Going to an art gallery or picking up a paintbrush once a week may slow biological aging at roughly the same rate as regular exercise, according to new research.
Genetic Changes That Slow Aging
The researchers used seven different tests examining patterns of DNA methylation—the chemical tags that attach to DNA as we age and serve as markers of biological age. Biological age is measured by how well your cells and internal systems function, whereas chronological age measures the actual time you have been alive.
People who participated more frequently in, or engaged with a variety of arts activities, appeared to age approximately 4 percent more slowly than those who rarely engaged—a rate comparable to the effects of regular exercise. Even engaging three times a year was linked to aging roughly 2 percent to 4 percent more slowly.
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People who engaged in arts and cultural activities weekly were about 1 year biologically younger than those who rarely did so. By comparison, engaging in physical exercise at least weekly was associated with being about six months biologically younger than one’s chronological age.
“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 Feifei Bu from the UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care, said in the statement.
The effects were stronger among adults aged 40 and older, and held up after accounting for factors including body weight, smoking, education, and income. Artistic activities reported by participants included visual arts (painting, drawing, photography, crafting), music (singing, playing instruments, listening), and movement arts (dancing).
Engaging with arts and culture slows biological aging by lowering chronic stress and inflammation, which directly alter certain chemical tags on our DNA.
“The authors themselves point directly to reduction in psychosocial stress, benefits to cardiovascular health, and improvements in cardiovascular risk through healthy lifestyle choices that go hand-in-hand,” Dr. Carolyn Lam, deputy editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) and co-host of the weekly podcast “JACC This Week” and not involved in the study, told The Epoch Times.
Engaging in various types of arts—such as music, dance, or visual arts—could be especially beneficial because each activity offers different health benefits, including physical, mental, and social stimulation, she added.
Lam, an accomplished ballroom dancer, pointed out that as a cardiologist, she finds dancing sits “exactly” at the intersection of the benefits identified by the study. “Dance asks the body and the mind to work in real time,” she said. “Heart rate, breath, balance, partner, music, memory—all at once; it is, in the same moment, cognitive, physical, social, and aesthetic.”
The Case for Both
Arts engagement and exercise are not interchangeable; they are complementary, Lam said.
“Regular physical activity preserves skeletal muscle and bone, builds cardiorespiratory fitness, [and] raises peak oxygen uptake,” which is among the strongest predictors of survival in cardiology, which “cannot be raised by attending an art exhibition,” Lam said.
The researchers said more studies are needed to determine if starting arts activities later in life can also slow aging and how often people need to participate to see benefits. She also noted that the study was observational, conducted in a UK cohort of predominantly white European ancestry, and only shows an association between slowed aging and arts engagement, not a causal link.
That said, Lam sees real value in the findings, particularly for people who struggle with conventional exercise. “For the older, the frail, or those with multiple comorbidities in whom vigorous exercise is difficult,” she noted, “The arts may offer a parallel and accessible route to some of the same biological gains.”
“The message I would take to my patients is not ‘either/or’ but ‘firmly/and,’” Lam said. “Move your body, and feed your soul—both matter, and on the evidence of this study, both seem to show beneficial effects on epigenetic clocks.”
