Last year around this time, I made it my New Year's resolution to take one extra flight of stairs every day at the office. I arrive every morning smugly congratulating myself for being a superior human being for not taking the escalator. Oh and I also happen to live in a third-floor walk-up apartment. Nothing could have prepared me more for headlines this morning that how well you do on a new stair test could determine your risk of dying.

差不多去年这个时候，我下定决心要在新的一年每天都在办公室多爬一层楼梯。每天早晨上班的时候，我都会因为没有坐电梯而感到自豪。而且，我正好住在一间三层公寓里（没有电梯）。因此，我就想出了这一标题：你在楼梯测试中的表现将决定你的死亡风险。

Those headlines are riffing off a new study presented at a European Society of Cardiology meeting in Milan this week. Spanish researchers found that high performers on an exercise test had a lower risk of death from heart disease, cancer, or other causes, and the level of fitness required for those life-extending benefits turns out to be about the same as quickly climbing four flights of stairs without stopping.

本周，米兰举行的欧洲心脏病学会会议上发表了一项新研究，这些标题正来源于此。西班牙的研究人员发现：运动测试中得分高者因患心脏病、癌症或其他疾病的死亡风险更低，而享受寿命延长福利的健康水准是什么？一口气快速爬四层楼！

Researchers recruited more than 12,000 people who had been diagnosed with or who were thought to have coronary artery¹ disease, aka damage or disease in the arteries² that carry blood to the heart. The study participants walked or ran on a treadmill³ during a test called exercise echocardiography to measure how their hearts responded to physical exertion⁴.

研究员招募了12000多名被诊断出或被认为患有冠状动脉疾病的受试者（即动脉血管损伤或疾病）。在一项名为超声心动图的测试中，受试者在跑步机上走路或跑步，以测量其心脏对体力消耗的反应。

Their fitness levels were calculated in what's called METs, or metabolic⁵ equivalents. People in the study who could handle 10 METs of treadmill activity were deemed to be high performers on the test-or to have good "functional⁶ capacity."

研究员通过代谢当量（METs）计算受试者的健康水平。研究中，跑步机运动能达到10 METs的受试者被视作得分高者--或者拥有较好的"功能容量"。

Compared to people with poor functional capacity, the high performers were less likely to die from cancer, heart disease, or other causes over the following five years or so. For every additional MET achieved in the test, their risk of dying from those causes decreased by 9%, 9%, and 4%, respectively.

研究接下来的5年内，与功能容量较低的人相比，得分较高者死于癌症、心脏病或其它疾病的可能性较低。测试中代谢当量每增加一分，受试者死于癌症、心脏病或其它疾病的可能性就分别降低9%、9%和4%。

Without access to a fancy sci-fi treadmill setup, how can us normals calculate our METs? That's where the stairs come in. "There are much cheaper ways to estimate if you could achieve 10 METs on the treadmill test," study author Jesús Peteiro, PhD, a cardiologist at University Hospital A Coru?a in Spain, said in a statement. "If you can walk very fast up three floors of stairs without stopping, or fast up four floors without stopping, you have good functional capacity. If not, it's a good indication that you need more exercise." Try to do those four floors in under a minute, Dr. Peteiro told TODAY.

普通人没有高档的科技跑步机装备，又该如何计算代谢当量呢？所以楼梯就登场啦！"不花钱就可以预估你是否能在跑步机测试中取得10 METs，"西班牙拉科鲁尼亚大学医院的心脏病专家Jesús Peteiro博士在一份声明中说道。"如果你能一口气快爬三层或四层楼梯，那你的功能容量就处于较高水平。如果不能，那就表明你需要多加锻炼了。"最好在一分钟内爬完四层楼，Peteiro博士对TODAY杂志说道。