Here's an intriguing fact. In the developed world, everywhere, women live an average of six to eight years longer than men do. Six to eight years longer. That's, like, a huge gap. In 2015, the "Lancet" published an article showing that men in rich countries are twice as likely to die as women are at any age.
有一个非常奇妙的现象: 在发达国家, 普遍来说,女性的寿命 平均比男性多出六到八年。 多活六到八年 这就像一个鸿沟。 在2015年,《柳叶刀》杂志 发表了一篇文章, 描述了经济发达国家的男性 的死亡率是同龄女性的 两倍。
But there is one place in the world where men live as long as women. It's a remote, mountainous zone, a blue zone, where super longevity is common to both sexes. This is the blue zone in Sardinia, an Italian island in the Mediterranean, between Corsica and Tunisia, where there are six times as many centenarians as on the Italian mainland, less than 200 miles away. There are 10 times as many centenarians as there are in North America. It's the only place where men live as long as women.
但是世界上有一个国家 在那里,男性女性的寿命没差别。 那是一个偏远的山区, 一片长寿区。 在那里, 男性女性都普遍长寿。 这是一个在塞尔迪纳的长寿区 身处地中海的一座意大利小岛, 位于科西嘉岛和突尼斯之间。 在那里, 百岁及百岁以上的老人的数目 是意大利本土的六倍, 而两者相距不到200英里。 这里百岁及百岁以上的老人的数目 是北美洲的十倍。 它是唯一一个男性与女性 同寿的地方。
But why? My curiosity was piqued. I decided to research the science and the habits of the place, and I started with the genetic profile. I discovered soon enough that genes account for just 25 percent of their longevity. The other 75 percent is lifestyle.
这是为什么呢? 这激起了我的好奇心。 我决定对这个地区的环境和 人们生活习惯做一些调查, 我一开始是从基因方面入手的。 我很快就发现 基因对长寿的影响只占了25%, 剩下的75%是由生活习惯决定的。
So what does it take to live to 100 or beyond? What are they doing right? What you're looking at is an aerial view of Villagrande. It's a village at the epicenter of the blue zone where I went to investigate this, and as you can see, architectural beauty is not its main virtue, density is: tightly spaced houses, interwoven alleys and streets. It means that the villagers' lives constantly intersect. And as I walked through the village, I could feel hundreds of pairs of eyes watching me from behind doorways and curtains, from behind shutters. Because like all ancient villages, Villagrande couldn't have survived without this structure, without its walls, without its cathedral, without its village square, because defense and social cohesion defined its design.
那么到底要怎么做才能 活到100岁甚至100岁以上呢? 他们做了些什么对的事呢? 而你现在所看到的是 维拉格兰德的鸟瞰图, 村庄位于长寿区的中心, 这就是我去调查的地方, 你们可以看到, 建筑美景并不是它吸引人的地方, 特点在于房屋的密集: 密密麻麻紧挨着的房屋, 交织的小巷和街道, 意味着这里居民的生活是 紧密联系着的。 当我穿梭在这村庄里的时候, 我觉得有上百双眼睛在门背后、 在窗帘后、 在百叶窗后 关注着我。 就像所有古老的村落一样, 维拉格兰德不可能存活下来 倘若没了这结构,没了这墙, 没了大教堂, 倘若没了广场。 因为它的防御设施和社会凝聚力 决定了它的设计风格。
Urban priorities changed as we moved towards the industrial revolution because infectious disease became the risk of the day. But what about now? Now, social isolation is the public health risk of our time. Now, a third of the population says they have two or fewer people to lean on.
现代城市的首要顾虑 随着我们进入工业革命改变了, 因为传染病是当时社会的主要威胁。 那么现在的情况呢? 现在,社会孤立已经成为了 我们当下公共健康的主要风险。 现在,三分之一的人口认为 他们只有两个或者更少的人可以依靠。
But let's go to Villagrande now as a contrast to meet some centenarians.
