是什么讓意大利人活得更健康、更長壽?

是什么讓意大利人活得更健康、更長壽?

If you think longevity solely comes down to genes and diet, think again.

如果你認為長壽僅僅取決于基因和飲食，那你就大錯特錯了。

Our social life -- the family ties and the bonds you have with friends and community -- might also play a vital role.

我們的社會生活——家庭關系以及你與朋友和社區(qū)之間的紐帶——也可能發(fā)揮著至關重要的作用。

Adolfo Melis, who lives on the island of Sardinia, in Italy, is testament to this way of thinking.

生活在意大利撒丁島的阿道夫·梅利斯(Adolfo Melis)就是這種思維方式的明證。

He might be 94, but he says he feels like 50. Melis is still active -- he's one impressive pool player -- he doesn't need glasses to read the newspaper, and he gets up early enough to serve coffee from 6 a.m. onwards at his coffee shop. Importantly, "all my customers are my friends, and everyone knows each other," Melis said.

他可能已經94歲了，但他說自己感覺像50歲。梅利斯仍然很活躍——他是一個令人印象深刻的臺球選手——他不需要戴眼鏡就能看報紙，而且他起床很早，從早上6點起就在他的咖啡店里供應咖啡。重要的是，“我所有的客戶都是我的朋友，每個人都認識對方”，梅利斯說。

So what exactly is behind Melis' fitness at his impressive age?

那么，究竟是什么讓梅利斯在這個令人印象深刻的年齡還能保持健康呢?

Dr. Gianni Pes studied the population of this area -- one of the world's "Blue Zones," an area with an extraordinarily long-living population -- and thinks people live longer and more healthily here because they do more physical activity outdoors and feel strong connections to each other.

Gianni Pes博士研究了這個地區(qū)的人口——世界上的“藍色地帶”之一，一個有著非常長壽的人口的地區(qū)——并認為人們在這里活得更久、更健康，因為他們在戶外做更多的體育活動，并感到彼此之間有很強的聯(lián)系。

"The community is strong and gives support to old people," he said. For example, there are no nursing homes in the village of Arzana in Sardinia. "Elderly people stay within the family until the end of their existence," Pes said.

他說:“這個社區(qū)很強大，支持老年人。例如，在撒丁島的Arzana村就沒有養(yǎng)老院。Pes說:“老年人一直呆在家里直到他們的生命結束。”

People who lack social connections have 50% higher odds of dying than others who are more connected, according to a review of 148 studies. Being isolated was also shown to have a greater effect on high blood pressure than having diabetes in old age, according to another recent study.

一項對148項研究的綜述顯示，缺乏社會關系的人的死亡率比那些有更多關系的人高出50%。最近的另一項研究表明，與老年糖尿病相比，隔離對高血壓的影響更大。

One common social activity in particular is shown to help us stay healthy: enjoying a meal together. Melis himself regularly enjoys eating dinner with friends and family.

一項共同的社會活動尤其能幫助我們保持健康:一起吃飯。梅利斯自己也經常喜歡和朋友和家人一起吃飯。

People who are socially connected tend to eat together, said Berkman, who is also the director of the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. She believes that by doing so, they tend to avoid eating the kind of foods that people under a lot of stress turn to, such as comfort food.

伯克曼說，有社會關系的人傾向于在一起吃飯，他也是哈佛人口與發(fā)展研究中心的主任。她認為，通過這樣做，他們傾向于避免吃人們在很大壓力下會轉向的食物，比如安慰食物。

"What we know is that people who have strong social connections tend not to be so obese," she added.

“我們知道的是，擁有強大社會關系的人往往不會那么肥胖，”她補充說。

The most obvious reason for socializing doing us good is that social people have better health behaviors, she said. People with strong ties tend to eat better, smoke less and be slightly more physically active. In turn, people with stressful relationships tend to have some unhealthy behaviors, such as eating less healthily and smoking more. "In a number of studies, these behaviors have turned out to be important."

她說，社交對我們有好處的最明顯的原因是，喜歡社交的人有更好的健康行為。有牢固關系的人往往吃得更好，吸煙更少，身體稍微更活躍。反過來，有壓力的人往往會有一些不健康的行為，如吃得不健康和吸煙更多。“在許多研究中，這些行為被證明是很重要的。”

The evidence on socializing being good for our health doesn't stop there. People are also less susceptible to the common cold if they have good social relationships, according to a randomized trial.

社交對健康有益的證據還不止于此。根據一項隨機試驗，如果人們有良好的社會關系，他們也更不容易感冒。

The stress and strain of a lack of connections can generally make "you more susceptible to whatever's out there," as it can weaken people's immune systems, Berkman said.

伯克曼說，缺乏聯(lián)系帶來的壓力和緊張通常會使“你更容易受到外界環(huán)境的影響”，因為它會削弱人們的免疫系統(tǒng)。