Warm people likely to keep cold at bay¹

Staying positive² through the cold season could be your best defense against getting ill, new study findings suggest. In an experiment that exposed healthy volunteers to a cold or flu virus,³ researchers found that people with a generally sunny disposition⁴ were less likely to fall ill.

The findings, published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, build on evidence that a "positive emotional style"⁵ can help ward off⁶ the common cold and other illnesses. Researchers believe the reasons may be both objective as in happiness boosting immune function and subjective as in happy people being less troubled by a scratchy throat or runny nose.⁷

"People with a positive emotional style may have different immune responses to the virus," explained lead study author Dr Sheldon Cohen of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. "And when they do get a cold, they may interpret their illness as being less severe."

Cohen and his colleagues had found in a previous study that happier people seemed less susceptible to⁸ catching a cold, but some questions remained as to⁹ whether the emotional trait itself had the effect.

For the new study, the researchers had 193 healthy adults complete standard measures of personality traits, self-perceived health and emotional "style." Those who tended to be happy, energetic and easy-going were judged as having a positive emotional style, while those who were often unhappy, tense and hostile had a negative style.

The researchers gave them nasal drops containing either a cold virus or a particular flu virus. Over the next six days, the volunteers reported on any aches, pains, sneezing or congestion they had, while the researchers collected objective data, like daily mucus production. Cohen and his colleagues found that based on objective measures of nasal woes, happy people were less likely to develop a cold.

词汇：

bay n. 绝境，穷途末路

flu（influenza 的简称）n. 流（行性）感（冒）

virus n. 病毒

disposition n. 本性，性情

psychosomatic adj. 心身的，身心的

boost vt. n. 提高，举起

immune adj. 免疫的

scratchy adj. 刺痛的，使人发痒的

runny adj. 流粘液的

Pittsburgh n. 匹兹堡（美国城市）

colleague n. 同事

susceptible adj. 易感的，敏感的

catch vt. 感染到

trait n. 特质；特性

perceive vt. 发觉，觉察；理解

energetic adj. 精力充沛的，精神饱满的

easy-going adj. 随和的

tense adj. 紧张的

hostile adj. 敌意的

nasal adj. 鼻的

ache n. （长时间连续的）疼痛，酸痛

sneeze vi. 打喷嚏

congestion n. 充血

mucus n. 粘液

woe n. 痛苦，苦恼；（复）灾难，苦头