那我们来跟维拉格兰德的村民们 做一个对比吧 一起拜访那些百岁人瑞。
Meet Giuseppe Murinu. He's 102, a supercentenarian and a lifelong resident of the village of Villagrande. He was a gregarious man. He loved to recount stories such as how he lived like a bird from what he could find on the forest floor during not one but two world wars, how he and his wife, who also lived past 100, raised six children in a small, homey kitchen where I interviewed him. Here he is with his sons Angelo and Domenico, both in their 70s and looking after their father, and who were quite frankly very suspicious of me and my daughter who came along with me on this research trip, because the flip side of social cohesion is a wariness of strangers and outsiders. But Giuseppe, he wasn't suspicious at all. He was a happy-go-lucky guy, very outgoing with a positive outlook. And I wondered: so is that what it takes to live to be 100 or beyond, thinking positively? Actually, no.
Giuseppe Murinu,102岁, 是一位超长寿的长者 一生都生活在维拉格兰德。 他热爱交际, 很喜欢讲述故事 比如说他是怎样像鸟一样 从树林草地上发现的食物, 就此存活过了不只一次, 而是两次世界大战, 以及他和他同样超过100岁的妻子 是怎么在一个小的家庭厨房里 把六个孩子拉扯大的, 而这个厨房正是我采访他的地方。 这是他和他的两个儿子 Angelo和Domenico 他们都70多了, 还在照顾他们的父亲, 他们对我和我的女儿有些怀疑 我女儿跟我一起去那里做调查了, 因为社会凝聚力的另外一面 就是对待陌生人和外来人员的 戒备。 但是Giuseppe一点都不怀疑我们, 他是一个无忧无虑的人, 有着积极的外表,非常外向. 我在想:难道这就是能活到百岁 甚至百岁以上的原因吗? 就总是积极乐观? 显然,不是的。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Meet Giovanni Corrias. He's 101, the grumpiest person I have ever met.
Giovanni Corrias,101岁 他是我见过最乖戾的人。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
And he put a lie to the notion that you have to be positive to live a long life. And there is evidence for this. When I asked him why he lived so long, he kind of looked at me under hooded eyelids and he growled, "Nobody has to know my secrets."
因为他,我知道了 只要积极乐观 就可以长命百岁的说法是个谎言。 我可以证明。 当我问他,“是什么促成他长寿?” 在他松垂的眼皮下, 他盯着我看了一会,他吼道: “没有人可以知道我的秘密。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
But despite being a sourpuss, the niece who lived with him and looked after him called him "Il Tesoro," "my treasure." And she respected him and loved him, and she told me, when I questioned this obvious loss of her freedom, "You just don't understand, do you? Looking after this man is a pleasure. It's a huge privilege for me. This is my heritage." And indeed, wherever I went to interview these centenarians, I found a kitchen party. Here's Giovanni with his two nieces, Maria above him and beside him his great-niece Sara, who came when I was there to bring fresh fruits and vegetables. And I quickly discovered by being there that in the blue zone, as people age, and indeed across their lifespans, they're always surrounded by extended family, by friends, by neighbors, the priest, the barkeeper, the grocer. People are always there or dropping by. They are never left to live solitary lives. This is unlike the rest of the developed world, where as George Burns quipped, "Happiness is having a large, loving, caring family in another city."
其实他只是有些脾气不好, 跟他一起住并且照顾他的侄女 称呼他为“我的宝藏”。 她尊敬他而且很爱他, 我问她因照顾老人 而失去的自由时,她说 “你真的是不懂? “我很开心可以照顾这个老人” “是我的特权” “这就是我的传承的遗产。” 确实,每当我去采访这些高龄老人时 我都会看到一个厨房小聚会。 这是Giovanni和他的两个侄女 上边的是Maria 旁边的是他的曾侄女Sara, 我在那儿的时候, Sara带来了新鲜的果蔬。 我立马发现 在这长寿区生活, 人们逐渐变老的过程中, 甚至是在整个生命历程里, 他们身边都围绕着家人,朋友, 甚至还有邻居,牧师, 酒吧吧主,杂铺店老板。 人们永远都在身旁,也会经常顺路拜访 他们从不会独自生活。 这完全不像George Burns 调侃的高度发达的世界 “幸福就是在另外一座城市 拥有一个充满爱和关怀的大家庭。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
Now, so far we've only met men, long-living men, but I met women too, and here you see Zia Teresa. She, at over 100, taught me how to make the local specialty, which is called culurgiones, which are these large pasta pockets like ravioli about this size, this size, and they're filled with high-fat ricotta and mint and drenched in tomato sauce. And she showed me how to make just the right crimp so they wouldn't open, and she makes them with her daughters every Sunday and distributes them by the dozens to neighbors and friends. And that's when I discovered a low-fat, gluten-free diet is not what it takes to live to 100 in the blue zone.
