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Should I do a cleanse? I hear people asking this question a lot.
“我应该做一次(身体)清洗吗？”我经常听到有人问这个问题。
If you're hoping it will remove toxins from your body, that's just not going to happen.
如果你希望它能清除你体内的毒素，那是不可能的。
Detoxes and cleanses are very popular.They come in many forms, from charcoal-infused lemonades to detox teas, and they often have a hefty price tag.
排毒和身体清洗很受欢迎，它们有很多种形式，从掺炭的柠檬水到排毒茶，而且通常价格不菲。
The idea of cleansing isn't anything new -- it's been around for thousands of years.
“清洗”这一概念已经是老生常谈了——它已经延存了数千年。
For centuries, medicine and religion were deeply intertwined, and there was a lot of focus on ridding the body of impurities and sickness related to bad or imbalanced humors.
几个世纪以来，医学和宗教都是紧密联系在一起的，人们都很关注去除身体中与不良或不平衡体液有关的杂质和疾病。
Bloodletting, purging, fasting -- they were all well-regarded treatments.
放血、净化、禁食——这些都是备受推崇的治疗方法。
Today, the wellness industry has picked up on our desire to rid ourselves of things.
如今，健康产业已经盯上了我们想要摆脱一些东西的欲望。
They've taken the word "detox," the medical treatment for people with drug and alcohol addictions, and used it to apply to market cleanses.
他们把“排毒”这个词用于对吸毒和酗酒成瘾的人进行的医疗治疗，并将它用于市场清洗。
They make it sound like pouring liquid cleaner down plumbing, getting rid of all the dirty stuff.
听起来就像往水管里倒液体清洁剂，清除所有的脏东西。
But the reason that sounds right to us is it's a rooted in a lack of understanding of how our liver works.
但之所以我们听不出什么问题，根源在于缺乏对肝脏工作原理的了解。
The liver is located in our upper right abdomen. It's somewhere around half the size of a football -- an American football -- and weighs three pounds.
我们的肝脏在右上腹部，它大约是美式足球的一半大小，重3磅。
It does many, many jobs that keep our bodies running, from assisting the immune system, to creating proteins for blood clotting, to sending out the cholesterol we need to produce hormones.
它能做很多很多让我们身体运转的工作，从协助免疫系统，到制造凝血蛋白质，再到释放我们产生激素所需要的胆固醇。
The liver is also a key organ for dealing with harmful substances. You can think of it almost like a factory.
肝脏也是处理有害物质的关键器官，你可以把它想象成一个工厂。
It takes nutrients from substances that we consume, food, drinks, medicines, breaks them down
它从我们消耗的物质中获取营养，如食物、饮料、药物，并将它们进行分解，
so they can either be packaged in a way that's usable -- like cholesterol and protein, for instance -- or removed as waste in the bile or via the kidneys, usually in the form of urine.
这样它们就可以被包装成有用的物质——例如胆固醇和蛋白质——或作为废物通过胆汁或肾脏排出，通常以尿液的形式。
Let's look at what happens when the liver encounters some specific substances.
我们来看看当肝脏遇到一些特定物质时会发生什么。
What about alcohol? That's a substance that's fine in smaller, moderate amounts but becomes poisonous in excess.
酒精呢？这种物质在小的、适量的情况下是不会出问题的，但如果过量就会有毒。
When we drink, alcohol passes through our liver, and the liver breaks it down in three steps.
当我们喝酒时，酒精会通过我们的肝脏，肝脏会分三步对它进行分解。
First, enzymes convert the alcohol to acetaldehyde, a substance that can damage cells over time.
首先，酶将酒精转化为乙醛，乙醛会随着时间的推移而损害细胞。
But acetaldehyde is quickly converted into acetate, a much more stable intermediate, before it breaks down into carbon dioxide and water. These are components our body can handle.
