孤独感有损身心健康

It’s not surprising that loneliness has also been linked to cognitive decline. A Dutch study published last year in The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery &Psychiatry found that participants who reported feeling lonely — regardless of how many friends and family surrounded them — were more likely to develop dementia than those who lived on their own but were not lonely.
不出人们所料：孤独感与认知功能减退也有联系。《神经病学、神经外科学与精神病学杂志》(The Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery &Psychiatry)去年刊登了荷兰的一项研究，研究发现感到孤独的参试者——不管他们身边事实上有多少亲友陪伴——相比虽然一个人生活，但并不觉得孤独的人，更有可能患痴呆症。

The nearly 2, 200 participants, ages 65 to 86, were followed for three years and had shown no signs of dementia at the study’s start. About half lived alone, and 20 percent reported feeling lonely. After adjusting for other factors that are linked to cognitive decline, like age, feeling lonely was linked to a 64 percent increase in the risk of developing dementia, according to Tjalling Jan Holwerda of the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam.
阿姆斯特丹自由大学(VU University)医学中心的特亚林·简·赫尔威达(Tjalling Jan Holwerda)介绍说，这项研究调查了近2200名年纪在65岁到86岁间的老人，随访三年，在研究起始阶段所有人都未出现痴呆症症状。其中约半数独居，20%的人表示感到孤独。在排除了其他与认知功能减退有关的因素，比如年龄后，研究发现感到孤独，可使患痴呆症风险增加64%。

This is not proof that loneliness causes dementia; the reverse could be true. People whose cognitive abilities begin declining may withdraw from others, the authors suggested. On the other hand, loneliness may result in “a lack of sensory and cognitive stimulation, ” which in turn reduces levels of nerve growth factors in the brain and may contribute to dementia.
这并不能证明孤独可导致痴呆，但反之可以成立。研究作者发现，认知功能开始减退的人可能会渐渐淡出社交生活。另一方面，孤独感可能导致“知觉和认知刺激缺失”，降低大脑中的神经生长分子水平，进而导致痴呆症发作。

The Dutch study, among others, suggests that how people perceive their situation may have a stronger impact on health than whether they live alone and lack social connections. Divorced people have reported feeling lonelier in a bad marriage than they do being single. And people who live alone may still have a large network of friends and family that helps to keep loneliness at bay.
荷兰进行的这项研究和其他调查显示，相比独居和缺乏社交纽带，人们对个人境遇的感知可能会对健康产生更剧烈的影响。离异人群表示，身处不幸的婚姻中，比独身更让他们感到孤苦。而独居的人或许拥有着一个庞大的亲友团，帮助他们击退孤独感。

But according to Dr. Cacioppo, having many friends and family members around does not guarantee immunity from loneliness if the relationships are missing a strong emotional connection. The quality of these relationships — how meaningful they are to the individual — counts more than numbers in predicting loneliness, his studies and others have shown.
但卡西普奥认为，如果社交关系缺乏强有力的情感联系，就算有众多亲友在侧，也无法担保人们能对孤独感刀枪不入。他和其他人的研究发现，社交关系的质量——也就是它对个体的意义有多么重大——比起数量，更能有效地揭示人们的孤独感。

People are fundamentally social beings who require meaningful connections with others to maximize health and well-being. Dr. Cacioppo suggests reaching out to others with “random acts of kindness”: doing something that helps them physically or emotionally, maybe something as simple as complimenting a stranger’s outfit, leaving behind the change in a coffee machine, or helping an old person carry groceries or cross the street.
人类本质上是社交生物，需要通过与他人建立有意义的联系来最大限度地取得健康与幸福感。卡西普奥建议大家可以做“随机的友善举动”，向他人递去橄榄枝：做些可以在身体或情感上有益他人的事情，哪怕只是易如反掌的小事，比如恭维一个陌生人的穿着，用完公用咖啡机后换上新滤纸，帮老人提购物袋或过马路。

Next, try seeking out social activities that help others while fostering social contacts, like volunteering in a soup kitchen, reading to the blind or assisting in a classroom. Such actions can result in what Dr. Cacioppo calls the “helper’s high, ” establish new friendships and counter a feeling of aloneness.
接下来，可以尝试参与帮助别人的社会活动，同时缔结社交联系，比如去施粥场做义工，给盲人读书，或去学校帮忙。这些行动可产生卡西奥波所谓的“帮助者高潮”，认识新朋友，同时抵御孤独感的侵袭。

“What’s required, ” he wrote, “is to step outside the pain of our own situation long enough to ‘feed’ others. Real change begins with doing.” You won’t know whether what you do will result in a genuine connection to another person unless you try.
“你需要做的，”他写道，“是从你个人身处的痛苦中走出来，去‘哺育’他人。真正的改变要从行动开始。”只有开始尝试，你才会知道自己做的事情是否能让你和别人建立真正的感情。

While I have always been outgoing, since my husband’s death I’ve tried even harder to connect with people in ways that make us all feel good. For example, on learning that an acquaintance at the Y needed pants from a store I was going to pass, I offered to get them for her, an exchange that enriched us both.
我一直为人外向，自丈夫去世后，我更努力地与别人交往，好让大家都觉得高兴。比方说，听说在基督教青年会(YMCA)的一位熟人想去一家商店取裤子，而我刚好要打那儿路过，于是我主动帮她取了，这桩小事让我俩都得到了快乐。