If you want to stack the odds in favor of living a long life, you've likely already heard the advice to eat well and exercise, over and over again.
So, here's a new idea: Ignite your creative expression and participate more in the arts. A new study finds this may help boost longevity by slowing down your rate of aging.
If you're a painter or pianist, maybe you've noticed how making art or music can lower your stress level. Creative expression can have a profound effect on our biology. Researchers at University College London had a hunch the benefits went beyond this.
They analyzed survey data and blood samples from about 3,500 adults who were part of a long-term study in the United Kingdom, including some who were very involved in the arts, as well as others who had very little engagement with the arts. Then, they used epigenetic clocks to assess participants' rate of aging.
"We found in this study that 'arts engagement' was related to 4% slower aging rates, meaning people were about a year younger, biologically, if they were regularly engaged in the arts," researcher Daisy Fancourt explains. "This is actually the same reduction in biological aging that we saw for physical activity," she says.
The participants had answered a range of questions, on everything from their exercise habits to questions about more than 40 different arts activities.
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The slower rate of aging held up for both the "doers" of the arts — people who dance, sing or make art — as well as those who take art in by going to concerts, the theater or museums. The findings are published in the journal Innovation in Aging.
"Honestly, it really surprises me," says Steven Horvath, a geneticist and biostatistician at UCLA. He developed the Horvath aging clock, a tool researchers use to assess a person's biological age based on specific chemical changes to their DNA over time.
Measuring the rate of aging
The authors of the new study used seven epigenetic clocks, including a Horvath clock, each of which adds different layers of nuance in interpreting aging, morbidity and mortality risk. Prior studies have shown that healthy habits can slow epigenetic aging, and this new study adds a novel insight.
"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.
Horvath explains a person's chronological age is their actual age in years based on the date on your birth certificate. But given that people don't age at the same rate, an epigenetic clock can gauge your rate of aging, or your "biological" age.
"Overall, I feel this study moves the epigenetic clock field to new frontiers," he says, toward evaluating the effects of leisure activities on aging.
How does an epigenetic clock work?
Epigenetic clocks are tests that analyze patterns of DNA methylation. As we get older, chemical tags called methyl groups latch onto our DNA. The pattern of these tags gives researchers an indicator of biological age.
"You can use methylation to measure time in all cells that contain DNA," explains Horvath.
Horvath spent years at UCLA studying how this molecular biomarker of aging works. In his research he documented how methylation changes one of the four letters of the DNA — namely the C, which stands for cytosine.
"Some of these changes protect us," he says, but others can lead to adverse consequences. He and his collaborators have identified locations in the DNA where the pattern of chemical modifications are most highly correlated with aging changes. They've found that the higher the proportion of methylated DNA in certain locations, the more accelerated a person's biological age.
"We spent over 10 years trying to understand what factors accelerate your epigenetic clock," Horvath says. They found that smoking, unhealthy eating, a sedentary lifestyle and "pretty much any lifestyle factor that is bad for you" accelerates the clock.
Conversely, a diet rich in micronutrients from fruits and vegetables, a healthy body weight and regular exercise all help slow methylation.
"A non-pharmacological intervention"
The University College London study suggests looking further at the health benefits of the arts.
The survey data included only a snapshot of participants' arts activity, as they were asked about which sorts of artistic hobbies and cultural events they had participated in over the last 12 months. "It's an intriguing observation, but it definitely needs to be replicated," Horvath says.
And many questions remain. For instance, whether a person who is not active in the arts now could take up a new music or art hobby in midlife and experience a slowdown in aging, and how frequently they would need to participate to move the needle.
Cardiologist Doug Vaughan of Northwestern University says creative activities can be an antidote to stress. When people reduce their long-term stress levels, he says, this may help tamp down inflammation, too, which is one mechanism by which the arts may be linked to a slower rate of aging.
"The arts, or being creative or enjoying the arts, is a non-pharmacological intervention," Vaughan says that people may enjoy. One of his new research projects will test the effects of a stress-reduction program on epigenetic age. "The biology is pretty clear," he says, pointing to the negative effects of chronic stress on health.
Vaughan says many of his patients tell him they are interested in finding ways to stay healthy that don't require a prescription. So he says when something can be fun and also good for our health, it's a win-win.
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