An Interest in Our Guts Sparked by an Illness
If Giulia Enders had not contracted a mysterious illness that left her covered with sores, she might never have thought much about her digestive tract. She might never have enrolled in medical school, and she almost certainly would not have written a best-selling book about digestion.
姬莉亞．安德斯若不是得了怪病，讓她全身疼痛，她也許永遠不會認真去想她的消化道。她也許不會進入醫學院，也幾乎肯定不會寫出一本有關消化的暢銷書。
Back in 2007, after a series of mostly ineffective treatments prescribed by doctors, Ms. Enders, then 17, decided to take matters into her own hands. Convinced the illness was associated with her intestines, she pored over gastroenterological research, consumed probiotic bacterial cultures and tried out mineral supplements.
回到2007年，在好幾位醫師開了一連串多半無效的治療處方後，當時17歲的安德斯決定自己處理。確信這種病與她的腸道有關後，她用心做有關消化系統的研究，吃益生菌並嘗試各種礦物質補充品。
The experiments worked, leaving her with healthy skin and an interest in her intestines.
這些實驗有效，讓她擁有健康的皮膚，而且對她的腸道產生了興趣。
“I experienced with my own body that knowledge is power,” she writes in “Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ,” which has sold almost 1.5 million copies in Germany.
她在「消化道：我們身體最被低估的器官的內幕報導」一書中寫到：「我用自己的身體體驗到了知識就是力量。」這本書在德國銷售近150萬本。
During a recent interview, Ms. Enders, now 25, described with characteristic enthusiasm the first stomach operation she saw in person. “The whole body moves like this or like that, but the intestines move in entirely a different way,” she said. “It’s incredibly harmonious!”
在最近的訪談中，25歲的安德斯以她特有的熱情描述她親眼看到的第一個胃部手術。「整個身體這樣運動或那樣運動，但腸道運動的方式完全不同，非常和諧。」
Ms. Enders’s wonder at the ways of the gut is matched only by her incredulity at the limited public knowledge on the subject. During her first years in medical school, for example, that it is easier to burp lying on your left side because of the position at which the esophagus connects to the stomach. “Why doesn’t everybody know this?”
安德斯對腸道的運動方式大感驚奇，同樣也對一般大眾這方面的知識如此貧乏深感疑惑。舉例而言，她在醫學院的頭幾年學到，左側臥容易打嗝，因為這個姿勢讓食道與胃相連。「為什麼不是每個人都知道這一點呢？」
In 2012, she heard about a student event space in Freiburg that was hosting a “science slam,” an open-mike event where young researchers give presentations, and decided to prepare a short lecture on digestion.
2012年，她聽說佛萊堡有一個學生活動空間，正在主辦「科學擂台」，一種現場開放民眾上台參與的活動，讓年輕的研究人員上台報告，她決定準備一篇有關消化的短演講。
Onstage, Ms. Enders was bouncy and jocular, as a video of the event shows. She speaks rapidly, describing the components of the digestive system and lamenting its poor reputation. “It’s really too bad, because the intestines are totally charming,” she says.
活動的錄影顯示，台上的安德斯活潑有趣。她說得很快，描述消化系統的各個組成分子，感嘆它的壞名聲。她說：「太可惜了，因為腸道真迷人。」
The crowd was smitten. Ms. Enders won the competition and went on to participate in two more science slams. Videos of her presentations attracted attention online, and a literary agent contacted her about writing a book.
群眾聽得入迷。安德斯贏得了比賽，並繼續參加兩個科學擂台。記錄她報告的影片在網路上受到注意，一家出版經紀公司找她談出書。
Fans have praised Ms. Enders for translating abstruse gastroenterological research into breezy, entertaining prose. In her book, she catalogs the myriad operations that our guts perform every day, like the cleaning mechanism that kicks in a few hours after we eat and keeps the small intestine remarkably tidy. This “little housekeeper,” as she calls it, turns out to be the real source of the grumbling that most attribute to the stomach and mistake as a sign of hunger.
書迷稱讚安德斯把深奧的消化系統研究轉化為讀起來輕鬆愉快、生動有趣的散文。在她的書中，她把我們的消化道每天進行的無數工作編成目錄，像是我們進食幾小時後啟動的清潔機制，把小腸維持得非常整潔。她稱之為「小管家」的機制，竟是肚子咕咕叫的真正來源，大多數人以為是胃發出的聲音，而且誤以為是肚子餓了的徵候。
Then there is the growing body of research indicating that our intestines may have a far greater influence on our feelings, decisions and behavior than previously realized. We still know very little about this “gut brain,” as Ms. Enders refers to it.
之後有愈來愈多的研究指出，我們的消化道也許對我們的感覺、決定和行為的影響甚大，遠超過我們之前的理解。對於安德斯所稱的「消化腦」，我們所知仍然不多。
These essential but little-known features of our guts have riveted Germans, with some commentators invoking Freud to explain Germans’ fascination with their bowels.
我們消化道這些重要、但鮮為人知的特色讓德國人著迷，一些評論家引用佛洛伊德理論來解釋德國人對他們腸子的迷戀。
Ms. Enders dismisses such talk, noting that the book has also topped best-seller lists in Finland, the Netherlands and elsewhere. She suggests that its appeal lies in its frank treatment of topics usually left undiscussed.
安德斯駁斥這種論點，特別指出，這本書也登上芬蘭、荷蘭和其他地方的暢銷書榜首。她認為這本書的吸引力在於它坦然對待通常很少討論的主題。」
“Shame always disappears when you really understand something,” she said.
她說：「當你真正了解某樣東西時，就不會覺得難為情了。」
（田思怡譯）
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