Creative License: Pursue Your Creative Passions For Healthier Aging

It’s no secret that staying healthy and active as you age is more than just keeping your medical appointments and making sure you’re taking your prescribed medications. Your lifestyle is a critical factor in how well you physically and cognitively age. Whether that means getting sufficient sleep or exercise, maintaining a healthy diet, or staying socially engaged, all of these add up to support you as you get on in years. Previously, we’ve also cited research that suggests that creative endeavors, such as dance or painting, can also yield important brain benefits, keeping your brain more youthful than would otherwise be expected given your chronological age. For more insights into how the arts and creative activities can help benefit your mental and physical well-being, pick up this recent book by Professor Daisy Fancourt, Art Cure: The Science of How the Arts Save Lives, or put on your headphones and listen to a BBC Science podcast on Instant Genius with her here.

We can also report that there is now additional research suggesting that fun and creative hobbies and activities can not only boost your cognitive health but can even slow your biological aging, deep down to your DNA. First comes a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring. Looking at data from 700 participants, aged 40-59, who had good brain health (but a portion of whom were at high genetic risk for Alzheimer’s), researchers were able to report that engaging in such stimulating and creative activities as making music or art, or learning a new language, could help boost cognition and brain health in midlife, even in the face of genetic risk. While this research will continue to monitor participants to evaluate results in the long-term, it appears from the current data that a variety of creative and socially engaging activities can yield significant brain health benefits. For more on this study, line up your sheet music and look here.

Perhaps even more impressive is the new research study published in Innovation in Aging, which reports that the more adults engage in artistic and culturally engaging activities, the slower their biological aging. This research out of London seems to demonstrate that not only will engagement in such artistic and cultural pursuits as museum or concert-going benefit your brain, but it appears to more broadly support your physical aging, as measured through several epigenetic clocks. This study involved over 3500 participants, with a mean age of 52, who, through blood work and survey results, appeared to have slower biological aging than their chronological age would suggest. The more participants engaged in artistic pursuits, ranging from 3X per year to weekly, the slower their biological aging, so that those who pursued artistic or cultural endeavors once a week had a 4% slower rate of aging compared to those who pursued artistic activities less than 3X per year.    

What is the explanation for this? While scientists are not certain, and while this study did not prove causation, it does appear that engaging in artistic and cultural pursuits can provide stress relief, cognitive stimulation, and important social connections, all of which are critical for healthy aging. Stress relief, in particular, can lower levels of inflammation and promote relaxation, along with supporting a better mood, all vital for healthier aging. This was the first study to link participation in the arts with slower biological aging. And similar to other studies of this sort, the researchers suggest you engage in a wide variety of artistic and cultural activities, as a greater variety of activities appears to correlate with slower biological aging. The impact of the arts was so valuable that researchers equated its health benefits to the equivalent of exercise for the body. As one expert exclaimed, “What’s particularly encouraging about this research is that it reframes creativity as not a luxury but as something that may genuinely support longevity and overall health outcomes.” So book those concert tickets and find out more here.

And for one impressive example of how the pursuit of artistic passions can support longevity and healthy aging, take a look at how the creative endeavors of 102-year-old George Strausman are helping him to maintain his cognitive and physical health, along with keeping the passion alive in his 66-year-old marriage. Whether it’s pottery (taught by his 86-year-old instructor) or poetry, George is an amazing example of how the arts can give you the resilience and boost to stay healthy and active in your later years.