现在我们只是看了一些高寿的男性, 我也拜访了一些女性。 这是Zia Teresa。 她一百多岁了, 还教我怎么做一种当地的特色美食, 叫“culurgiones”。 就是这种很大的意面饺一样的 像这么大的意饺, 这么大, 填满了高脂肪的里科塔芝士和薄荷, 然后浸在番茄酱汁里。 她还给我演示了怎么做出合适的褶皱 以至于它们不会撑开。 她每周日都会和女儿一起做这种食物 然后分装成十几个一份, 送给邻居和朋友。 这时我发现了低脂肪和无糖饮食 并不是这长寿区人们长寿的原因。
(Applause)
(掌声)
Now, these centenarians' stories along with the science that underpins them prompted me to ask myself some questions too, such as, when am I going to die and how can I put that day off? And as you will see, the answer is not what we expect. Julianne Holt-Lunstad is a researcher at Brigham Young University and she addressed this very question in a series of studies of tens of thousands of middle aged people much like this audience here. And she looked at every aspect of their lifestyle: their diet, their exercise, their marital status, how often they went to the doctor, whether they smoked or drank, etc. She recorded all of this and then she and her colleagues sat tight and waited for seven years to see who would still be breathing. And of the people left standing, what reduced their chances of dying the most? That was her question.
这些百岁老人的故事和 其背后的科学 同时也促使着我问了自己一些问题, 比如,我将在何时死去? 我要怎么推迟那一天的到来? 正如你们所看到的, 答案并不是我们想象的那样。 Julianne Holt-Lunstad是杨百翰大学的 一名研究员, 她在一系列对于 在座大多数观众一样 成千上万中年人 的研究中强调了这个问题。 她观察了他们生活中的每一个方面 饮食,锻炼 以及物质条件, 多久去一次医院, 是否吸烟饮酒等。 她把这些都记录了下来 然后她和她的同事就静静的等了七年 观察七年后哪些人还健在。 那些所有健在的人 是什么降低了他们死去的可能性呢? 这就是她提出的问题。
So let's now look at her data in summary, going from the least powerful predictor to the strongest. OK? So clean air, which is great, it doesn't predict how long you will live. Whether you have your hypertension treated is good. Still not a strong predictor. Whether you're lean or overweight, you can stop feeling guilty about this, because it's only in third place. How much exercise you get is next, still only a moderate predictor. Whether you've had a cardiac event and you're in rehab and exercising, getting higher now. Whether you've had a flu vaccine. Did anybody here know that having a flu vaccine protects you more than doing exercise? Whether you were drinking and quit, or whether you're a moderate drinker, whether you don't smoke, or if you did, whether you quit, and getting towards the top predictors are two features of your social life. First, your close relationships. These are the people that you can call on for a loan if you need money suddenly, who will call the doctor if you're not feeling well or who will take you to the hospital, or who will sit with you if you're having an existential crisis, if you're in despair. Those people, that little clutch of people are a strong predictor, if you have them, of how long you'll live. And then something that surprised me, something that's called social integration. This means how much you interact with people as you move through your day. How many people do you talk to? And these mean both your weak and your strong bonds, so not just the people you're really close to, who mean a lot to you, but, like, do you talk to the guy who every day makes you your coffee? Do you talk to the postman? Do you talk to the woman who walks by your house every day with her dog? Do you play bridge or poker, have a book club? Those interactions are one of the strongest predictors of how long you'll live.
