與猝死的幽靈終日相伴是何滋味(中)
She moved to Arizona to escape what she thought were allergies. It didn’t work. She got married, and moved back to California and a doctor who she describes as her “Doctor House” diagnosed her with mast cell activation syndrome, an immune disorder where certain cells release too many chemicals.
婚後，她搬到加利福尼亞居住，一名她稱爲“豪斯醫生”的外科醫生診斷她患有肥大細胞活化綜合徵（mast cell activation syndrome），一種由於某些細胞分泌過多化學物質而導致的免疫系統的紊亂。
Today, for the first time in years, Hagberg Fisher is living without a diagnosis hanging over her. She’s on a strict plan to keep her mast cell activation in check and she says it’s working, and she feels better. But she still lives with uncertainty about her health. She’s never sure when she might be diagnosed again with a tumour, whether there’s something lurking within her waiting to finally reveal itself. But she says the uncertainty of her own life, and how long it might last, has completely changed her.
現在，這麼多年來的第一次，哈格伯格•費舍爾終於不用再面臨一個不確定的診斷了。她目前按照嚴格的計劃接受治療，定期進行細胞激活檢查，而且她說這個治療起到了作用，她感覺比以前有了很大的進展。但她對於自己的健康狀況仍然不確定，不知道是否會再次確診爲癌症，也不知道體內是否藏着什麼物質尚未顯現出來。但她說，這種對於生命的不確定性，能活多久的擔憂，徹底改變了她。
The day you will die
生命終結的那一天
What if you knew when it would be?
如果你知道是什麼時候那會怎麼樣呢？
Various online quizzes plot your death date using demographic data such as race, gender and age. According , for example, a 28-year-old non-smoker like me, with a BMI under 25, will die on Monday, December 26, 2044. These websites wildly overpromise in their accuracy, but scientific tools for looking at what might kill a person – and when – are improving.
五花八門的在線測試通過人口統計數據，例如種族，性別和年齡來預測你的死亡時間。例如 deathclock 網站預測，像我這樣的28歲的非吸菸者，體脂指數低於25，將會在2044年12月26日星期一死亡。這些網站嚴重的誇大他們的準確性，而一些用來預測人死亡的科學工具正在不斷的改進。
Some life insurance companies, for example, try to predict lifespans of their users based on big data techniques. And researchers are searching for genetic clues to death dates. Certain genes might even help doctors predict the time of day you die. People with one genotype in a study at Harvard University died before 11am; others on average died just before 6pm.
例如一些壽險公司通過大數據技術預測客戶的壽命。科研人員正在通過基因的線索推算死亡時間。一些基因甚至可以幫助醫生預測你死亡的具體時間。哈佛大學的一份研究表明擁有某個基因的人將在上午11點前死亡，而其他的人平均在下午6點前死亡。
For now, it’s mainly guesswork, based on averages – but as personalised medicine and genetic research advances, the date of your death may eventually be a fact that you must learn to live with.
現在這些預測主要是基於平均值的猜測，而未來當個性化的醫療和基因研究更加完善時，每個人的死亡時間有可能會提前知道，而人們必須要學會在這種情況下過日子。
Death on the mind
在知道死亡日期後生活
Scientists know that reflecting on death can influence our thinking in profound ways, often without us realising. Some research has shown that whenever any resource, like time left to live, is scarce, people tend to value it more. Another researcherhas found that when students write about death for a period of time, they report lower rates of depression and anxiety and higher levels of self-esteem and motivation.
科學家們認爲對死亡的思考可以在潛意識中極大的影響我們的思維方式。一些研究表明，任何資源越稀缺，人們往往對其越珍視，例如剩餘的活着的時間。另一位研究者發現，當學生們以死亡爲主題進行寫作一段時間之後，抑鬱和焦慮的程度會降低，自尊與上進程度會提升。
