People who want to live a long life have been told for years to eat lean meats, stay hydrated, floss their teeth, stretch, exercise for 30 minutes every day, and maintain a close-knit community of friends and family. But after a new study, your doctor may be prescribing a trip to a museum, a jazz concert, and joining a reading group, too.
That’s right: a breakthrough study out of University College London found that people who love being intellectually stimulated by art, music, and books and engage in creative activities once a week can extend their longevity by 4%. So, if the average lifespan is 79-80, engaging in the arts that you love anyway can extend yours by more than three years.
Participating in the arts, at least once a week, is great for longevity
“Our study provides the first evidence that arts and cultural engagement is linked to a slower pace of biological aging. This builds on a growing body of evidence about the health impact of the arts, with arts activities being shown to reduce stress, lower inflammation, and improve cardiovascular disease risk, just as exercise is known to do,” Senior author Dr. Feifei Bu said in a statement.
(If you don’t believe that a trip to the museum can be physically demanding, check out our recent article on “Museum Fatigue.”)
The findings show that it’s important for people to participate in the arts at least once a week, whether that means engaging in the creative process by painting, playing an instrument, singing, and dancing. Or, by attending an event in person that requires you to walk around a museum or make your way through an auditorium for a theater performance.
“These results demonstrate the health impact of the arts at a biological level. They provide evidence for arts and cultural engagement to be recognised as a health-promoting behaviour in a similar way to exercise,” lead author Professor Daisy Fancourt said in a statement. “Our study also suggests that engaging in a variety of arts activities may be helpful. This may be because each activity has different ‘ingredients’ that help health, such as physical, cognitive, emotional, or social stimulation.”
Participating in the arts is beneficial on many levels
One reason why engaging in the arts is great for longevity is it promotes physical movement. Another is that when people are creative, i.e. appreciating art or reading a book, it promotes relaxation which can reduce inflammation throughout the body.
Steven Horvath, a geneticist and biostatistician at UCLA and the inventor of the Horvath clock, which helps determine someone’s biological age, was encouraged by the findings. “Honestly, it really surprises me,” he told NPR. “I think this is a very rigorous study, and what is particularly new to me is that arts engagement may have comparable effects to physical activity,” Horvath says.
The study is a big pat on the back for those who have spent their lives with a passion for the arts, whether as creators or as those who go out of their way to appreciate others’ expressions. It’s also a great way to motivate others to find a new creative passion, such as picking up a paintbrush or learning to play the piano. For everyone who felt a little shy about expressing themselves in the arts, they can always use the study as an excuse to reinvent themselves as a creative type: “I only got into slam poetry because it’s good for my health!”
