When it comes to exercise for heart health, you don’t want to peak too early in life. Recent research suggests that if you want to protect yourself against high blood pressure as you age, you need to play the long game and keep your exercise levels up through middle age.
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当提及为了保持心脏健康而进行锻炼时，没有人想过早地抵达生命终点。最近的研究表明，如果你希望自己不会随着年龄增加而患上高血压，你需要从长计议并在中年时能够一直保持自己的运动量。
Play the long game：从长计议
But social factors can make this more difficult for some people to do than others, according to a study of more than 5,000 people across 4 US cities.
但是，根据对美国4座城市超过5000人的研究来看，对于有些人而言，社会因素使其比其他人更难做到这一点。
“Teenagers and those in their early 20s may be physically active but these patterns change with age,” said study author and epidemiologist Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). The work was published in April 2021 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
洛杉矶加州大学的研究作者兼流行病学家Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo表示：“青少年和20出头的年轻人也许会经常运动，但是这种习惯会随着年龄而发生改变。”研究论文于2021年4月在《美国预防医学期刊》上发表。
Numerous studies have shown that exercise lowers blood pressure, but the new work suggests that “maintaining physical activity during young adulthood – at higher levels than previously recommended – may be particularly important” for preventing hypertension,” Bibbins-Domingo said.
大量的研究表明，运动会使血压下降，但是新的研究也表明，“在成年初期以高于推荐水平的强度保持锻炼也许对于预防高血压特别重要”，Bibbins-Domingo表示。
Hypertension：高血压
Hypertension, also known as high blood pressure, is a serious condition affecting billions of people worldwide. It can lead to heart attack and stroke; it’s also a risk factor for developing dementia in later life.
高血压是一种影响全球数十亿人的疾病。高血压会导致心脏病和中风；此外，高血压也是导致人到老年时发展为痴呆的危险因素。
Dementia：痴呆
Upwards of one in four men and about every fifth woman has hypertension, according to the World Health Organization. But most people with high blood pressure don’t even know they have it – hence why it’s often called the “silent killer”.
根据世界卫生组织，超过四分之一的男性和大约五分之一的女性患有高血压。但是大部分患有高血压的人甚至并不知道自己有高血压-这就是为什么高血压通常被称为“无声杀手”。
Upwards of sth.：超过~；大于；在……以上
Yet there are ways to turn high blood pressure around: exercise being the focus of this study.
然而，还是有挽回的办法的：
运动就是本研究的核心。
Over 5,100 adults were recruited to the study, which tracked their health over three decades with physical assessments and questionnaires about their exercise habits, smoking status, and alcohol intake.
研究招募了超过5100名成人。研究在超过30年的时间里通过身体评估和问卷调查的方式了解其运动习惯、抽烟状态和酒精摄入并从而对招募者的健康进行追踪。
At each clinical assessment, blood pressure was measured three times, a minute apart, and for the data analysis, participants were grouped into four categories, by race and gender.
在每次临床评估中，都会测量3次血压，每次间隔1分钟。在进行数据分析时，参与者按种族和性别被分为4组。
Across the board – amongst men, women, and in both racial groups – levels of physical activity slumped from 18 to 40 years of age, with rates of hypertension rising and physical activity falling over subsequent decades.
在所有的群体中，包括男性、女性以及两个种族群体中，身体活动程度从18岁到40岁之间出现大幅下降，而在随后的数十年，高血压的患病率随之上升，而身体活动情况则随之下降。
According to the researchers, this suggests that young adulthood is an important window for intervening to prevent midlife hypertension with health promotion programs designed to boost exercise.
根据研究人员，这表明，成年早期是一个重要的干预窗口。在这个窗口中，通过旨在加强锻炼的健康改善项目中，可以对中年患高血压起到预防作用。
“Nearly half of our participants in young adulthood had suboptimal levels of physical activity, which was significantly associated with the onset of hypertension, indicating that we need to raise the minimum standard for physical activity,” said lead author Jason Nagata, a UCSF expert in young adult medicine.
“将近一半的参与者在成年初期的运动状态都不够理想，这与高血压的出现有重要的相关性，这表明，我们需要提高身体活动的最低标准，”首席作者Jason Nagata，加州大学成年初期药物学专家表示。
When the researchers looked at the people who had done five hours of moderate exercise a week during early adulthood – double the minimum amount currently recommended for adults – they found this level of activity lowered the risk of hypertension considerably, and especially if people maintained their exercise habits until age 60.
当研究人员观察在成年初期每周花5小时进行中等强度运动的人时（目前为成人最低推荐运动量的2倍），他们发现这种活动水平会大幅降低患高血压的风险，特别是当人们将运动习惯一直保持到60岁时。
“Achieving at least twice the current minimum adult [physical activity] guidelines may be more beneficial for the prevention of hypertension than simply meeting the minimum guidelines,” the researchers wrote in their paper.
研究人员在论文中写道：“与仅仅是达到最低运动标准相比，如果当前最低的成人身体活动量能够至少达到2次，则可能会对预防高血压更有益。”
But it’s not easy to step up weekly physical activity amidst life-changing decisions and growing responsibilities.
但是，在各种使生活发生改变的决策中和越来越多的责任面前，开始每周锻炼并非易事。
“This might be especially the case after high school when opportunities for physical activity diminish as young adults transition to college, the workforce, and parenthood, and leisure time is eroded,” said Nagata.
Nagata表示：“这也许特别能够说明，当高中毕业后，随着年轻人开始走进大学校门，走向工作岗位并为人父母，休闲时间开始变少，因此身体锻炼也开始减少。”
As for another sobering truth, the study also showed how Black men and Black women experience starkly different health trajectories compared to their White counterparts. At 40 years of age, physical activity levels plateaued among White men and women, whereas activity levels in Black participants continued to decline.
关于另一项严峻的事实，研究还表明，黑人男性和黑人女性的健康轨迹与白人相比有明显差异。在40岁时，白人男性和女性的身体活动水平达到顶峰，而黑人参与者的活动水平却持续下降。
By 45 years, Black women surpassed White men in rates of hypertension, while White women in the study experienced the lowest rates of hypertension through midlife.
到45岁时，黑人女性的高血压患病率开始超过白人男性，而研究中的白人女性在中年时期的高血压患病率最低。
And by age 60, between 80 to 90 percent of Black men and women had hypertension, compared with just below 70 percent for White men and around half of White women.
到60岁时，80%到90%的黑人男性和女性都有高血压，而白人男性这一比例则不到70%，白人女性则大约为50%。
The research team put these well-known racial disparities down to a multitude of social and economic factors; not that these factors were assessed in this study, although high school education was noted.
研究团队将这些众所周知的差异归结为众多社会和经济因素；这些因素并未在研究中进行评估，尽管研究对高中教育有所关注。
“Although Black male youth may have high engagement in sports, socioeconomic factors, neighborhood environments, and work or family responsibilities may prevent continued engagement in physical activity through adulthood,” Nagata said.
Nagata表示：“黑人男性在青年时期的运动参与度也许很高，但是经济社会因素、居住环境以及工作或家庭责任都可能导致他们在成年时期无法继续参与运动。”
原文来源：ScienceAlert
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