Everything in moderation, as the old adage goes. As it turns out, that couldn't be more accurate, as research continues to shed light on how the modern world is damaging our health. We might be living longer today than our ancestors did, but the current era isn't as health-friendly as we might think.
老话说得好，凡事都有个度。事实证明，这句话十分准确，研究正持续揭露出现代社会是如何戕害我们的健康的。我们或许能比我们的祖先活得更久，但现在这个年代或许没有我们想的那样对健康多有益。
10.Feeling Guilty Can Damage Your Health
10.愧疚感能伤害你的身体
Every January, people around the world resolve to leave their bad habits behind and embark on a journey of self-improvement as the new year begins. Then, a few weeks later, everyone starts to feel a little guilty for not following through.
每年1月，全世界的人们都决心丢下他们的坏习惯并且在新年伊始时开始一场自我提升的旅程。接着，几周以后，每个人都会为没能做到而开始感到些许愧疚。
But while a little guilt can encourage someone to make positive changes, too much guilt is a different story. Feeling guilty isn't just unpleasant—it could be causing damage to your immune system. Researchers from Hull University found that people who felt guilty about their favorite activities had decreased levels of the antibody immunoglobulin A in their saliva. So if two people like to unwind with a box of wine and some trashy reality shows, but only one feels guilty about it, then the guilty person is more likely to catch viral and bacterial infections. That means your favorite "guilty pleasure" could be the reason you seem to catch colds more often than someone who just calls it "pleasure."
些许愧疚能鼓励一个人做一些积极的改变，但太多的愧疚感则另当别论了。感到愧疚不只是令人不愉快——它还可能对你的免疫系统造成损害。赫尔大学的研究者们发现对自己喜欢的活动感到愧疚的人唾液中的抗体免疫球蛋白水平降低。所以如果有两个人想用一箱葡萄酒和一些没什么意思的真人秀节目来放松自己，但只有一个人对此感到愧疚，那么这个愧疚的人更有可能被病毒和细菌感染。那意味着你最喜欢的"有罪恶感的快乐"可能就是你比只是单纯感到"快乐"的人更容易感冒的原因。
9.光污染
According to astronomers, the majority of Americans under 40 have never experienced true darkness. Urban areas experience a phenomenon called "sky glow," where artificial light is scattered by water droplets, creating a dome of light over the city. Even inside our own homes, the little lights on electronics like alarm clocks and televisions stay on 24/7—and our bodies just weren't built to handle that. In fact, light pollution in the developed world is now so bad that it's damaging our health. According to physicist Eric Vandernoot, the human body is hardwired for a cycle of light and darkness. Overuse of light in the evening is connected to a number of health problems, including increased risk of diabetes, obesity, depression, prostate cancer, and breast cancer.
根据天文学家的说法，大多数40岁以下的美国人都没有体验过真正的黑暗。城市地区有种现象叫"人工白昼"，人造光被水滴反射出去，在城市上空制造了一个光线的穹顶。即使是在我们自己的家里，从闹钟和电视这样的电子产品中发出的微弱光线也一刻不停地照射着我们——而我们的身体可不是生来就能承受这些的。实际上，光污染在发达国家十分严重，它正侵蚀着我们的健康。根据物理学家Eric Vandernoot所说，人体天生适应光与暗的循环。在夜晚过度用光将导致一系列健康问题，包括增加患糖尿病、肥胖症、抑郁症、前列腺癌和乳腺癌的风险。
Sleep disorders are another big problem. In fact, light pollution may have actually changed the entire way we experience sleep. Before the industrial revolution, it was common for people to sleep for two periods of around four hours each, separated by one to three hours "of quiet wakefulness." Even today, studies have shown that people tend to revert back to this sleep pattern once light pollution is taken out of the equation. And even if you buy blackout curtains and cover those flashing LEDs, you might still be in danger from excess light, since the streetlights are still on outside. Turning streetlights off has actually been found to drastically reduce crime (even criminals need to be able to see). Of course, that might not be much comfort to anyone trying to find their way home in the pitch dark, but at least they won't get mugged.
睡眠障碍是另一个大问题。实际上，光污染可能已经改变了我们整个睡觉的方式。在工业革命以前，人们普遍有两段睡眠期，每段约四小时左右，中间隔着1到3个小时的"安静的清醒"时期。研究显示，即使在今天，一旦光污染消失后人们也倾向于回到这种睡眠模式里去。而就算买了遮光布来挡住那些闪烁的LED灯光后，你可能还是会处在多余光照的危险下，因为外边还是有路灯。人们发现关掉路灯实际上大幅减少了犯罪行为（就连犯罪行为也需要能看得见）。当然，这对那些在伸手不见五指的黑暗中想要找到回家的路的人来说不是件好事，但至少他们不会被抢劫了。
8.Added Sugar Is Worse Than You Realized
8.多加糖比你意识到的更糟糕
Sugar itself isn't bad for you—glucose is essential to powering the body, especially the brain. The problem is that people are now consuming more sugar than ever, and you can definitely have too much of a good thing. And while our ancestors got most of their sugar from fruits and grains, these days most of our sugar is added to various processed foods—the average American eats 27.5 teaspoons of added sugar a day. It's hard to cut back, too—the brain has a built-in trigger to let you know when you should stop eating and sugar consumption makes it less effective over time.