我们来简要地看看她收集的数据 从影响最低的到最高的。 好吗? 首先是干净的空气,很棒。 但是它并不会预测你的寿命。 其次是否治疗了高血压, 挺好, 但也不是一个重要因素。 是胖是瘦, 你们都可以不用有罪恶感了, 这只排到倒数第三呢。 接下来是你锻炼了多少, 但这也只是一个中等的影响因素。 你是否心脏出现过问题, 现在在恢复期和锻炼着 变得越来越关键咯。 接下来是你是否注射过流感疫苗。 在座的有人知道 接种流感疫苗其实比锻炼 更能保护我们的身体吗? 然后是,你是否酗酒然后戒掉了 又或许是你是适度饮酒。 然后,吸烟否,如果吸烟, 那么你是否戒掉了, 马上到影响最大的因素了: 这就是你社交生活的两大特点。 第一,就是你亲近的关系。 就是那些你需要贷款时想到的人 如果你突然急需用钱, 身体不适的时候他会打电话给医生 带你去医院, 在你感到存在危机的时候陪着你 在你感到绝望的时候陪着你。 这些人,这一小部分人 如果你拥有了的话, 将是你能活多久的最大的影响因子。 接下来的因素,让我觉得很震惊, 它就是所谓的社会融合。 意思就是你在每天的生活中 与人们有着多少互动。 你同多少人交谈过? 这些同时意味着你的 或生疏或熟络的人脉。 并不只是你非常亲近的, 对你有着不同寻常的意义的人们。 就像你会跟那个每天给你做咖啡的 伙计说话吗? 你跟邮递员交谈过吗? 你跟那个每天遛狗 经过你家门前的女士聊过天吗? 你玩桥牌或者扑克, 加入了读书俱乐部吗? 这些互动,都是最能影响寿命的 因素之一。
Now, this leads me to the next question: if we now spend more time online than on any other activity, including sleeping, we're now up to 11 hours a day, one hour more than last year, by the way, does it make a difference? Why distinguish between interacting in person and interacting via social media? Is it the same thing as being there if you're in contact constantly with your kids through text, for example? Well, the short answer to the question is no, it's not the same thing. Face-to-face contact releases a whole cascade of neurotransmitters, and like a vaccine, they protect you now in the present and well into the future. So simply making eye contact with somebody, shaking hands, giving somebody a high-five is enough to release oxytocin, which increases your level of trust and it lowers your cortisol levels. So it lowers your stress. And dopamine is generated, which gives us a little high and it kills pain. It's like a naturally produced morphine.
这就引入了下一个问题: 如果我们在网上花费比 其他任何活动都多的时间, 包括睡觉, 我们每天最多就睡11个小时 顺便提一下,比去年多一个小时, 这会有所改变吗? 怎么区分面对面的互动 和通过社交平台与人们交谈呢? 这两者是相同的吗? 比如你长期和你的孩子 通过短信保持联系。 事实上,简单来说: 不是 这不能相提并论。 面对面的交谈会释放出 完整的级联神经递质 就像疫苗,能立马保护你 也能保证在未来 你不会遭受病毒的侵扰。 所以哪怕只是简单的 与他人进行眼神交流, 握手,与某人击掌, 都足以让我们释放催产素, 提高我们的信任水平, 降低皮质醇水平。 进而减少我们的压力。 另外也会产生多巴胺, 给我们一种兴奋感 还可以止疼。 就像天然的吗啡一样。
Now, all of this passes under our conscious radar, which is why we conflate online activity with the real thing. But we do have evidence now, fresh evidence, that there is a difference. So let's look at some of the neuroscience. Elizabeth Redcay, a neuroscientist at the University of Maryland, tried to map the difference between what goes on in our brains when we interact in person versus when we're watching something that's static. And what she did was she compared the brain function of two groups of people, those interacting live with her or with one of her research associates in a dynamic conversation, and she compared that to the brain activity of people who were watching her talk about the same subject but in a canned video, like on YouTube. And by the way, if you want to know how she fit two people in an MRI scanner at the same time, talk to me later.
