健康生活:樂天知命方能長壽

Recent research into how emotions change with age may be able to help people lead healthier and longer lives and bring about new treatments for depression in the elderly.

人的情緒隨着年齡增長會發生怎樣的變化？該領域近期的一些研究成果有助於讓人們活得更健康，更長壽，併爲老年抑鬱症帶來新的治療手段。

Like people's bodies, emotions change over time. Older people for the most part have far fewer negative feelings, such as worry and stress, than do younger people, studies show.

人的身體會隨着時間推移而發生變化，情緒也是一樣。研究表明，在大多數情況下，老年人的負面情緒（如憂慮和壓力等）要比年輕人少得多。

The elderly learn to disentangle themselves from feelings of negativity and seem to focus more on present situations that bring pleasure, rather than on the future, researchers say. They also tend to process negative information less deeply than positive information.

老年人已學會將自己從負面情緒的桎梏中解脫出來，更關注那些能帶來當下樂趣的東西，而非虛無縹緲的未來。他們在處理負面信息時，往往也不那麼鑽牛角尖。

By contrast, positive feelings such as enjoyment and happiness change very little from the time a person is in his youth until old age.

與此形成對比的是，從青年時期直到老年，人們對於愉悅和享受等正面情緒的態度幾乎不會隨着時間推移而發生變化。

'It seems to be essential for our emotional well-being to not look back in anger and to focus on the positive when we are older,' Stefanie Brassen, a researcher at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, said in an email.

漢堡-埃彭多夫大學醫療中心(University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf)的研究人員斯特芬妮•布拉森(Stefanie Brassen)在電郵中寫道，“隨着年齡的增長，不要糾纏於過去不愉快的事，而更多關注積極正面的東西，這對於一個人的情緒健康是至關重要的。”

Older people who are depressed seem not to use the sort of emotional regulation typically seen in the elderly, researchers say. Depression affects some six million Americans over the age of 65, or about 15% of the total, and is believed to be a big reason why the elderly have the highest suicide rate, according to the nonprofit Geriatric Mental Health Foundation.

研究人員表示，患有抑鬱症的老年人似乎缺乏該人羣普遍具有的情緒控制能力。據非盈利組織“老年心理健康基金會”(Geriatric Mental Health Foundation)的統計數據，在65歲以上的美國人中，有600萬人左右受到抑鬱症的影響，佔比約爲15%；抑鬱症也被視爲老年人自殺率最高的很大一個原因。

In a potential new treatment approach, Dr. Brassen and colleagues are developing a training program in which older people practice strategies to better adapt to life circumstances. The goal is to get patients to 'focus on what they have reached in life, on the resources and abilities they still have and on positive experiences they can plan in the near future,' says Dr. Brassen.

布拉森博士及其同事正在研究一種治療抑鬱症的新方法，通過一個培訓項目來鍛鍊老年人適應生活環境的能力，布拉森博士說，目的是讓病人“關注自己在生活中已經達成的目標、擁有的資源、依然具備的能力以及積極正面的生活經歷，從而更好地規劃未來。”

Still, focusing on the positive or what feels good also can create problems, such as impairing decision-making and making older people more vulnerable to scam artists. There are times when one wants to focus on the negative and think through what someone is telling you rather than reacting to how a person makes you feel, says Laura Carstensen, a psychology professor at Stanford University and director of its Center on Longevity in California.

不過，凡事往好處想或追求令人愉悅的東西也會帶來一些問題，如決策能力的降低和導致老年人容易上當受騙等。加州斯坦福大學(Stanford University)心理學教授及斯坦福大學長壽研究中心(Center on Longevity)主任羅拉•卡斯滕森(Laura Carstensen)說，有時候，人們需要思考一些負面的東西，仔細考慮別人對你說的話，而不是根據對別人的喜惡程度來簡單行事。

In one study, some 340,000 people ranging in age from 18 to 85 were surveyed by phone and asked how much they had felt emotions like happiness, stress and anger the day before. Between about the ages of 20 and 60, people experienced an increasingly greater ratio of positive to negative emotions, says Arthur Stone, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stony Brook University in New York, who led a study.

有一項研究對18到85歲的34萬人進行了電話採訪，詢問他們在前一天是否經歷了喜悅、壓力和憤怒情緒。領導該項研究的紐約石溪大學(Stony Brook University)精神病學及行爲學教授阿瑟•斯通(Arthur Stone)說，在20歲左右到60歲左右的區間，隨着年齡增長，受訪者體會到的正面情緒比負面情緒逐步增多。

While reported feelings of happiness were generally similar across the decades, 'we saw a drop off in the amount of stress and worry as they get older,' Dr. Stone says. The work was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2010.

雖然各年齡段在喜悅情緒上的佔比相差無幾，但斯通博士說，“我們發現，年紀越大，人們的壓力和憂慮情緒就越少。”該研究報告2010年發表於《美國國家科學院學報》(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences)。

How people approach life emotionally is driven by changes in their life goals, says Stanford's Dr. Carstensen. Younger people often need to explore or take risks to achieve longer-range goals, and they experience stress and frustration in the meantime. Older people, by contrast, perceive their time horizons as shorter and focus on more immediate goals that elicit positive emotions, like being with their grandchildren, she says.

