研究發現：心態年輕的人壽命更長

Age-liars and birthday-deniers... you'd best learn a thing or two from those who are young at heart. People who feel younger than their actual chronological age may live longer than those who feel older than they truly are, a new study says.

謊報年齡、否認生日……想要變得年輕，那麼你最好試着學學那些擁有年輕心態的人。一項新的研究稱，那些自我感覺比實際年齡小的人可能比那些自我感覺比實際年齡大的人更加長壽。

Perceived age might play a role in more than just how you feel. Results from the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggest that people who feel a year or more older than they truly are could have around 41 percent greater risk for death.

感知年齡所起到的作用可能遠遠不止於你的感覺如何。從《美國醫學協會雜誌》（The Journal of the American Medical Association）的研究結果來看，那些感覺自己比實際年齡大一歲或好幾歲的人會比一般人高出近41%的死亡風險。

University College London researchers looked at nearly 6,500 older adults, with an average age of 65.8 for the study. Around 70 percent of the subjects felt younger than they were, about a quarter felt their precise age and just under 5 percent felt a year or more older than they were, when asked "How old do you feel you are?"

倫敦大學學院(University College London)的研究人員調查了近6500名平均年齡爲65.8歲的老年人。在回答“您感覺自己年齡有多大？”這個問題上，當中大約70%的老年人覺得自己比實際年齡小，約25%的人認爲自己符合實際年齡，而只有不到5%的人認爲自己比實際年齡大一歲或好幾歲。

Those who felt older than they were had a higher death rate after a follow-up period of 99 months. While just 14.3 and 18.5 percent of people who felt younger or felt their age, respectively, died during those 99 months, 24.6 percent of those who felt aged beyond their years had died.

那些覺得自己年齡比實際大的人在接下來的99個月的隨訪期中死亡的可能性更高。而那些心態年輕以及心態歲數和實際年齡相當的人在接下來的99個月中的死亡可能性分別只有14.3%和18.5%，而那些覺得自己比實際年紀大的人有24.6%已經在這99個月中死亡。

The authors say more research is needed on the topic, but suggest it could be that those who feel "young at heart" have healthier behaviors and more resilience, giving them a stronger will to live. "Self-perceived age has the potential to change, so interventions may be possible. Individuals who feel older than their actual age could be targeted with health messages promoting positive health behaviors and attitudes toward aging," the authors write in the study.

作者稱，還需要做更多的研究來論證這個話題，但也同時表示那些心態年輕的人有更健康的行爲習慣及更好的抗打擊力，使得他們有更加強大的生存意志。作者在該項研究中寫道：“自我感知年齡的狀況將會改變，使得實施預防措施變得可能。那些覺得自己比實際年齡大的人可以通過健康暗示來增強其對於衰老的積極行爲和態度。”

The good news is, youcanchange your perception of howyoungyou are. And other studies suggest that there could be more benefits to thinking yourself younger, besides a longer life. One recent study found that helping participants have positive feelings toward age, by showing them positive word associations, helped older adults improve in physical tasks like balancing and getting up out of a chair, in as little as four weeks. A 2013 study found that negative stereotypes of aging and poor memory can make older adults feel up to five years older, regardless of their actual mental abilities.

好消息是，你可以改變自己對年紀的認知。其他的研究也表明，心態年輕除了能延長壽命外，還益處多多。最近有研究發現，通過對老年人講積極鼓舞的話，幫助他們對年齡保持樂觀的心態的方式，能在短短四周內，提高老年人的身體機能：如平衡能力，從椅子上站起來的能力。2013年的一項研究發現，不論他們的實際心理能力如何，對衰老的消極刻板印象和記憶力衰退會使老年人感到自己比實際年齡老五歲。

There you have it. Age really should be treated as just a number.

現在你明白了，年齡真的應該僅僅被看成一個數字。