A perennial grump? Always see the glass as half empty instead of half full? Might want to brighten up a bit – if, that is, you'd like to live longer. A new study says that the optimists among us may have a lower risk of heart disease and early death.

你是一个牢骚满腹的人吗？你往往只看到玻璃杯里的水是半空而不是半满吗？如果你想长寿的话，你最好更乐观一些。一项新的研究说乐观主义者患心脏病的危险可能要小一些，他们“英年早逝”的危险也要小一些。

Researchers led by Hilary Tindle, an internist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, analyzed eight years of data on 97,253 women, age 50 and over, participating in the Women's Health Initiative, a 15-year study launched in 1991 by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Their findings, released this week at a conference of the American Psychosomatic Society in Chicago: the women who were most cheery were 30 percent less likely to die of heart disease and 14 percent less likely than their pessimistic peers to die from all causes during the study period. The results were even more striking among black women; the optimists among them were 38 percent less likely to die of heart disease and 33 percent less likely to die from all causes.

来自匹兹堡大学医疗中心（University of Pittsburgh Medical Center）的内科医生Hilary Tindle领导了一项研究，在这项研究中，共有97253名年龄在50岁以及以上的妇女参加了美国国家健康研究所（National Institutes of Health (NIH)）于1991年发起的为期15年的名为“妇女健康计划”的研究，研究人员分析了其中8年的数据。他们的研究结果于本周在芝加哥的举办的“美国身心协会”（American Psychosomatic Society）的一次会议上公布。研究显示：与那些悲观的女性们相比，那些最乐观的女性们死于心脏病的可能性要少30%，同时这些乐观女性们在研究期间死于所有其它因素的可能性少14%。对于黑人女性而言，结果更加突出；黑人女性中的乐观者死于心脏病的可能性少了38%，而死于其它所有因素的可能性少了33%。

The researchers caution that their findings only show a link, not a cause-and-effect relationship, between optimism and health outcomes. So what is it about Pollyannas that may make them live longer? It could be that optimistic people tend to be healthier in general; they are more likely to be slim and physically active and less likely to smoke, Tindle says.

研究者们警告说，对于乐观和健康结果之间的关系，他们的研究结果仅仅只表明了一种相关性，而不是“原因和结果”的关系。那么乐观者们（译者注：Pollyanna代指那些乐观的人们）为什么更长寿呢？Tindle说，这可能是因为乐观的人们总体上更健康一些；他们更苗条、参加更多的体育活动，而且更少吸烟。

"Optimistic people seem to seek medical advice and follow it," she says, citing research showing that optimists are inclined to stick with diet programs prescribed by their docs. "They also have good social networks and strong social relationships," which could help them cope with chronic stress, a risk factor for heart disease.

研究显示乐观主义者倾向于坚持医生给他们开出的节食计划，Tindle引述这些研究称：“乐观的人们似乎寻求医生的建议而且不折不扣地实施下去，他们也具有良好的社会网络和很强的人际关系。” 这些都能帮助他们对付慢性压力，而慢性压力是导致心脏病的一种风险因素。

So are pessimists doomed to die early? Not necessarily, Tindle says. This is just one study, and more research is needed to get to the bottom of that question.

那么悲观主义者是否注定就会“英年早逝”呢？Tindle 说未必如此。这仅仅只是一个研究，要回答这个问题的本质，还需要做很多的研究工作。

Vocabulary:

Optimist: 乐观主义者
Perennial: 终年的
Grump: 爱发牢骚的人
Internist: 内科医生
Cheery: 高兴的
Pessimistic: 悲观主义者
Prescribe: 开处方
Chronic: 慢性的
Doom: 注定的

英语文化点滴：

《Pollyanna》是 Eeanor H. Porter写的一部畅销小说，是儿童文学中的经典之作。该书的主人公Pollyanna Whittier是一个非常开朗、乐观的小女孩。她的人生哲学就是所谓的“快乐游戏”（The Glad Game）。她用这种乐观积极的态度看待自己并不美好的生活，同时影响了周围许多的人。由于该小说的巨大成功，使得Pollyanna这个单词进入到了英语语言中，它指那些积极乐观的而且经常保持慷慨大度之心的人。不过，它也可以指那些盲目乐观的人。