日本長壽老人的生活方式

The lifestyle of Japan's long-lived elderly

日本長壽老人的生活方式

You have probably heard that Japan consistently has among the highest life expectancy in the world and that the island of Okinawa has the greatest concentration of centenarians (people who live to at least 100).

你可能聽說過，日本一直是世界上預(yù)期壽命最高的國家之一，沖繩島的百歲老人(活到至少100歲的人)最多。

I have long been fascinated by centenarians and the life lessons they have to share. But the truth is, I have never been sure I would want to live that long unless I could somehow be certain I would have a strong mind and body.

長久以來，我一直被百歲老人及其分享的人生經(jīng)驗(yàn)所吸引。但事實(shí)是，我從來沒有確定我想活那么久，除非我能以某種方式確定我將有一個(gè)強(qiáng)大的精神和身體。

That is why this next statistic really caught my attention: Nearly two-thirds of the residents of Okinawa are still functioning independently at age 97. That meant they were in their own homes, cooking their own meals and living their lives fully -- at nearly 100 years old!

這就是為什么下一個(gè)統(tǒng)計(jì)數(shù)據(jù)真正引起了我的注意:沖繩近三分之二的居民在97歲時(shí)仍然獨(dú)立生活。這意味著他們在自己的家里，自己做飯，過著充實(shí)的生活——將近100歲了!

For too long, we have too strongly identified age as a number. And yet, most doctors don't focus that much on age. They really want to know more about the physiological age of their patients than the chronological one. They want to know more about their patients' lives, rather than the length of time they have been alive. After all, there are plenty of 50-year-olds whose health is more like that of a 70-year-old. But the opposite is also often true, and that is what I wanted to find when I decided to travel to Okinawa last summer.

長久以來，我們一直把年齡當(dāng)作一個(gè)數(shù)字。然而，大多數(shù)醫(yī)生并不太關(guān)注年齡。他們真的想知道更多關(guān)于病人生理年齡的信息，而不是按時(shí)間順序排列的年齡。他們想更多地了解病人的生活，而不是他們活了多久。畢竟，有很多50多歲的人，他們的健康狀況更像是70多歲的人。但事實(shí)往往恰恰相反，這正是我去年夏天決定去沖繩旅行時(shí)想要尋找的東西。

Okinawa is a chain of islands about 400 miles southwest of mainland Japan. The name means "rope in the open sea" because Okinawa is plopped in the middle of the oceans, with the Pacific to the east and the East China Sea to the west. The water is emerald blue, the beaches are sandy white, and the weather is tropical. In many ways it seems the perfect place to house the Land of Immortals, as the island has long been called.

沖繩島位于日本大陸西南約400英里處，由一系列島嶼組成。這個(gè)名字的意思是“海上的繩索”，因?yàn)闆_繩位于海洋的中央，東臨太平洋，西臨東海。海水是翠綠色的，海灘是沙白色的，天氣是熱帶的。在許多方面，它似乎是一個(gè)完美的地方，以容納長年以來一直被稱為神仙之地。

After landing on the main island of Okinawa, I could immediately tell that something was different there. Although I didn't see people running outside or going to gyms, I did see plenty of active elderly people: gardening in their yards, doing tai chi in the park, riding bikes and playing a croquet-like game called gateball with their friends.

在沖繩島上著陸后，我立刻感覺到那里有些不同。雖然我沒有看到人們在外面跑步或去健身房，但我確實(shí)看到了很多活躍的老年人:在他們的院子里種花，在公園里打太極，騎自行車，和他們的朋友玩一種叫做門球的類似槌球的游戲。

The elders there are less likely than their counterparts in the United States to have heart disease, dementia or certain cancers. Their bones are even stronger than those of similarly aged people around the world. Many of these residents, I learned, are the subjects of one of the largest studies of centenarians ever conducted. Since 1976, nearly a thousand centenarians have been studied, and their wonderful secrets are revealed in the first episode of my docuseries "Chasing Life."

那里的老年人比美國的同齡人患心臟病、癡呆癥或某些癌癥的可能性要小。他們的骨頭甚至比世界上年齡相仿的人的骨頭還要結(jié)實(shí)。我了解到，這些居民中的許多人都是有史以來對百歲老人進(jìn)行的最大規(guī)模研究的對象之一。自1976年以來，已有近千名百歲老人被研究，他們的奇妙秘密在我的紀(jì)錄片“追逐生命”的第一集中被揭示出來。

If you ask anyone in Okinawa why they live so long, you will doubtlessly hear two words: ikigai and moai.

如果你問沖繩的任何人為什么他們活得這么久，你無疑會(huì)聽到兩個(gè)詞：ikigai和moai。

Ikigai, loosely translated, means sense of purpose in life. And in Okinawa, a person's ikigai often grows as they get older. It is their reason for living, that thing that propels them out of bed in the morning. In the United States, people often retire in their mid-60s, but there isn't a similar word in Japanese because the concept of retirement doesn't even exist.

ikigai，粗略翻譯，意思是·人生的使命感。在沖繩，一個(gè)人的使命感經(jīng)常隨著年齡的增長而增長。這是他們活著的理由，這件事推動(dòng)他們在早上起床。在美國，人們通常在60多歲的時(shí)候退休，但在日語中沒有類似的詞，因?yàn)橥诵莸母拍钌踔敛淮嬖凇?/p>

Moai is an informal social group of people who have common interests and look out for each other. Your moai is your "tribe" and another reason Okinawans believe they live so long.

Moai是一個(gè)非正式的社會(huì)群體，人們有共同的興趣，互相照顧。你的Moai是你的“部落”，也是沖繩人認(rèn)為自己長壽的另一個(gè)原因。