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Loneliness is bad for your health—certainly as bad as being obese, and possibly as bad as being a moderate smoker.
孤獨不利健康——絕對和肥胖一樣糟糕，可能也和吸煙一樣有害。
So, in these days of plague, when enforced solitude is the order of the day in many places,
因此，在疫情肆虐的日子里，在許多地方，人們被迫獨處，
how to stop solitude turning into loneliness is a pressing medical question.
如何阻止獨處轉化為孤獨是一個緊迫的醫學問題。
One part of the answer is to try to understand the physiology of the change.
答案之一是試圖理解這種變化的生理學原理。
And that has, for the past few years, been the objective of Steven Cole of the University of California, Los Angeles.
在過去的幾年里，這一直是加州大學洛杉磯分校的Steven Cole的目標。
Dr Cole began his work with a study he published in 2015, in collaboration with John Cacioppo of the University of Chicago.
Cole博士與芝加哥大學的John Cacioppo合作，于2015年發表了一項研究，由此開始了他的研究工作。
The pair led a team of psychologists, neuroscientists and immunologists who found that
這兩人領導了一個由心理學家、神經科學家和免疫學家組成的團隊，
the pattern in people's blood of immune cells called myeloid cells is notably different in those who score as "very lonely" on loneliness tests compared with those who do not.
他們發現，在孤獨感測試中，評分為“非常孤獨”的人和正常人相比，他們血液中被稱為骨髓細胞的免疫細胞的模式差異很大。
Lonely people have unusually low numbers of a type of myeloid cell that generates what are known as interferon responses, which hamper viral replication.
孤獨的人他們血液中骨髓細胞的數量異常的低，骨髓細胞可以產生干擾素反應，阻礙病毒復制。
This makes them particularly vulnerable to viral infections. They also have an abundance of a second type of myeloid cell,
這讓他們尤為容易受病毒感染的影響。他們第二種骨髓細胞含量也很豐富
one that promotes the activity of genes which drive inflammation—
這是一種促進驅動炎癥的基因活動的細胞——
and it has been known for years that those who feel lonely experience more inflammation than those who do not.
多年來人們都知道，感覺孤獨的人比沒有孤獨感的人更容易患炎癥。
These correlations are intriguing, but do not explain which comes first, the loneliness or the myeloid response.
這些相關性很有趣，但并不能解釋孤獨和骨髓反應哪個更重要。
Dr Cole and Dr Cacioppo addressed that question by repeatedly measuring perceptions of social isolation in individual volunteers,
Cole博士和Cacioppo博士解決了這個問題，他們重復測量每位志愿者的社會孤立感
while simultaneously tracking, from blood samples, their gene-expression patterns and other changes in their physiology.
同時根據他們的血樣，追蹤他們的基因表達模式和其他生理變化。
They found that, initially, volunteers' feelings of isolation coincided with an increase in their inflammation genes' activity
他們發現，最初，志愿者的孤立感隨著炎癥基因活動以及
and a concomitant increase in the circulation of immature immune cells, called monocytes, that are involved in inflammation—
以及與炎癥相關的未成熟免疫細胞（單核細胞）循環的增加而增加——
and which are also known to travel into the brain and promote anxiety.
這些物質也會進入大腦，引發焦慮。
They noted, too, increased levels in the brain of signalling molecules associated with both inflammation and behaviours such as social withdrawal,
他們還注意到，大腦中與炎癥和社交退縮、
feelings of suspicion towards the outside world and a tendency to act more defensively by making decisions that involve few risks.
對外部世界的懷疑情緒以及做出決定時的防御傾向等行為相關的信號分子水平也有所增加。
That, of course, promotes further feelings of loneliness. Which, in turn, trigger a further myeloid response. And so on.
當然，這進一步加劇了孤獨感，反過來會進一步觸發骨髓反應。等等。
It seems, therefore, that though loneliness starts with solitude, it can quickly take on a physiological life of its own.
因此，似乎孤獨感始于獨處，但它很快就有了自己的生理生活。
Dr Cole thus worries that the enforced isolation, brought about by current circumstances,
因此，Cole博士擔心，對那些已經獨處很久的人來說，當下環境所造成的的強制隔離
of those who are already living alone may create in many people a state of chronic loneliness that is difficult to escape from when things start returning to normal.
可能會使其中許多人產生一種長期的孤獨感，當生活開始恢復正常時，他們很難擺脫這種孤獨感。
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