Did you know that Christmas shopping is even worse for ourhealth than we previously thought?

    你知道嗎？圣誕節血拼對健康有害，而且危害要比你想象的還要嚴重。

    Perhaps it's the added stress this year - and the thought ofour credit cards being refused at the tills - but, according to aninternet retail survey, the incidence of hypertension during thefestive shopping season is on the up.

    一家購物網站的調查研究表明，也許是今年人們的壓力增加了，又或許是人們提前意識到自己的信用卡會刷爆，在節日血拼時期引發高血壓的幾率大大提升了。

    Christmas shopping increased blood pressure to dangerous levels in 50 per cent of shoppers. This can lead to hypertension, which can increase the risk of heart disease, stroke and kidney problems. Even low levels of hypertension are linked with migraines, panic attacks and osteoporosis. Heart rates increased by an average of 10 per cent during Christmas shopping.

    圣誕購物會令50%的購物者的血壓升高到一個危險閾值，并傷害腎臟，也增加了心臟病發作和中風的危險。即便血壓升高得不多，也容易引發偏頭痛、恐慌癥以及骨質疏松癥，而圣誕購物者的心跳平均加速10%.

    In the study of 16 men and 16 women, men had the worst spikes in heart rate during a 90-minute spree.

    研究者讓16名男性和16名女性在一個半小時里購物，結果男人的心跳變化最糟糕。

    Samuel Thompson, 30:" I HAD to buy five items and had an hour and a half to buy them. No sweat--or so I thought."

    30歲的薩繆爾·湯普森說："我要在規定的一個半小時內買五樣東西。我覺得這毫無樂趣可言。"

    "Normally, I know exactly what I want to get and do it as quick as possible. But having to make on-the-spot decisions, like we did in the test, makes it more stressful."

    "我通常都知道自己想買什么，而且買了就走。但這次實驗要求你當場做出決定，就像是在考試，這就很有壓力了。"

    "Lack of time and the crowds were the biggest pressure points. I got frustrated by other people slowing me down by stopping to chat in the street. And I could feel myself sweating in queues. Everything took longer than planned."

    "時間緊迫、擁擠不堪是造成壓力的最大所在。我對有人站在路上聊天而擋住了去路的事情很惱火。排隊等待的時候我能覺出自己在出汗。完成每件事都比預計的時間長。"

    Dr Turner's verdict:" Sam's heart rate was good at the start but it had almost doubled by the end. Combined with his hiked systolic blood pressure--up by nearly 15 per cent--it could put him in line for stroke. Systolic blood pressure relates to the pumping out of blood by the heart."

    特納醫生的結論："薩繆爾的心跳開始時還正常，但購物結束時心跳速度加快一倍。他的舒張壓升高了15%,這是心臟泵出血液時的壓力，受到這個壓力時，心跳數字最容易發生變化。"

    Men suffer twice as much as women, apparently, and are,therefore, in greater danger of dying on the High Street in thecoming weeks.

    很顯然，男性所遭受的沖擊將會是女性的兩倍，因此在幾個星期后，他們逛街時將面臨的死亡威脅也就更多。

    Remember, a husband is for life and not just for Christmas.

    一定要記住，老公是一輩子的，而不是僅僅是圣誕節的。