lzheimer's disease is not a pleasant diagnosis¹ at the best of times, and now research suggests some of the early markers of the disease could actually be linked to our own, repetitive negative thought patterns.

即使在最好的情况下，人们也不喜欢听到老年痴呆这个诊断结果，现在研究表明老年痴呆的一些早期症状其实和我们自己重复的消极思维模式有关。

The study looked specifically at 'repeat negative thinking', which isn't just the regular sad thoughts we all go through - it's defined as a cognitive² process that encompasses³ our worrying and ruminating⁴ thoughts.

这项研究特别关注了“重复消极思维”，并不是指我们常有的悲伤的想法，它其实是一个认知过程，包括我们的担忧和反思。

What the team found was that these obsessive⁵ negative thought patterns were linked to an increase in cognitive decline and aggregation⁶ of amyloid beta proteins – a brain protein that's involved in Alzheimer's disease.

该团队的研究结果是，这些强迫性消极思维模式与认知能力下降程度增加以及淀粉样β蛋白的聚集有关，淀粉样β蛋白是大脑中与老年痴呆有关的蛋白。

悲观的人更容易得老年痴呆症.jpg

It's important to note that this research is still in early stages, has quite a few caveats⁷, and is observational. And correlation⁸ doesn't equal causation - there's no evidence here that ruminating negative thoughts are causing these early signs of Alzheimer's.

值得注意的是，这项研究仍处于早期阶段，有很多需要注意的地方，而且只是根据观察得出的结论。相关性并不等同于因果关系，没有证据表明反思的消极想法会导致老年痴呆的这些早期症状的出现。

So, there's definitely no need to start thinking positive thoughts to try and prevent memory loss (although there are unrelated health benefits to reducing rumination).

所以，你根本没必要为了避免记忆力丧失而开始积极思考（虽然减少反思会对健康有其他方面的好处）。

But it's still an interesting study and if the research pans out, it could eventually give us a new way to test who could be at risk of Alzheimer's.

但这仍然是一项有趣的研究，如果这项研究能取得成功，最终会帮我们找到检测患病风险的新方法。

"Understanding the factors that can increase the risk of dementia is vital in helping⁹ us improve our knowledge of this devastating¹⁰ condition and, where possible, developing prevention strategies," explains the Alzheimer's Society Director of Research and Influencing, Fiona Carragher.

阿尔茨海默症协会研究与影响主任Fiona Carragher解释说：“找到增加患痴呆风险的因素很重要，能帮助我们提高对这种毁灭性情况的认知，甚至可以帮我们找到预防的方法。”