MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Eat well and exercise - that's the classic advice for living a longer life. A new study suggests another habit to add to the list. NPR's Allison Aubrey reports.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: If you are a painter or a 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, and researcher Daisy Fancourt at University College London had a hunch the benefits went beyond this. Her team analyzed data from thousands of people, from those who did a lot of art to those who did almost none.
DAISY FANCOURT: We found in this study that arts engagement was related to 4% slower aging rate, meaning people were around a year younger biologically if they're regularly engaged in the arts. And this is actually the same reduction in biological aging that we saw for physical activity.
AUBREY: The study published in the journal Innovation in Aging shows 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 it in by going to concerts, theater or museums.
STEVEN HORVATH: Honestly, it really surprises me.
AUBREY: That's Steven Horvath, a geneticist and biostatistician at UCLA. He's the developer of the epigenetic clock, which is a tool researchers use to assess a person's biological age based on changes to their DNA. Horvath says prior studies have shown that healthy habits can slow biological aging, but this is a first for the arts.
HORVATH: 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.
AUBREY: Horvath explains that your chronological age is your actual age in years - the date on your birth certificate. But people don't age at the same rate, so epigenetic clocks can gauge your rate of aging.
HORVATH: I feel this study moves the epigenetic clock field to new frontiers.
AUBREY: Toward evaluating the effects of leisure activities on aging. Cardiologist Doug Vaughan of Northwestern University says creative activities can fend off stress, which may then help tamp down inflammation. So he says this may help explain the slower rate of aging.
DOUG VAUGHAN: The arts or being creative or enjoying the arts is a nonpharmacological intervention.
AUBREY: And he says most people are interested in finding ways to stay healthy that don't require a prescription.
Allison Aubrey, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF NICOLAS REPAC'S "IN THE LAND OF YOUR SOUL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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