When we think about a pill that helps an overweight person take off the pounds, we usually think of an appetite suppressant. But suppressing your appetite will only help you lose weight if the reason you eat is because you are hungry. Some people eat because they are depressed rather than because they're hungry. When these people want to lose weight, doctors may prescribe, not traditional diet pills, but antidepressants.
谈到一种能帮助超重者减肥的药物，我们通常会想起食欲抑制剂。你会因为饥饿而吃饭，只有在这时抑制食欲才能帮你减轻体重。有些人吃东西是因为他们患有抑郁症，而不是因为他们感到饥饿。当这些人想要减肥时，医生会为他们开抗抑郁药，而不是传统的减肥药。
These antidepressants have helped many overweight people stop craving high-calorie carbohydrates. Depressed people often crave carbohydrates because eating carbohydrate-rich food lifts their mood. As a side effect, they gain weight. Though scientists are not exactly sure how carbohydrate intake influences mood, they do know that it has to do with the chemical messengers, called neurotransmitters, that allow two areas of the brain to communicate: the area responsible for appetite and the area responsible for mood.
这些抗抑郁药能够帮助超重者抵制贪吃高热量碳水化合物的行为。患有抑郁症的人往往会贪吃糖类食物，因为含糖量高的食物可以提升他们的情绪。但副作用会导致体重上升。尽管科学家们不清楚摄入碳水化合物会如何影响情绪，不过可以肯定这与一种叫做“神经递质”的化学信使有关，这种物质能够在大脑负责食欲和负责情绪的区域之间传递信息。
More specifically, an intake of carbohydrates increases the levels of the neurotransmitter responsible for mood, called serotonin. Though only a small percentage of the brain's neurotransmitters are made up of serotonin, if this small amount is even minutely tinkered with, a patient can experience fairly drastic mood shifts.
更具体地说，摄入碳水化合物会使大脑中负责情绪的神经递质——血清素的含量增多。虽然大脑中只有一小部分的神经递质是由血清素组成，但如果血清素每分钟都得到少量补充，病人还是会感受到剧烈的情绪变化。
A patient taking antidepressants may stop craving carbohydrates because these drugs function like carbohydrates. They alter the serotonin that communicates messages between the mood and appetite centers of the brain. Once an antidepressant drug begins to work, the abnormal craving for carbohydrates is interrupted and the patient can start losing weight.
服用抗抑郁药物的病人可能不会再贪食，因为这些药物的功能和碳水化合物一样。它们能控制血清素的变化，从而影响大脑中负责情绪和食欲区域之间的信息传递。一旦抗抑郁药物开始起作用，就会切断病人对糖类食物的异常渴望，于是就开始减肥。
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