于预防抑郁症。

The latest evidence emerged in February, in a study reported in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society that, for four years, monitored more than 4,000 healthy people in Ireland over 50. It found a strong link between poor gait and depressive illness later.

2月份又有了这方面最新证据，在美国老年病学会期刊上发表的一项研究报告称，四年来，爱尔兰有超过4,000名健康人士受到50多人的监测。监测后来发现，步态不佳和抑郁症之间存在密切联系。

'Lower walking speed and shorter steps predict a significantly increased risk of depression,' says Dr Robert Briggs, a specialist in geriatric medicine research and fellow at The Irish Longitudinal Study On Ageing in Dublin.

“较慢的步行速度和较短的步伐预示着患抑郁症的风险显著增加，”老年医学研究专家，都柏林爱尔兰老年人纵向研究研究员罗伯特布里格博士说。

Dr Robert Brigg says people with poor gaits are likely to get less exercise, probably because they find walking onerous, and it's known that walking energetically may protect against depression.

罗伯特布里格博士说，步态不佳的人可能因为行走不便减少运动量，而且众所周知，行走可以从能量方面防止抑郁。

But other studies have revealed an intriguing additional factor: research has shown that if we walk 'happy', we can boost our mood.

但其他研究揭示了另一个有趣的因素：研究表明，如果我们快乐地行走，我们可以改善我们的情绪。

In 2014, Dr Nikolaus Troje, a motion biologist at Queen's University in Ontario, Canada, trained 39 volunteers on treadmills to develop happy or sad gaits, with an upright or slumped posture.

2014年，加拿大安大略省女王大学的运动生物学家尼古拉斯托杰博士在跑步机上培训了39名志愿者，以直立或瘫痪的姿势发展快乐或悲伤的步态。

After several hours, they had to memorise positive and negative words. Those in the 'depressed walk' group remembered many more negative words.

几个小时后，他们按要求记住了一些积极或消极的话。那些处于“沮丧的行走”组的人记得更多的负面言论。

'The difference in recall suggests the depressed walking style actually created a more depressed mood,' he says.

他说，回忆的差异表明，沮丧的行走方式实际上造成了更加沮丧的情绪。

（翻译：Jen）