The Power of Hugs and How They Affect Our Daily Health         

拥抱的力量和它们如何影响我们的日常健康

Are you a hug or a handshake kind of person? If you’re the latter, you might want to reconsider the power a hug can have on your health. We all know hugs can be comforting during hard times, but why not start making it a regular part of your day?

你是喜欢拥抱还是握手的人?如果你是后者，你可能要重新考虑一下拥抱对健康的影响了。我们都知道在困难的时候拥抱能给人以安慰，但为什么不让它成为你每天的一部分呢?

Some researchers believe that hugging and other interpersonal touch can boost a hormone called oxytocin and also affect our endogenous opioid system. But basically it boils down to this: Simply through the act of hugging, our brains can produce soothing chemicals that help us feel more safe and less threatened throughout the day. So when something stressful does come up, we don’t have such an aggressive fight-or-flight response to it.

一些研究人员认为，拥抱和其他人际接触可以促进一种叫做催产素的激素的分泌，也会影响我们的内源性阿片系统。但基本上可以归结为：仅仅通过拥抱的行为，我们的大脑就能产生舒缓的化学物质，帮助我们在一天中感到更安全、更少的威胁。所以当有压力的事情发生时，我们不会对它有如此积极的战斗或逃跑反应。

Okay, this benefit goes hand in hand with the one above. Maybe you’ve noticed how it’s so much easier to get sick when you’re stressed out. That’s because our immune system kicks into overdrive when we’re feeling stressed, and it can actually backfire to make us more susceptible to illness. 

好吧，这个好处和上面的好处是相辅相成的。也许你已经注意到，当你压力过大时，更容易生病。这是因为当我们感到压力时，我们的免疫系统会超速运转，实际上它会适得其反，使我们更容易生病。

The University of North Carolina conducted a study with 59 women and found some interesting results. After a short series of questions and general chatting about their partner, some women ended each session with a 20-second hug. The women who received a hug from their partners had lower blood pressure and heart rates during stressful sections of testing. The researchers think that oxytocin (that we mentioned earlier) might be the cause for their better heart health. 

北卡罗来纳大学对59名女性进行了一项研究，发现了一些有趣的结果。在一系列简短的问题和关于伴侣的一般性交谈之后，一些女性会以20秒的拥抱结束每次谈话。在压力测试中，接受伴侣拥抱的女性血压和心率较低。研究人员认为催产素(我们之前提到过)可能是他们心脏健康状况更好的原因。

All of us can probably agree that sometimes there’s nothing like a hug when you’re feeling blue. A retirement home in New York decided to take this idea to a systematic level and implement a program called “Embraceable You.” It was a push for more contact between the older residents and staff members so as to improve the residents’ well-being. As it turned out, the residents who received three or more hugs per day felt less depressed, had more energy, could concentrate easier and slept better. 

我们可能都同意，当你感到沮丧的时候，没有什么比拥抱更好的了。纽约的一家养老院决定将这个想法系统化，实施一个名为“拥抱你”的项目。这是为了推动老年居民和工作人员之间更多的接触，以改善居民的福祉。结果显示，每天接受三次或三次以上拥抱的居民感觉不那么抑郁，精力更充沛，更容易集中注意力，睡眠质量也更好。