別亂吃綠茶提取物

A few weeks ago, a patient came to me complaining of nausea, muscle weakness and fatigue. Her urine was tea-colored despite drinking loads of water. A middle-aged woman, she seemed worried she had cancer or some deadly disease.
幾周之前，一位病人向我訴說她噁心、肌肉無力以及疲勞的症狀。雖然她喝了很多水，但她的尿液依然呈茶色。這名中年女性似乎擔心自己患了癌症或其他致命疾病。

Her lab tests revealed significant liver dysfunction. But her symptoms were not due to liver cancer, hepatitis or other disease. It turned out she had liver toxicity from a green tea supplement that she'd heard was a "natural" way to lose weight.
化驗顯示她的肝功能明顯異常。但她的症狀並非因爲肝癌、肝炎或其他疾病。原來她是因爲一種綠茶補充劑而導致肝中毒，她曾聽說綠茶補充劑是一種“天然的”減肥方式。

When she stopped taking the supplement at my suggestion, her liver tests gradually normalized and she felt better over the course of a few weeks.
在她按照我的建議停止服用這種補充劑之後，她的肝功能檢測逐漸恢復正常，而且幾周之後，她感覺好多了。

I've seen the green tea issue in patients before and often witness the real-life pitfalls of eschewing traditional medicine, science and facts in favor of supplements, herbs and cleanses in the name of "natural" healing.
我以前也見過病人因綠茶而患病，而且經常見到現實生活中的陷阱，有人以“自然”療愈的名義而選擇補充劑、藥草和清洗劑，卻迴避了傳統醫學、科學和事實。

In an effort to be healthy, patients can easily become ensnared in the potential dangers of alternative medicine or homeopathy.
爲了保持健康，病人很容易陷入替代療法或順勢療法的潛在危險中。

Let's be clear: Nature has a lot to offer patients. But nature isn't always so well-intended.
我們要明白一點：自然界爲病人提供了很多（有益的事物）。但自然界並非總是善意的。

An important key to health is using nature appropriately.
保持健康的重要一點就是合理利用自然。

And in the case of my patient, she was able to lose weight when we made a clear plan to alter her basic human behaviors.
以我的病人爲例，我們制定了一個清晰的計劃，改變她日常的行爲習慣來幫助她減肥。

Before she started taking the green tea extract, she was skipping breakfast, drinking the equivalent of two Venti coffees before noon, eating takeout meals for lunch, washing down her late-night dinner with two glasses of wine, sleeping restlessly, and spending too much time sitting and indoors.
在她開始喝綠茶提取物之前，她不吃早餐，中午之前喝兩大杯咖啡，午餐吃外賣，夜裏很晚才吃晚餐，而且還會喝兩杯葡萄酒，睡得不安穩，而且多數時間在室內坐着。

Green tea extract was never going to be the quick fix that she - and other patients I have seen - had hoped. It may be attractive as a natural cure for extra body fat, but this promise has not been shown in any studies, according to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health at the National Institutes of Health.
綠茶提取物永遠不會成爲她和我見過的其他病人所希望的那種速效良藥。美國國立衛生研究院國家補充與綜合健康中心表示，作爲一種減掉體內多餘脂肪的天然療法，綠茶提取物也許很有吸引力，但這一療法並未在任何研究中得到證實。