Scientists may be closer to understanding the culprit behind the consumption of red wine causing headaches for some people, according to new research.

有些人一喝红酒就头疼，根据一项新的研究，科学家们也许更了解这背后的真相。

A flavonol naturally occurring in red wines may interfere with the body’s ability to metabolize alcohol, causing an accumulation of toxins that can lead to swift headaches, suggests the study published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports.

根据周一在《科学报告》上发表的一篇研究，一种在红酒中天然存在的物质-黄酮醇会干扰身体对酒精的代谢能力，导致酒精在体内累积并导致头痛。

flavonol ：黄铜醇

Quercetin, the flavonol, is a plant compound found in fruits and vegetables including grapes, berries, onions and broccoli.

Quercetin：槲皮素，也就是黄酮醇，是一种存在于水果和蔬菜（比如葡萄、浆果、洋葱和西兰花）中的植物化合物。

“When (quercetin) gets in your bloodstream, your body converts it to a different form called quercetin glucuronide,” said study coauthor Andrew Waterhouse, a wine chemist and professor emeritus in the department of viticulture and enology at the University of California, Davis, in a news release. “In that form, it blocks the metabolism of alcohol.” 

研究的共同作者，Andrew Waterhouse，加州大学戴维斯分校葡萄种植与葡萄酒学系的葡萄酒化学家兼荣誉教授在一篇新闻稿中表示：“当槲皮素进入到你的血液中时，你的身体会将其转化为一种不同的物质，即槲皮素葡萄糖醛酸。这种物质会阻止身体代谢酒精。”

Red wine has a tenfold higher amount of phenolic compounds, especially flavonoids, than white wine, which makes the beverage a “primary contender responsible” for headaches, the authors said.

红酒中的酚类化合物，特别是黄铜醇要比白葡萄酒高10倍，这使得红酒成为导致头痛的“头号选手”，作者表示。

Waterhouse and the other researchers aimed to uncover why headaches after imbibing just one or two glasses of red wine can even happen to people who don’t get headaches from other alcoholic beverages — so they studied how the flavonol may affect a genetic variant of an enzyme called ALDH2 that’s involved in the body’s metabolism of alcohol.

Waterhouse和其他研究者想要弄清楚为什么喝其他酒不会头痛的人在喝下一两杯红酒后也会头痛-因此他们研究了黄铜醇是如何影响ALDH2（一种酶的基因变异）的，而ALDH2参与了体内酒精的代谢。

Imbibe：吸收（养分、思想）、喝

Nearly 8% of the global population has a variant of the enzyme that isn’t particularly active, and the deficiency is highly prevalent among people of East Asian descent — affecting around 40% of this population. Having a dysfunctional ALDH2 variant has been associated with skin flushing, heart palpitations and headaches after drinking.

全球人口中有将近8%的人拥有酶变体，这种变体并不特别活跃，而东亚人后裔普遍缺乏这种酶的变体-有将近40%的人会受此影响。 ALDH2变体功能失调与饮酒后皮肤潮红、心悸以及头痛有关。

When people drink, the alcohol is broken down in the liver by the enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase, which turns it into the compound acetaldehyde — a “well-known toxin, irritant and inflammatory substance,” said lead study author Dr. Apramita Devi, a postdoctoral researcher in the department of viticulture and enology at UC Davis.

当人们饮酒时，酒精会在肝脏内被体内的乙醇脱氢酶分解，分解后的酒精会转变为乙醛-“鼎鼎有名的”毒素、刺激物和炎症物质，首席研究作者、加州大学戴维斯分校葡萄种植与葡萄酒学系的博士后研究员Apramita Devi博士表示。

enzyme alcohol dehydrogenase：乙醇脱氢酶

Acetaldehyde：乙醛

The presence of acetaldehyde in the body is supposed to be short-lived since the enzyme ALDH2 transforms it into acetate, which is less toxic.

由于ALDH2酶会将乙醛转化为醋酸酯，一种毒性相对较小的物质，因此乙醛在体内的停留时间并不长。

Acetate：醋酸酯

Using lab tests, the authors found that a derivative of quercetin — quercetin glucuronide — inhibited the enzyme variant. The interference, they hypothesized, would lead to a buildup of the toxin acetaldehyde — and headaches — in people who are more susceptible.

通过实验室测试，作者发现槲皮素的衍生物-槲皮素葡萄糖醛酸会对酶变体产生抑制作用。作者们假设，这种抑制可能会导致毒素（乙醛）堆积并导致易感人群出现头痛的现象。

What’s next in the study of red wine headaches

有关红酒导致头痛的后续研究

The authors plan to test their hypothesis in a small clinical trial of people who develop these headaches, by comparing red wines with high amounts of quercetin with those that have little.

作者们计划对饮用红酒后会头痛的人展开一个小型的临床测试以对假设进行验证。他们将在测试中对槲皮素含量高和槲皮素含量少的红酒进行对比。

To minimize headaches, you can also experiment and try wines made by a variety of producers and grape varieties since the “levels of compounds that may trigger headache in red wine vary substantially between different wines,” he added.

为了尽量避免头痛，你也可以尝试由不同制酒商和不同葡萄品种酿制的红酒，因为导致头痛的“化合物含量”在不同的红酒之间差别也很大，他补充表示。

Quercetin is produced by grapes in response to sunlight, Waterhouse said. “If you grow grapes with the clusters exposed, such as they do in the Napa Valley for their cabernets, you get much higher levels of quercetin. In some cases, it can be four to five times higher.”

槲皮素是葡萄在日照下所产生的，Waterhouse表示。“如果你种植的葡萄是暴露在日光下的，就像纳帕谷的赤霞珠一样，那么葡萄酒中槲皮素的含量就会更高。”

As a result, you may have better luck with cheaper red wines or with white wines, which have a lower flavonol content overall, according to the study.

因此，根据研究，价格更加低廉的红葡萄酒或者白葡萄酒可能会更好，因为黄铜醇的总体含量会更低。

原文来源：verywell

编辑：译锐君