所有的这些,我们的意识 都探测不到, 这也就是我们常把现实和网络活动 混淆为一物的原因。 而我们现在已经有了证据, 最新的证据 证明了它们有区别的。 我们来看看神经科学, Elizabeth Redcay是马里兰大学的 一名神经科学家, 她试图准确描述这些区别: 面对面互动 我们脑中产生的活动 对比人们看着一些静态的东西时 脑中的变化。 她将大脑功能进行了对比 有两组实验人员, 一组是与她进行真实互动的, 或者跟她的研究员 进行动态交谈的。 她把这一组人员的大脑活动跟 另外一组只是静静得看 她讲述着同一个话题的视频 就像看YouTube视频一样。 另外,如果你想知道 她是怎么把两个人 同时塞进核磁共振仪的 可以一会儿找我交谈。
So what's the difference? This is your brain on real social interaction. What you're seeing is the difference in brain activity between interacting in person and taking in static content. In orange, you see the brain areas that are associated with attention, social intelligence -- that means anticipating what somebody else is thinking and feeling and planning -- and emotional reward. And these areas become much more engaged when we're interacting with a live partner.
那么区别到底在哪儿呢? 这是在真实的社交互动中的大脑。 你看到的是进行这两种互动方式时 大脑活动中的不同点。 你们看到的橘色, 大脑的这个区域是与注意力 和社交智慧紧密联系的, 意味着在想别人在想什么 他们的感受是什么,在计划着什么 以及情感反馈。 这些区域当我们在进行真实互动时 就变得越来越多。
Now, these richer brain signatures might be why recruiters from Fortune 500 companies evaluating candidates thought that the candidates were smarter when they heard their voices compared to when they just read their pitches in a text, for example, or an email or a letter. Now, our voices and body language convey a rich signal. It shows that we're thinking, feeling, sentient human beings who are much more than an algorithm. Now, this research by Nicholas Epley at the University of Chicago Business School is quite amazing because it tells us a simple thing. If somebody hears your voice, they think you're smarter. I mean, that's quite a simple thing.
这些丰富的大脑信号 可能解释了为什么世界500强的 招募人员 在评估应聘者时 往往会觉得听到他们的声音之后 觉得应聘者更聪明, 相比起简单阅读他们的想法 或读一封邮件或者信之类。 我们的声音和肢体语言 传达着丰富的信号 代表着我们在思考, 我们的切身体会 我们是有感情的人们 非 一个公式就可以 简单计算得出的。 Nicholas Epley在芝加哥大学商学院 做出的研究 非常了不起, 它告诉了我们一个简单的道理。 当人们听到你的声音时 往往觉得你更加聪明一些。 我觉得,这就是很简单的一件事。
Now, to return to the beginning, why do women live longer than men? And one major reason is that women are more likely to prioritize and groom their face-to-face relationships over their lifespans. Fresh evidence shows that these in-person friendships create a biological force field against disease and decline. And it's not just true of humans but their primate relations, our primate relations as well. Anthropologist Joan Silk's work shows that female baboons who have a core of female friends show lower levels of stress via their cortisol levels, they live longer and they have more surviving offspring. At least three stable relationships. That was the magic number. Think about it. I hope you guys have three.
