每日英語跟讀 Ep.K116: Lavender's Soothing ScentCould Be More Than Just Folk Medicine
Lavender bath bombs; lavender candles; deodorizing lavender sachets for your shoes, car or underwear drawer; lavender diffusers; lavender essential oils; even lavender chill pills for humans and dogs. And from Pinterest: 370 recipes for lavender desserts.
薰衣草泡澡球；薰衣草蠟燭；為你的鞋子、汽車或內衣褲抽屜除臭的薰衣草香囊；薰衣草擴香瓶；薰衣草精油；甚至是能讓人類和狗冷靜下來的薰衣草藥丸。還有來自社群網站Pinterest的點子：370種薰衣草甜點食譜。
Take a deep breath. Release.
深吸一口氣。吐氣。
People like lavender. We have been using this violet-capped herb since at least medieval times. It smells nice. But Google “lavender” and results hint at perhaps the real fuel for our obsession: “tranquility,” “calm,” “relaxation,” “soothing” and “serenity.” Lavender has purported healing powers for reducing stress and anxiety. But are these effects more than just folk medicine?
人們喜歡薰衣草。至少從中世紀以來，我們一直在使用這種頂端藍紫色的藥草。它很好聞。不過，上谷歌搜尋「薰衣草」，結果也許暗示著我們迷戀薰衣草的真正原因：「寧靜」、「鎮定」、「放鬆」、「舒緩」和「平靜」。相傳薰衣草有療癒力，能減輕緊張和焦慮。這些效果並不只是民俗療法？
Yes, said Hideki Kashiwadani, a physiologist and neuroscientist at Kagoshima University in Japan — at least in mice.
沒錯，日本鹿兒島大學的生理學家兼神經科學家柏谷英樹這麼說——至少在老鼠身上是如此。
“Many people take the effects of ‘odor’ with a grain of salt,” he said in an email. “But among the stories, some are true based on science.”
柏谷在電子郵件中說：「許多人對『氣味』的效果持保留態度，不過在各種消息中，有些真的有科學根據。」
In a study published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, he and his colleagues found that sniffing linalool, an alcohol component of lavender odor, was kind of like popping a Valium. It worked on the same parts of a mouse’s brain, but without all the dizzying side effects. And it did not target parts of the brain directly from the bloodstream, as was thought. Relief from anxiety could be triggered just by inhaling through a healthy nose.
在10月23日發表於「行為神經科學前沿」期刊上的研究報告中，柏谷與同事發現，嗅聞芳樟醇（薰衣草氣味中的酒精成分）有點像服用煩寧錠。芳樟醇在老鼠腦部中起作用的區域跟煩寧錠一樣，卻全無令人頭暈的副作用。而且芳樟醇並不像人們先前以為的、直接從血液針對部分腦部起作用，焦慮緩解可能僅靠健康的鼻子吸入芳樟醇氣味即觸發。
Their findings add to a growing body of research demonstrating anxiety-reducing qualities of lavender odors and suggest a new mechanism for how they work in the body. Kashiwadani believes this new insight is a key step in developing lavender-derived compounds like linalool for clinical use in humans.
他們的發現與愈來愈多的其他研究結果一樣，顯示薰衣草氣味能減輕焦慮，另外還提出薰衣草氣味在體內發揮作用的新機制。柏谷認為，就研發源自薰衣草的化合物（如芳樟醇）以供人體臨床應用而言，這一新見解是關鍵性的一步。
Kashiwadani and his colleagues became interested in learning how linalool might work for anti-anxiety while testing its effects on pain relief in mice. In this earlier study, they noticed that the presence of linalool seemed to calm mice.
柏谷與同事在測試芳樟醇緩解老鼠疼痛的效果時，開始對芳樟醇如何抗焦慮產生了興趣。在這個先前所做的緩解老鼠疼痛的研究中，他們注意到芳樟醇的存在似乎使老鼠平靜。
In this study, they exposed mice to linalool vapor, wafting from filter paper inside a specially made chamber to see if the odor triggered relaxation. Mice on linalool were more open to exploring, indicating they were less anxious than normal mice. And they did notbehave like they were drunk, as mice on benzodiazepines, a drug used to treat anxiety, or injected with linalool did.
而在現今這個抗焦慮的研究中，他們將小鼠暴露在芳樟醇蒸氣中，蒸氣從一個特製箱子裡的濾紙飄出，看氣味能否引發放鬆。吸入芳樟醇的老鼠更願意探索四周，顯示牠們不若一般老鼠焦慮。而且牠們的行為不像服用抗焦慮藥物苯二氮平類或注射芳樟醇的老鼠那樣，像是喝醉了。
But the linalool did not work when they blocked the mice’s ability to smell, or when they gave the mice a drug that blocks certain receptors in the brain. This suggested that to work, linalool tickled odor-sensitive neurons in the nose that send signals to just the right spots in the brain — the same ones triggered by Valium.
但當研究人員阻斷老鼠的嗅覺能力，或給老鼠一種阻斷腦部某些受體的藥物時，芳樟醇就不起作用。這顯示，芳樟醇的作用方式是逗弄鼻子中對氣味敏感的神經元，再由神經元將信號發送到腦部正確位置，跟煩寧錠觸發的位置一模一樣。Source article: https://paper.udn.com/udnpaper/POH0067/333494/web/
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