斯坦福的卡斯滕森博士說，人們對待生活的態度和情緒受到人生目標改變的影響。年輕人追求長遠的生活目標，往往需要不斷摸索或承擔風險，此過程中會有壓力和挫敗感。老年人則認爲人生苦短，更關注能夠激發正面情緒的短期目標，比如陪自己的孫子孫女享受天倫之樂等。

'As we focus on those [shorter-term] goals, people's lives get better,' she says. In a study published last year, Dr. Carstensen and colleagues found that people who developed a higher ratio of positive to negative feelings as they aged were more likely to live longer. The study, published in Psychology and Aging, followed nearly 200 adults over 10 years.

卡斯滕森博士說，“當人們把注意力放在那些（短期）目標上，活得就會更好。”在一項研究中，她和同事發現，正面情緒比負面情緒多的老年人更有可能長壽。該研究在十年中跟蹤了近200名成年人，研究報告於2011年發表在《心理學與衰老》雜誌(Psychology and Aging)上。

Healthy elderly people appear to employ coping strategies that help lessen the experience of negative emotion, says Dr. Brassen the German researcher.

布拉森博士表示，健康的老年人會有一種隨遇而安的心態，從而減少負面情緒的產生。

She and colleagues ran an experiment to see how young and old people respond to feelings of regret. Interestingly, a third group -- elderly people diagnosed with depression -- responded to regret in ways that more closely resembled the younger group, rather than their similarly aged peers. The study was published in May in the journal Science.

她和同事進行了一項試驗，觀察年輕人和老年人是如何應對悔恨情緒的。有意思的是，由患有抑鬱症的老年人構成的第三組在對待悔恨情緒時與年輕人的那組更相似，而與年齡相仿的另一個老年組不同。該研究報告發表在2012年5月的《科學》雜誌(Science)上。

In the experiment, Dr. Brassen engaged 21 healthy young people, 20 healthy older people and 20 depressed elderly in a game of chance. Players had to choose whether to keep on going in the game for the opportunity to win more points. But if they lost in a subsequent round, they would lose all their points.

在試驗中，布拉森博士讓21名健康的年輕人、20名健康的老年人和20名患有抑鬱症的老年人蔘加一個博彩遊戲。參與者必須決定是否在遊戲中繼續下去，以贏得更高的獎項，如果下一輪輸掉，就會失去之前所有的積分。

When any of the participants lost, they would get agitated physiologically, including changes in blood flow patterns in a part of the brain that processes regret, Dr. Brassen says. But the younger participants and the depressed elderly also exhibited behavioral signs of regret. They made poorer decisions in subsequent rounds by taking more risk, which didn't make sense logically because the game depended purely on luck, not strategy.

布拉森博士說，每一個參與者輸掉遊戲時，都會在生理上出現激動生氣的跡象，處理悔恨情緒的腦部區域血流量模式也會發生變化。年輕人組和患有抑鬱症的老年人組都呈現出後悔的情緒，在下一輪遊戲中甘願冒更大的風險，而這是不理智的行爲，會做出糟糕的決策，因爲這個遊戲完全靠的是運氣，而非謀略。

By contrast, the elderly group that was healthy appeared to be able to engage in reasoning that distanced themselves from feelings of regret, Dr. Brassen says.

布拉森博士說，與此相反的是，健康的老年人組能做出理智的判斷，把自己從悔恨中解脫出來。

For example, some of these players concluded there was no cause to blame themselves for losing in what was a game of luck. 'Healthy elderly were actually aware that they could have gained more [game points] but they seemed to be able to disengage from this thought/feeling,' Dr. Brassen says.

舉例而言，有些健康的老年人做出結論，認爲在這種全憑運氣的遊戲中輸掉沒什麼大不了，不必自怨自艾。布拉森博士說，“這組老年人其實知道，冒險的話可能會得到更多積分，但還是抵抗住了這種想法和情緒。”

With practice, researchers say, older people can learn to spend less time dwelling on things they cannot change, leading to healthier emotional aging. 'Maybe [it's] not always the best strategy to stay young as long as you can but to accept and adapt to limitations in late life,' says Dr. Brassen.

研究人員表示，通過不斷練習，老年人可以學會少去想那些自己無力改變的事情，從而使情緒更爲健康。布拉森博士說，“也許永葆青春並不是最理想的狀態，做一個樂天知命的老人也不錯。”

Golden Oldies

情緒如何隨着年齡增長而變化

Researchers are trying to understand how emotions change with age, which could provide clues to helping people live longer and healthier lives.

研究人員正在試圖瞭解人的情緒是如何隨着年齡增長而發生變化的，從而提供一些線索，幫助人們活得更健康，更長壽。

Stress peaks in the early 20s for most people, and is sharply higher in women than in men, but then steadily declines through old age.

對大多數人來說，20出頭時是壓力最大的年齡段，而且女性比男性更突出，然後壓力隨着年齡增長而穩步下降。

Feelings of enjoyment and happiness are highest among young adults, gradually decline in midlife, then rise again in later years.

年輕人的歡樂情緒最多，邁入中年後逐步減少，到老年又開始回升。

People tend to worry the most in midlife, from about age 40 to the early 50s, after which feelings of worry decrease.

中年人的憂慮情緒最多，從40歲左右一直到50歲出頭，然後開始減少。

Anger is at its peak in early adulthood but then begins a long, gradual decline.

成年早期的憤怒情緒最多，然後開始一個漫長的下降過程。

Sadness stays relatively constant throughout life, although women experience more sad feelings than men.

哀傷情緒貫穿於生命的整個階段，女性的哀傷情緒比男性更多。