“Art and Cultural Engagement Can Slow the Pace of Aging: Report” [Art News].
A new study published in the journal Innovation in Aging suggests that engaging with art and culture can help slow down the biological clock and improve overall health.
As reported in the Guardian, the UK-based study’s “results demonstrate the health impact of the arts at a biological level.” That’s according to Daisy Fancourt, lead author of the study and the head of the social biobehavioral research group at University College London, who added: “They provide evidence for arts and cultural engagement to be recognised as a health-promoting behaviour in a similar way to exercise.”
The paper accompanying the study reads, “Arts and cultural engagement (ACEng) is increasingly recognised as a health behaviour in its own right, comprising diverse ‘active ingredients’ that are beneficial to health (e.g., social interaction, cognitive stimulation, multi-sensory stimulation, creativity, etc.) and activating complex psychological, biological, social and behavioural mechanisms of action that relate to mental and physical health outcomes.”
I’m thinking of ChiGal’s Mom, here, of course! (Seriously, I would need to evaluate the study to make a serious judgment.)