糖本身对你无害——葡萄糖给身体、特别是大脑提供的能量至关重要。问题在于人们现在正消耗比以往更多的糖分，而再好的东西用起来都该有个度。我们祖先的多数糖分都是从水果和谷物中获取，而今天我们的多数糖都被加进了各种加工食品中——美国人一天中平均食用27.5匙的添加糖。减少食用量也很难——大脑有一套内置的机制，能让你知道什么时候应该停止进食，而糖分的消耗让它随着时间推移而变得不那么有效了。
It's only relatively recently that we've started to realize just how bad too much sugar can be for you. In the 1970s, when the public became concerned about fat in foods, manufacturers simply replaced fat with sugar. Since then, sugar consumption has shot up worldwide. Which is unfortunate, since sugar is now linked to high cholesterol, diabetes, obesity, premature aging of the skin, dementia, brain damage, poor metabolism, and liver damage. Added sugar might even be damaging to our very DNA. In fact, some scientists now regard sugar as a problem potentially as damaging as alcohol and tobacco.
直到不久前我们才开始意识到太多的糖分会对人造成多大的危害。在上世纪70年代，当公众开始关心食物中的脂肪含量后，制造商仅仅是把脂肪换成了糖分。自那以后，全世界食糖量迅速上升。这挺不幸的，因为现在糖和高胆固醇、糖尿病、肥胖症、皮肤过早老化、痴呆、脑损伤、药物不良代谢以及肝损伤都有关。添加糖甚至对我们的DNA有害。实际上，一些科学家现在把糖看作是和酒精与烟草一样具有潜在危害的东西。
7.气候变化
We already know that global climate change is making Mother Earth sick, but it may also cause major health issues in humans. As our oceans get warmer, toxic algae blooms will increase in likelihood, area, and duration. Algae like Alexandrium catenella can contaminate seafood and cause everything from vomiting to death by paralysis.
我们已经知道全球气候变化让地球母亲生病了，但它也可能会引起人类的重大健康危机。随着我们的海洋变暖，有害藻类将有可能持续区域性的大量繁殖。像链状亚历山大藻这样的藻类能够污染海产品并且通过麻痹引起呕吐甚至死亡等一系列反应。
Meanwhile, as the Earth gets drier, more dust will be blown into the ocean, spurring the growth of dangerous bacteria—poisoning caused by bacteria of the genus Vibrio in seafood is already up 85 percent since 1996. Rapid urban growth means that many sewer systems are already close to overflowing and contaminating our water sources—in Milwaukee, it currently only takes 4.3 centimeters (1.7 in) of rain a day for this to happen. As climate change makes flooding more likely, this could become a real problem. Between the flooding and the increased bacterial growth in the oceans, don't be surprised if water-borne diseases make a comeback in the developed world.
与此同时，随着土地越发干旱，更多的尘土将被吹入海洋，激发危险的细菌生长——自1996年后由弧菌属细菌致毒的海产品已经在85%以上。快速的城市发展意味着许多污水管道系统已接近外溢而污染我们的水源——在密尔沃基，现在只需每日4.3厘米（1.7英寸）的降雨量就会发生这件事。至于气候变化使得发洪水的可能性更大，这将成为一个真正的问题。在思考洪水和海洋里增长的细菌的两个问题时，别为发达国家里卷土重来的水源性传染病感到惊讶。
6.睡眠的缺乏
It might be a cliche, but in our fast-paced modern world many people just don't get enough sleep. And researchers are increasingly concerned about just how dangerous that might be. In fact, men with chronic insomnia who sleep less than six hours per night are substantially more likely to die young than normal sleepers. In one study, 51.1 percent of male insomniacs were dead within 14 years, as opposed to just 9.1 percent of regular sleepers. Oddly, this only appears to affect men—women with chronic insomnia have only slightly higher mortality rates than average. That might be because men are more likely to suffer from severe insomnia than women, even though women are more likely to have insomnia overall.
这或许是陈词滥调，但在我们快节奏的现代生活里，许多人都没有得到充足的睡眠。研究者们越来越关心这会带来怎样的危害。实际上，每晚睡觉少于6小时的慢性失眠者大体上更有可能比拥有正常睡眠的人死得早。在一项研究中，51.1%的男性失眠症患者在14年内死亡，与此相对照的是只有9.1%拥有正常睡眠的人死亡。古怪的是，这似乎只影响男性——患慢性失眠的女性死亡率只比平均水平高一点点。那可能是因为男性比女性更有可能患重度失眠症，即使总的来说女性更可能患失眠症。
While insomnia itself isn't deadly, it will slowly wear a person down by not allowing enough sleep for the body to rest, recover, and revitalize, and long-term sleep loss is now known to cause irreversible brain damage by killing off neurons. Even just working night shifts can badly damage your health. There is also no such thing as being able to "catch up on sleep"—taking naps on the weekend won't make up for lack of sleep during the week.
虽然失眠本身不致命，它却会通过不允许身体由充足睡眠得到休息、恢复而慢慢拖垮一个人，并且现已知长期的睡眠缺失会通过杀死神经导致不可逆的脑损伤。即使只是值夜班也会大大危害你的健康。也不存在"补觉"的说法——在周末打个盹不能弥补这周缺失的睡眠。
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