Longevity experts list a healthy diet, an active lifestyle, and adequate sleep as well-researched ways to increase your odds of a longer life.
But if you’re looking for a more recreational buffer against ageing, a new paper published in Innovation in Ageing has found that people who engage with the arts tend to age more slowly.
People, especially over-40s, who regularly engaged with culture had lower biological ages at the DNA level, and appeared to age 4% more slowly.
The benefits are “comparable to [those] found in previous studies between current smokers and ex-smokers,” University College London (UCL), whose researchers wrote the paper, said.
How often people attended cultural events seemed to matter
The research, which involved 3,556 adults in the UK, found that, like exercise, regularity mattered.
Those who engaged with the arts (including by reading, listening to music, going to an art gallery, and/or taking trips to museums) at least once a week seemed to see the most benefits (4% slower ageing).
The authors also found that attending a cultural event once a week was as beneficial for those who usually never attended any, as exercising once a week was compared to physically inactive people.
Meanwhile, participants who did an arts activity at least three times a year aged 2% more slowly. For those who did so once a month, that rose to 3%.
And the study’s lead author, Professor Daisy Fancourt, said that frequency wasn’t the only factor to consider. Variety might matter, too.
“Our study also suggests that engaging in a variety of arts activities may be helpful,” she shared with UCL.
“This may be because each activity has different ‘ingredients’ that help health, such as physical, cognitive, emotional or social stimulation.”
Why might the arts help us to age better?
This paper didn’t seek to find that out. It just found a link, not a cause.
Nonetheless, senior study author, Dr Feifei Bu, said: “Our study provides the first evidence that arts and cultural engagement is linked to a slower pace of biological ageing.
“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.”
Professor Fancourt added, “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”.