熱情擁吻10秒 交換細菌8000萬

There is nothing as romantic as two lovers sharing a kiss。

戀人之間相互接吻是一件多麼美妙浪漫的事情啊。

But scientists have come up with an evolutionary explanation which perhaps threatens to kill the passion。

但是科學家們最近根據進化理論做的一項研究結果可能會讓接吻聽起來沒有那麼浪漫了。

Academics think that kissing helps partners share bacteria, shoring up their immune systems and enabling them to better fight disease。

科學家們發現接吻有助於雙方分享細菌，增強免疫力，並能夠幫助雙方更好地抵禦疾病。

As many as 80 million bacteria are transferred during a ten-second kiss, according to Dutch biologists。

荷蘭的生物學家稱，僅僅接吻10秒鐘就能傳播8000萬個細菌給對方。

Humans carry trillions of bacteria in the body, which together make up a ‘microbiota’ – a complex mix of bugs which play a crucial role in digesting food and warding off infections。

其實我們每個人體內都攜帶有數以萬計的細菌，這些細菌組合在一起就形成了“菌羣”，這些“菌羣”在消化系統和免疫系統中發揮着至關重要的作用。

Remco Kort, from the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research - or TNO - said his team set out to discover the evolutionary reason for kissing。

荷蘭應用科學研究組織的雷姆科·科爾特和他的團隊已經開始從進化論方面探索接吻的原因。

After testing 21 couples, they think kissing helps form a shared microbiota, a similar mix of bacteria living in the body。

在對21對情侶進行測試以後，科爾特他們發現接吻有助於雙方在各自體內形成一個共同的“菌羣”。

He said: ‘Intimate kissing involving full tongue contact and saliva exchange appears to be a courtship behaviour unique to humans and is common in over 90 per cent of known cultures。

他說：“包括舌頭接觸和唾液交換的親密接吻似乎是人類獨有的一種求愛行爲，接吻在目前所知的90%的文化中都很常見。”

‘Interestingly, the current explanations for the function of intimate kissing in humans include an important role for the microbiota present in the oral cavity, although to our knowledge, the exact effects of intimate kissing on the oral microbiota have never been studied。

“有趣的是，目前的研究發現人類的親密接吻對口腔中的微生物有重要作用，而就我們目前所知，還沒有人研究過接吻對口腔微生物羣的確切影響。”

‘We wanted to find out the extent to which partners share their oral microbiota, and it turns out, the more a couple kiss, the more similar they are.’

“因此，我們想研究情侶間口腔微生物羣的相似程度，事實證明，情侶間接吻越多，他們的菌羣越相似。”

The researchers, whose findings are published in the journal Microbiome, found that couples who share nine intimate kisses a day had a very similar microbiota, meaning they would be better prepared to deal with similar infections and digest similar food。

發表在《微生物》雜誌上的該項研究結果指出，每天熱吻9次的情侶間存在非常相似的微生物羣，這意味着他們能更好地應對相同感染、消化相同的食物等。

Scientists have long warned that modern obsession with hygiene and cleanliness has driven a boom in allergies and health problems。

科學家們一直警告稱，現代人的過度“潔癖”正是導致過敏等諸多健康問題的主要原因。

According to the ‘hygiene hypothesis’, increasing prevalence of allergies such as asthma are caused because we are not exposed to enough germs in our daily life。

根據“衛生假說”理論，現代人之所以哮喘等過敏疾病高發，都是因爲我們在日常生活中與細菌接觸不夠。

Professor Graham Rook, an immunologist at University College London, has gone so far as to say that picking food off the floor, buying a dog and regularly kissing your relatives are some of the best ways to ward off allergies。

倫敦大學的免疫學家格雷厄姆·魯克教授甚至表示，想要避免過敏，可以把掉到地上的食物撿起來照吃不誤、或者可以養狗、經常跟伴侶接吻等。

Speaking at Cheltenham Science Festival earlier this year, he advised that when a baby spits out its dummy, a mother should lick it clean and put it back in the infant’s mouth。

在今年年初舉行的切爾滕納姆科學節上，魯克教授還建議，當嬰兒吐出奶嘴後，母親應該舔乾淨並直接塞回嬰兒嘴裏。

He said the problem is that the modern body is at a ‘constant state of alert’ because it is not used to living with germs。

他稱因爲現代人的身體不適應和細菌共存，所以一直處於高度戒備狀態。

‘When the immune system is not needed it should get turned off completely,’ he said。

“當人體不需要免疫系統的時候，它就應該完全關閉。”

‘What happens these days is that often it is on a constant state of alert and it is not turned off completely。

“但現在，我們的身體經常處於戒備狀態，免疫系統從沒休息過。”

‘It will do something completely pointless like attacking grass pollen wafting past in the breeze, or attacking the neighbour’s cat when it happens to walk past, then you are going to have allergic problems.’

“因此，它就會做出一些毫無意義的防衛，比如攻擊風中的花粉，或者攻擊碰巧走過的鄰居家的貓，這樣就導致了過敏問題。”