孤独，是否与长期炎症有关

Being lonely or socially isolated can negatively affect your wellbeing. There is even research showing that it increases the risk of illnesses such as cardiovascular disease, dementia and depression.

孤独或社会孤立会对你的健康产生负面影响。甚至有研究表明，它会增加患心血管疾病、痴呆症和抑郁症等疾病的风险。

Some researchers suggest that loneliness and social isolation lead to poorer health because they increase inflammation. Inflammation is when your body tells your immune system to produce chemicals to fight off infection or injury. It can also occur when you experience psychological or social stress.

一些研究者认为孤独和社会孤立会导致健康状况恶化，因为它们会增加炎症。炎症是指你的身体告诉你的免疫系统产生化学物质来抵抗感染或伤害。当你经历心理或社会压力时，也会发生这种情况。

Short-term, local inflammation – such as when you accidentally cut your finger – can be helpful, but having slightly elevated long-term inflammation is associated with poor health. Researchers propose that loneliness and social isolation are linked to this elevated long-term inflammation.

短期的局部炎症——比如你不小心割伤了手指——可能会有帮助，但长期炎症轻微升高与健康状况不佳有关。研究人员认为孤独和社会孤立与这种长期炎症升高有关。

In our latest study, we wanted to see if loneliness (the subjective state of feeling alone) and social isolation (the objective state of being alone) are linked to long-term inflammation.

在我们最新的研究中，我们想看看孤独(感觉孤独的主观状态)和社会孤立(孤独的客观状态)是否与长期炎症有关。

To do this, we searched for all published studies that looked at loneliness with inflammation or social isolation with inflammation. We found 14 studies that examined loneliness and 16 that examined social isolation.

为了做到这一点，我们搜索了所有发表的研究，这些研究都是关于炎症引起的孤独或炎症引起的社交孤立。我们发现了14项关于孤独的研究和16项关于社交孤立的研究。

Our analysis revealed that people who are more socially isolated have higher levels of two inflammatory chemicals: C-reactive protein and fibrinogen. C-reactive protein is commonly used as an indicator of inflammation and high levels are associated with poor health.

我们的分析显示，社会孤立程度越高的人，两种炎性化学物质的水平越高:c反应蛋白和纤维蛋白原。c反应蛋白常被用作炎症指标，高水平的c反应蛋白与不良健康状况有关。

Fibrinogen increases blood clotting and is higher when people have an injury or trauma. When people have long-term increased levels of these inflammatory markers, it can lead to an increased risk of poorer health over time.

纤维蛋白原增加血液凝结，当人们受到伤害或创伤时，纤维蛋白原含量更高。当人们长期增加这些炎症标志物的水平时，随着时间的推移，可能导致健康状况恶化的风险增加。

An evolved response?

进化的反应?

Social isolation could be linked to higher levels of inflammation for several reasons. It could be that social isolation leads to inflammation. We have evolved to be a social species, so being socially isolated could be a source of stress. And stress has a direct effect on the immune system.

社会孤立可能与更高水平的炎症有关，原因有几个。可能是社会孤立导致炎症。我们已经进化成一个社会物种，所以被社会孤立可能是压力的来源。压力对免疫系统有直接影响。

It is also possible that we evolved to turn on our immune response when we are isolated. This is because when alone we could be at a greater risk of being injured. Our immune system may have learned to turn itself on to prepare for this greater risk.

当我们被孤立的时候，我们也有可能进化来开启我们的免疫反应。这是因为当我们独自一人时，可能会有更大的受伤风险。我们的免疫系统可能已经学会了打开自己，为这种更大的风险做准备。

It is also possible that inflammation leads to social isolation. People who are ill and have higher levels of inflammation can feel like they don't want to be around other people. This could be because we have evolved to want to isolate ourselves so we don't infect other people.

炎症也有可能导致社会孤立。生病和炎症程度更高的人会觉得自己不想和别人在一起。这可能是因为我们进化到想要孤立自己，这样我们就不会感染其他人。

People who have lots of physical illnesses also have higher levels of inflammation. Those people who have lots of physical illnesses are sometimes not as able to get around and could become socially isolated because of this.

有很多身体疾病的人也有更高水平的炎症。那些有很多身体疾病的人有时不能四处走动，因此可能会在社会上变得孤立。

The evidence linking loneliness with inflammation was less convincing. We found some evidence that loneliness was linked to an inflammatory chemical called interleukin-6. But this was not a consistent finding and was based on only two studies.

把孤独和炎症联系起来的证据不那么令人信服。我们发现一些证据表明，孤独与一种叫做白细胞介素-6的炎症化学物质有关。但这并不是一个统一的科学发现，而且只基于两项研究。

This suggests that there may not be a direct effect of loneliness on inflammation. Instead, loneliness may change how our body responds to stress. There is research showing that lonely people are more likely to have an enhanced inflammatory response to stress.

这表明孤独感对炎症可能没有直接影响。相反，孤独可能会改变我们的身体对压力的反应。有研究表明，孤独的人更有可能对压力有更强烈的炎症反应。

Our study provides some evidence of a link between social isolation and inflammation. But we think that the link between loneliness and social isolation with poor health is a lot more complex than inflammation.

我们的研究为社交孤立和炎症之间的联系提供了一些证据。但我们认为，孤独和社交孤立与健康不良之间的联系要比炎症复杂得多。