簡單的爬樓梯測試可預測你的死亡風險

Last year around this time, I made it my New Year's resolution to take one extra flight of stairs every day at the office. I arrive every morning smugly congratulating myself for being a superior human being for not taking the escalator. Oh and I also happen to live in a third-floor walk-up apartment. Nothing could have prepared me more for headlines this morning that how well you do on a new stair test could determine your risk of dying.

差不多去年這個時候，我下定決心要在新的一年每天都在辦公室多爬一層樓梯。每天早晨上班的時候，我都會因爲沒有坐電梯而感到自豪。而且，我正好住在一間三層公寓裏（沒有電梯）。因此，我就想出了這一標題：你在樓梯測試中的表現將決定你的死亡風險。

Those headlines are riffing off a new study presented at a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Milan this week. Spanish researchers found that high performers on an exercise test had a lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, or other causes, and the level of fitness required for those life-extending benefits turns out to be about the same as quickly climbing four flights of stairs without stopping.

本週，米蘭舉行的歐洲心臟病學會會議上發表了一項新研究，這些標題正來源於此。西班牙的研究人員發現：運動測試中得分高者因患心臟病、癌症或其他疾病的死亡風險更低，而享受壽命延長福利的健康水準是什麼？一口氣快速爬四層樓！

Researchers recruited more than 12,000 people who had been diagnosed with or who were thought to have coronary artery disease, aka damage or disease in the arteries that carry blood to the heart. The study participants walked or ran on a treadmill during a test called exercise echocardiography to measure how their hearts responded to physical exertion.

研究員招募了12000多名被診斷出或被認爲患有冠狀動脈疾病的受試者（即動脈血管損傷或疾病）。在一項名爲超聲心動圖的測試中，受試者在跑步機上走路或跑步，以測量其心臟對體力消耗的反應。

Their fitness levels were calculated in what's called METs, or metabolic equivalents. People in the study who could handle 10 METs of treadmill activity were deemed to be high performers on the test-or to have good "functional capacity."

研究員通過代謝當量（METs）計算受試者的健康水平。研究中，跑步機運動能達到10 METs的受試者被視作得分高者--或者擁有較好的"功能容量"。

Compared to people with poor functional capacity, the high performers were less likely to die from cancer, heart disease, or other causes over the following five years or so. For every additional MET achieved in the test, their risk of dying from those causes decreased by 9%, 9%, and 4%, respectively.

研究接下來的5年內，與功能容量較低的人相比，得分較高者死於癌症、心臟病或其它疾病的可能性較低。測試中代謝當量每增加一分，受試者死於癌症、心臟病或其它疾病的可能性就分別降低9%、9%和4%。

Without access to a fancy sci-fi treadmill setup, how can us normals calculate our METs? That's where the stairs come in. "There are much cheaper ways to estimate if you could achieve 10 METs on the treadmill test," study author Jesús Peteiro, PhD, a cardiologist at University Hospital A Coru?a in Spain, said in a statement. "If you can walk very fast up three floors of stairs without stopping, or fast up four floors without stopping, you have good functional capacity. If not, it's a good indication that you need more exercise." Try to do those four floors in under a minute, Dr. Peteiro told TODAY.

普通人沒有高檔的科技跑步機裝備，又該如何計算代謝當量呢？所以樓梯就登場啦！"不花錢就可以預估你是否能在跑步機測試中取得10 METs，"西班牙拉科魯尼亞大學醫院的心臟病專家Jesús Peteiro博士在一份聲明中說道。"如果你能一口氣快爬三層或四層樓梯，那你的功能容量就處於較高水平。如果不能，那就表明你需要多加鍛鍊了。"最好在一分鐘內爬完四層樓，Peteiro博士對TODAY雜誌說道。