而乙醛在分解为二氧化碳和水之前会很快转化为醋酸盐，这是一种更稳定的中间体。这些都是我们的身体可以处理的。
Now let's look at a popular cleanse -- cayenne, pepper, lemon juice drink, to help your liver flush toxins.
下面我们来看看一种比较流行的排毒方法——辣椒、胡椒、柠檬汁饮料，来帮助肝脏排出毒素。
You drink it, it gets digested, nutrients get absorbed in the blood and arrive at the liver.
你喝了它，它被消化，营养物质被血液吸收并到达肝脏。
The liver processes these nutrients the same way it processes everything else.
肝脏处理这些营养物质的方式和处理其他所有东西的方式一样。
It packages whatever's useful that came from the lemon and the pepper and disseminates it throughout the body. Whatever it can't use becomes waste.
它将柠檬和胡椒中有用的成分打包，并将其传播到全身。而不能利用的东西就会变成废物。
There's nothing particularly magical about mixing cayenne and lemon.
把辣椒和柠檬混在一起没有什么特别神奇的。
Doing a cleanse doesn't "clean the pipes," and it doesn't make your liver work any better or faster.
排毒并不会“清理管道”，也不会让你的肝脏工作得更好更快。
At best, you might lose a few pounds on a cleanse, because you aren't eating much.
最好的情况是，你可能会通过排毒减掉几磅称，因为你不会吃很多。
At worst, you could go into starvation mode.
而最坏的情况是，你可能会进入饥饿状态。
You could throw off your electrolyte balance, not to mention disrupt your intestinal flora and bowel function.
你可能会失去电解质平衡，更不用说扰乱肠道菌群和肠道功能了。
Clearly, having a healthy liver is extremely important.
显然，拥有一个健康的肝脏是极其重要的。
The best things you can do: don't smoke, eat a balanced diet, exercise regularly and get lots of sleep, but there are some more liver specific things to do.
你能做的最好的就是：不吸烟、饮食均衡、经常锻炼、保证充足的睡眠，以及一些更具体的事情。
Don't consume too much alcohol, as it can cause a variety of problems over time, from fatty liver disease to cirrhosis of the liver, to liver cancer.
不要喝太多的酒，因为时间一久它就会引起各种各样的问题，从脂肪肝到肝硬化，再到肝癌。
Read the warning labels on medications as some can damage your liver when you don't take them as directed.
要注意阅读药物上的警告标签，因为有些药物如果不按指示服用会损害肝脏。
You've probably heard about hepatitis, which can be caused by a viral infection of the liver that can be very serious. Get the vaccine for hepatitis B, if you haven't already.
你可能听说过肝炎，它是由肝脏的病毒感染引起的，可能会非常严重。如果你还没有接种乙肝疫苗，那就去接种吧。
And if you're an adult who hasn't been screened for hepatitis C, consider talking to your doctor about testing options, as too many people don't realize they have it.
如果你是一个没有接受过丙型肝炎筛查的成年人，那么要考虑和你的医生谈谈检查的选择，因为有很多人都没有意识到自己患有丙型肝炎。
Finally, be careful with supplements and herbs, particularly anything marketed as bodybuilding or a weight loss supplement, as these are not nearly as well-regulated as you would think.
最后，要注意保健品和药草，特别是那些被宣传为健身或减肥的保健品，因为它们并没有你想象的那么规范。
20 percent of liver injury due to medication in the United States is actually caused by these kinds of supplements. So talk to your doctor before you start them.
在美国，由药物引起的20%的肝损伤实际上都是由那些增补药物引起的，所以在开始治疗之前要先和你的医生谈谈。
So many things are sold to us as self-care, and cleanses are no exception, but I believe the best self-care is just learning more about our bodies.
很多东西都是以自我护理为由卖给我们的，清洗产品也不例外，但我相信最好的自我护理就是更多地了解自己的身体。
That way, we can tune out all the noise and make informed decisions on what we really need.
这样我们就可以排除所有的杂音，对我们真正需要的东西做出明智的选择。
