SCIENTISTS in Canada have found that picking your NOSE and eating it could be good for your health.
加拿大科學家發(fā)現挖鼻孔并吃鼻屎有助于你的健康。

But did you know all sorts of bad habits can improve your well being? MATTHEW BARBOUR investigates.
但你知不知道，其實各種壞習慣都能改善健康狀況呢？馬修巴伯爾對此做了調研。

Gossiping: Spending 20 minutes chatting about other people’s news (and misfortunes) helps 96 percent of people squash feelings of stress, tension and anxiety for up to four hours straight, say US researchers at Rhode Island’s Brown University.
八卦：美國羅德島州布朗大學的研究員稱，花20分鐘聊聊別人的動態(tài)（和不幸）可以讓96%的人緩解壓力、緊張和焦慮情緒，療效長達4小時。

Women who spread positive gossip found their depression alleviated by up to 72 percent within three months.
研究人員發(fā)現，抱積極態(tài)度聊八卦的女性在三個月內，抑郁癥狀會減輕72%。

That’s because speaking positively about others stimulates bonding instincts, which revs up the brain’s production of powerful, mood-elevating antidepressant hormones.
這是因為起勁地聊他人的八卦刺激了結合本能，加速了大腦分泌強大又能調節(jié)情緒的抗抑郁激素。

Picking your nose: Scott Napper, associate professor of biochemistry at the University of Saskatchewan, believes eating mucus in the nose may boost the immune system by introducing small and harmless amounts of germs back in to the body.
挖鼻屎：加拿大薩省大學生物化學副教授斯科特-納帕認為，食用鼻腔中的黏液可以讓大量微小無害的細菌進入體內，幫助增強免疫系統(tǒng)功能。

His theory follows others that suggest improved hygiene has led to an increase in allergies and auto-immune disorders.
納帕的理論建立在其他人的研究基礎上，先前的研究認為目前改善的衛(wèi)生條件導致過敏和免疫系統(tǒng)紊亂情況的增加。

Biting your nails: Experts believe the same argument could hold true for nail biting.
咬指甲：同樣的道理，專家認為咬指甲也有好處。

Dr Hilary Longhurst, consultant immunologist from Barts and the London NHS Trust, said: “Unless your hands are truly filthy, the bugs we encounter when biting our nails could boost our immune system.”
巴茨及倫敦國家醫(yī)療服務系統(tǒng)的顧問免疫學家希拉里-朗赫斯特博士表示：“除非你的手實在太臟，否則咬指甲時遇到的各種微生物細菌對免疫系統(tǒng)有好處。”

The immune system works by developing a “memory” and making a note of how to fight each bug it has ever encountered.
免疫系統(tǒng)會產生“記憶”，制定計劃對付它曾經遇見過的微生物細菌。

When a bug is encountered a second time, the immune system reaches into its memory to release weapons – called memory lymphocytes – that know how to kill it.
一旦這些微生物細菌再次出現，免疫系統(tǒng)就會憑記憶釋放武器——這種被稱為記憶淋巴球的武器知道如何殺死細菌。

Burping: This natural gas release is a normal part of digestion and suppressing it can cause problems.
打嗝：這種氣體自然釋放是消化的一部分，壓抑打嗝會引發(fā)問題。

If you don’t belch and the gas stays on the stomach, this can cause the valve that separates the gullet and the stomach to relax, allowing stomach acid to splash up into the gullet, triggering heartburn.
假如你不打嗝，氣體會停留在胃里，引起隔離食道和胃的氣門松弛，使胃酸流進食道，引發(fā)胃灼熱。

Cracking your knuckles: A large study following people that did and didn’t crack their knuckles over a five-year period found that knuckle crackers’ joints were just as healthy as those who didn’t.
按壓指關節(jié)：一項大型研究花了5年時間，追蹤調查了壓指關節(jié)和不壓指關節(jié)的人們，發(fā)現壓指關節(jié)的人們關節(jié)更健康。

People’s joints tend to feel more comfortable after cracking because they have stretched out the joint and have a greater degree of movement.
人們的關節(jié)在被擠壓后會更舒服，因為關節(jié)得到了舒展，有了更好的靈活度。

Chewing gum: Recent research shows that chomping on gum can improve both short and long-term memory (scientists are still figuring out exactly why).
嚼口香糖：最新的研究發(fā)現，嚼口香糖能提高短期和長期的記憶（科學家們還沒找到原因）。

And chewing the stuff might also help you slim down, according to new research from the University of Rhode Island.
根據美國羅德島大學的一項最新的研究發(fā)現，嚼口香糖也能幫你瘦下來。

Research suggests that frequent chewing can stimulate the brain’s satiety centre, which is responsible for making us feel full.
研究發(fā)現，頻繁的咀嚼能刺激大腦的飽足中樞，使人們產生很飽的感覺。

Protect your teeth and go with a stick of the sugar-free kind.
不過為了你的牙齒著想，選擇無糖的吧。