研究发现椰子油可帮助对抗儿童肺炎

昨天是11月12日，在众人还沉浸在双十一的购物狂潮中时，一个并不为人所熟知的特殊日子就在昨天悄然进行——世界肺炎日。

肺炎，一个“被遗忘的杀手”，正在威胁着世界范围内所有儿童的生命健康。我国卫生部将肺炎列入小儿四大防治疾病，与营养性缺铁性贫血、维生素D缺乏性佝偻病、婴幼儿腹泻列并在一起，当成威胁儿童健康的大敌。那么小儿肺炎可以预防吗？

研究发现，椰子油可帮助对抗儿童肺炎

By Serena Gordon

HealthDay记者

THURSDAY, Oct. 30 (HealthDay News) --Virgin coconut oil, added toantibiotic therapy, may help relieve the symptomsof community-acquiredpneumonia in kids faster than antibiotic therapy alone, anew study finds.

星期四，10月30日（HealthDay新闻）—— 一项新的研究发现，添加了初榨椰子油的抗生素治疗可能有助于治疗患有肺炎的孩子，比单纯的抗生素治疗疗效更快。

Children who received coconut oiltherapy along with antibioticshad fewer crackles (a wheezing sound in thelungs), a shorter time with anelevated respiratory rate and fever, betteroxygen saturation in the blood, andshorter hospital stays, according to thestudy.

根据这项研究：用添加了椰子油的抗生素治疗后，孩子肺部的杂音减少了，呼吸速度加快，发烧时间缩短，血液中的氧饱和度更佳，住院时间缩减。

'Earlier normaliz ation of respiratoryrate and resolution ofcrackles could also mean possible earlier discharge,'said the study'slead author, Dr. Gilda Sapphire Erguiza, a pediatricpulmonologist at thePhilippine Children's Medical Center in Quezon City.

这项研究的首席作者菲律宾奎松市儿童医院小儿呼吸科的Gilda Sapphire Erguiza博士说：“早期的呼吸频率和杂音的正常化意味着孩子可以提前出院。”

The study's findings were due to bepresented Wednesday at theAmerican College of Chest Physicians meeting inPhiladelphia.

这项结果将于本周三在费城提交美国的胸科医师学会。

Community-acquired pneumonia is an infectionof the lungs that iscontracted outside a hospital setting. It is a seriousinfection in childrenand affects as many as 34 to 40 youngsters per 1,000children in Europe andNorth America, according to the American Academy ofFamily Physicians (AAFP).Lower respiratory infections are one of the leadingcauses of childhoodmortality in developing countries, according to the AAFP.

社区获得性肺炎是在医院以外获得的传染性肺部感染，在欧洲和北美的儿童中普遍传播，每1000名儿童或青少年就有34-40名儿童感染。根据美国家庭医师学会（AAFP）的报告，下呼吸道感染时发展中国家儿童死亡的主要原因之一。

The current study included 40 childrenbetween the ages of 3months and 5 years old. All had community-acquiredpneumonia and were beingtreated intravenously with the antibiotic ampicillin.

当前的研究是针对40名3个月到5岁的患有社区获得性肺炎的儿童，他们正在接受静脉用抗生素氨苄青霉素的治疗。

Half of the group was randomized toalso receive oral virgincoconut oil in a daily dose of 2 milliliters per everykilogram of weight. Theoil was given for three days in a row.

随机抽取一半的儿童，持续三天给他们口服与体重相匹配的初榨椰子油。

The researchers found that therespiratory rate normalized in 32.6hours for the virgin coconut oil groupversus 48.2 hours for the control group,according to the study. After threedays, patients in the control group weremore likely to still have crackles thanthose in the coconut oil group -- 60percent of the controls still had cracklescompared to 25 percent of thecoconut oil group.

研究人员发现，呼吸频率的正常化时长为48.2小时，而未服用椰子油的儿童仅为32.6小时。三天后，肺部的杂音也有了明显的改善，仅有25%的儿童肺部还有轻微杂音，而未服用椰子油的儿童有杂音的比例达到60%。

Those in the coconut oil group also hadfevers for a shorter time,had normal oxygen saturation faster, and had shorterhospital stays, butErguiza said these findings did not reach statisticalsignificance.

同时服用椰子油的儿童的发烧时间也变短，血氧饱和度趋于正常，有效地缩短了住院时间。然而Erguiza说这还不是最为精确的统计。

How might the coconut oil work to easepneumonia? Erguizahypothesized that it may boost ampicillin's effectivenessbecause it containslauric acid, which is known to have antimicrobialproperties, she said.

椰子油到底是如何影响肺部的炎症？Erguiza推测椰子油能提高搞氨苄青霉素的活性，因为它含有众所周知具有抗菌性的月桂酸。

One expert said the findings aren'tdefinitive, however.

然而，一个专家的发现和论证还不是最终的结论。

'This is a very interesting but smallstudy. The jury's stillout as to whether there's a real benefit here,' said Dr.Daniel Rauch,director of the pediatric hospitalist program at New YorkUniversity Langone MedicalCenter.

纽约大学附属儿童医院Langone医疗中心的主任Daniel Rauch博士说：“这是一个规模很小但很有意思的研究。陪审团的成员还在鉴定是否椰子油真的能够帮助对抗儿童肺炎。”

Rauch said he wouldn't discourage aparent from trying thistreatment, as long as they were still using antibiotics,but he said it'simportant that children aren't forced to take virgin coconutoil, or any otheroil for that matter. The concern, he said, is that if a childis forced toingest something like coconut oil, and doesn't really don't wantto, he or shemay end up choking on it and aspirating the oil into the lungs,which is verydangerous.

他说：“我不会阻止父母尝试这种治疗方法，只要他们仍然使用抗生素就可以。最重要的是，儿童不是被迫服用初榨椰子油或者任何与此有关的其他油。如果儿童不是自愿服用，而是强行喂服，那么孩子可能引起窒息和把油吸到肺部，这是非常危险的。”

In an effort to prevent some pneumoniasfrom occurring in thefirst place, the Pneumococcal Awareness Council of Expertsinitiated a'Global Call to Action' on Oct. 24 to urge greater access tothepneumococcal vaccine in poor countries. According to the U.S. CentersforDisease Control and Prevention's journal, Morbidity and MortalityWeeklyReport, the pneumococcal vaccine has been introduced in 26countriesworldwide, though none are low-income countries.

为了更好的预防肺炎，引发人们对肺炎球菌的关注，肺炎球菌的专家们于10月24日在一些贫穷国家发起了题为《呼吁全球行动》的获取肺炎球菌疫苗的活动。根据美国疾病控制和预防的日记、周报中心的发病率和死亡率的记录，肺炎球菌疫苗已在全球包括低收入国家的26个国家推出。

（本文整理自网络，为科普性文章）