我们回到一开始的主题, 为什么女性普遍要比男性更长寿呢? 主要的一个原因就是 女性会优先考虑和培养 她们与人的面对面关系, 在整个生命过程中都是这样。 最新的证据表明 这种亲自见面的友谊 营造了一种生命力量 可以抵抗疾病和衰退。 而这并不仅仅适用于人类 同样适用于我们的灵长类近亲。 人类学家Joan Silk的研究表明 拥有亲密雌性朋友的雌性狒狒 由她们的皮质醇水平可以看出 其更不容易焦虑, 她们活得更久, 而且拥有更多存活下来的子孙。 至少三种稳定的关系。 这是一个神奇的数字。 仔细想想。 我希望你们可以拥有这三种。
The power of such face-to-face contact is really why there are the lowest rates of dementia among people who are socially engaged. It's why women who have breast cancer are four times more likely to survive their disease than loners are. Why men who've had a stroke who meet regularly to play poker or to have coffee or to play old-timer's hockey -- I'm Canadian, after all --
就像面对面交谈所带来的力量一样 正是为什么参与社交的人 往往拥有更低的痴呆率的原因。 这也是为什么同样是乳腺癌患者 参与社交的患者战胜疾病的可能性 是孤独者的四倍。 这也就是为什么男人中风之后 那些定期打牌,喝咖啡 打老手的曲棍球的人, 毕竟我是加拿大人,
(Laughter)
(笑声)
are better protected by that social contact than they are by medication. Why men who've had a stroke who meet regularly -- this is something very powerful they can do. This face-to-face contact provides stunning benefits, yet now almost a quarter of the population says they have no one to talk to.
社交比起药物治疗 反而更好的保护了身体的原因。 中风之后的人,定期相见 这是他们能做的非常有用的一件事。 面对面的交谈提供了惊人的益处, 可如今接近四分之一的人口说 他们没有可以诉说的人。
We can do something about this. Like Sardinian villagers, it's a biological imperative to know we belong, and not just the women among us. Building in-person interaction into our cities, into our workplaces, into our agendas bolsters the immune system, sends feel-good hormones surging through the bloodstream and brain and helps us live longer. I call this building your village, and building it and sustaining it is a matter of life and death. Thank you.
我们可以改变这个情况的。 就像撒丁岛的村民们, 知道我们所属于一个群体 是一种生物本能, 不仅是女性拥有这种本能。 把建立一种亲自的互动联系, 在我们的城市,上班的地方 写在日程安排里, 加强我们的免疫系统, 通过血液和大脑 传达感觉良好的荷尔蒙, 这能帮助我们活得更久一些。 我把这叫做建立自己的村庄, 建立和维护它是生死攸关的事。 谢谢。
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Helen Walters: Susan, come back. I have a question for you. I'm wondering if there's a middle path. So you talk about the neurotransmitters connecting when in face-to-face, but what about digital technology? We've seen enormous improvements in digital technology like FaceTime, things like that. Does that work too? I mean, I see my nephew. He plays Minecraft and he's yelling at his friends. It seems like he's connecting pretty well. Is that useful? Is that helpful?
Helen Walters:Susan请回。 我有个问题。 我在想啊, 有没有一个适中的途径。 你刚刚说了关于面对面交谈时 神经递质的释放, 那么关于数字技术呢? 我们见证了数字技术巨大的进步, 就像视频对话那样的。 这些也有用吗? 我意思是,我看我的侄儿 他在玩“我的世界”, 一边对他的朋友大吼大叫, 看起来他与朋友联系的不错。 这也有用吗?有帮助吗?
Susan Pinker: Some of the data are just emerging. The data are so fresh that the digital revolution happened and the health data trailed behind. So we're just learning, but I would say there are some improvements that we could make in the technology. For example, the camera on your laptop is at the top of the screen, so for example, when you're looking into the screen, you're not actually making eye contact. So something as simple as even just looking into the camera can increase those neurotransmitters, or maybe changing the position of the camera. So it's not identical, but I think we are getting closer with the technology.
Susan Pinker :一些数据正在显现。 数字时代革命发生时, 我们的数据刚获得不久 健康数据是落后的。 所以我们还在学习研究中, 但是我可以说有些进步 是可以在科技中实现的。 比如,你的摄像头 是在手提电脑屏幕的最上方, 当你在看屏幕的时候, 你没有进行眼神交流, 哪怕是仅仅看着摄像头, 也可以促进神经递质的释放, 又或许可以改变一下摄像头的位置。 这并不相同,但是我觉得 我们正在利用科技达到我们的目标。
HW: Great. Thank you so much.
HW:非常感谢。
SP: Thank you.
SP:谢谢。
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