Trying to get more done than you have time to do?

想比平常有更多時間去完成更多事嗎？

Stress is a feeling we all experience when we are challenged or overwhelmed.

當我們備受挑戰或不堪負荷時，就會有身處壓力的經驗。

But more than just an emotion, stress is a hardwired physical response that travels throughout your entire body.

但壓力不僅是一種情緒，壓力是一種遍佈全身的本能身體反應。

In the short term, stress can be advantageous.

簡單來說，壓力可以是有幫助的。

But when activated too often or too long, your primitive fight-or-flight stress response not only changes your brain but also damages many of the other organs and cells throughout your body.

但當壓力過於活耀或持續太久，你原本用來回應壓力的戰或逃本能不僅會改變你的大腦，還會傷害多個身體裡的器官和細胞。

Your adrenal gland releases the stress hormones cortisol, epinephrine⏤also known as adrenaline⏤and norepinephrine.

你的腎上腺釋放出壓力荷爾蒙、皮質醇、腎上腺素以及去甲腎上腺素。

As these hormones travel through your blood stream, they easily reach your blood vessels and heart.

當這些激素行遍你的血液，它們輕而易舉地就到達你的血管和心臟。

Adrenaline causes your heart to beat faster and raises your blood pressure, over time, causing hypertension.

腎上腺素會讓你的心臟加速，你的血壓因此升高，隨著時間推移而引發高血壓。

Cortisol can also cause the endothelium, or inner lining of blood vessels, to not function normally.

皮質醇還會造成內皮細胞或血管內層運作失常。

Scientists now know that this is an early step in triggering the process of atherosclerosis, or cholesterol plaque build-up, in your arteries.

科學家們現在知道，這是接下來會觸發動脈粥樣硬化或是膽固醇斑塊形成的早期現象。

Together, these changes increase your chances of a heart attack or stroke.

綜合這些改變，你得心臟病和中風的機會就會增加。

When your brain senses stress, it activates your autonomic nervous system.

當你的大腦察覺壓力時，你的自主神經系統會被激發。

Through this network of nerve connections, your big brain communicates stress to your enteric, or intestinal, nervous system.

透過神經連結網絡，你的大腦向腸道或腸道神經系統傳達壓力。

Besides causing butterflies in your stomach, this brain-gut connection can disturb the natural rhythmic contractions that move food through your gut, leading to irritable bowel syndrome,

除了讓你的胃緊張翻騰，這種大腦和腸道的連結反應，會擾亂食物藉由收縮通過腸道的自然節律性，導致大腸激躁症。

and can increase your gut sensitivity to acid, making you more likely to feel heartburn.

同時腸道對酸會更加敏感，讓你更容易覺得胃灼熱。

Via the gut's nervous system, stress can also change the composition and function of your gut bacteria, which may affect your digestive and overall health.

經由腸道神經系統，壓力也會改變你腸道細菌的組成及功能，進而影響你的消化和整體健康。

Speaking of digestion, does chronic stress affect your waistline?

談到消化，慢性壓力會影響你的腰圍嗎？

Well, yes.

答案是，會的。

Cortisol can increase your appetite.

皮質醇會增進你的食慾。

It tells your body to replenish your energy stores with energy-dense foods and carbs, causing you to crave comfort foods.

並告訴你的身體補充能量，攝取高能量食物和碳水化合物，導致你渴望吃下療癒性食物。

High levels of cortisol can also cause you to put on those extra calories as visceral or deep belly fat.

高濃度皮質醇也會產生額外的卡路里，形成內臟或腹部深處的脂肪。

This type of fat doesn't just make it harder to button your pants.

這種類型的脂肪不僅會讓你更難扣上褲子。

It is an organ that actively releases hormones and immune system chemicals called "cytokines" that can increase your risk of developing chronic diseases such as heart disease and insulin resistance.

它就像一積極釋放激素和免疫系統化學物質的器官，稱為「細胞因子」， 會增加罹患慢性病的風險，像是心臟病和胰島素抵抗力。

Meanwhile, stress hormones affect immune cells in a variety of ways.

同時，壓力荷爾蒙以各種方式影響免疫細胞。

Initially, they help prepare to fight invaders and heal after injury, but chronic stress can dampen the function of some immune cells, make you more susceptible to infections, and slow the rate you heal.

一開始，它們有助於打擊入侵者，並利於受傷後癒合。但慢性壓力會抑制某些免疫細胞的功能，讓你更容易受到感染，並減緩你的癒合速度。

Want to live a long life?

想要長壽嗎？

You may have to curb your chronic stress.

你也許需遏制慢性壓力生成。

That's because it has even been associated with shortened telomeres, the shoelace-tip ends of chromosomes that measure a cell's age.

因為壓力甚至和端粒縮短有關，染色體有個像鞋帶尖端的部分，用於測量細胞年齡。

Telomeres cap chromosomes to allow DNA to get copied every time a cell divides without damaging the cell's genetic code, and they shorten with each cell division.

與端粒構成帽子構造的染色體，讓DNA在每次細胞分裂時得以複製，而不會損壞細胞的基因編碼，端粒會隨著每次細胞分裂而縮短。

When telomeres become too short, a cell can no longer divide, and it dies.

當端粒變得太短，細胞便無法再分裂，進而死去。

As if all that weren't enough, chronic stress has even more ways it can sabotage your health, including acne, hair loss, sexual dysfunction, headaches, muscle tension, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, and irritability.

這樣對他們來說似乎還不夠，慢性壓力有更多破壞健康的方法，像是長痤瘡、掉髮、性功能障礙、頭痛、肌肉緊繃、難以專注、疲勞和煩躁。

So, what does all this mean for you?

所以，這代表什麼？

Your life will always be filled with stressful situations.

你的生活會處於壓力充斥的狀態下。

But what matters to your brain and entire body is how you respond to that stress.

對於你的頭腦和全身，最重要的是你處理壓力的方式。

If you can view those situations as challenges you can control and master rather than as threats that are insurmountable, you will perform better in the short run and stay healthy in the long run.

如果你可以將這些情況視為挑戰，認為這一切都在你可控制並掌握的範圍內，而不是將壓力視為一種難以克服的威脅，你就可以在短期內表現得更好，長期來看也能維持健康。