受失眠和炎症的困擾 試試打太極拳吧

Poor sleep is associated with increased inflammation, which may contribute to heart disease and a variety of other ailments. A new study has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy and tai chi, the Chinese exercise technique, may reduce both insomnia and inflammation.

睡眠不足與炎症增加相關，而後者可能會導致心臟病和其他多種疾病。一項新研究表明，認知行爲療法和中國的鍛鍊技法太極拳或可同時減少失眠和炎症。

Researchers studied 123 people with insomnia who were over age 55. They were randomized to one of three groups. The first received two hours a week of cognitive behavioral therapy over four months, the second the same amount of tai chi practice, and the third, a control group, a four-month educational program about sleep hygiene, aging and insomnia. The study was published in Biological Psychiatry.

研究人員研究了123名年齡超過55歲的失眠症患者，並將他們隨機分入3組。第一組接受了每週兩小時，持續四個月的認知行爲療法，第二組進行同樣數量的太極拳練習，第三組是對照組，接受爲期四個月的關於睡眠衛生、衰老和失眠的教育課程。該研究發表在《生物精神病學》雜誌(Biological Psychiatry)上。

At one year after the treatment, compared with the control group, those on cognitive behavioral therapy and tai chi had reduced blood levels of C-reactive protein and reduced production of pro-inflammatory cytokines, both indicators of inflammation.

在治療一年後，與對照組相比，接受認知行爲療法者和練習太極拳者的血液C反應蛋白濃度均有所降低，促炎細胞因子的產生減少，而這兩者均是炎症的指標。

Using blood samples, the researchers also found that both the treatment groups had lower expression of genes related to inflammation and increased expression of genes related to antibody response compared with the control group.

使用血液樣本，研究人員還發現，比之對照組，兩個治療組的炎症相關基因表達均較低，抗體反應相關基因表達均較高。

“Tai chi and cognitive therapy are used to treat insomnia because, unlike medication, they produce no unwanted side effects,” said the lead author, Dr. Michael R. Irwin, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles.

研究的主要作者，加州大學洛杉磯分校(University of California, Los Angeles)的精神病學教授邁克爾·R·歐文(Michael R. Irwin)博士說：“使用太極拳和認知療法來治療失眠，是因爲它們不像藥物那樣會產生有害的副作用。”

“With the improvement in insomnia,” he added, “there’s a reversal of inflammation at the systemic level and the genetic level. Inflammation contributes to cardiovascular disease, depression and cancer.”

“隨着失眠的改善，炎症在全身和基因層次上都出現了逆轉。”他補充道，“而炎症是心血管疾病、抑鬱症和癌症的原因之一。”