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0Research suggests participating in the arts slows the ageing process
Host: Want to slow the pace of ageing? Don't fancy exercising or improving your diet? Well, why not try a bit of culture?
New research suggests that participation in the arts is not just good for your soul, but actually slows down your body's biological clock. The lead researcher is Daisy Fancourt, who's Professor of Psychobiology and Epidemiology at University College London. She spoke to my colleague Nick Robinson.
Nick Daisy: We've been looking at a particular way of measuring biological ageing called epigenetic clocks. So essentially, we're all born with our set of DNA, but our lifestyles can decide which parts of our DNA get read out. So a bit like a recipe book, the recipes are there when it's printed, but we only choose to make some of them.
And we've been looking at a process called DNA methylation, which is when a molecule called methyl attaches to our DNA, making it hard to read out, a bit like sticky pages in that recipe book.
And as we get older, there are particular patterns of DNA methylation that tend to occur. So we can look at these patterns to see if someone is older or younger than the number of birthdays they've had. And we found that people who engage more in the arts have got this younger epigenetic age.
Nick: And the problem with these sorts of studies is always you've got to try and screen out everything else that could have an impact. Lifestyle, age, geography and so on. You've done that, have you?
Daisy: Exactly. That's been a big part of this study is considering the demographic and socioeconomic factors that could actually explain this relationship, but also disentangling this from the other kinds of lifestyle and behavioural factors that we already know influence epigenetic ageing.
But interestingly, the relationship is there independent of those. And it's actually the same effect size for arts engagement that we see for physical activity.
Nick: That's fascinating. Well, let's drill down a bit on what you mean by engagement. Do you literally mean if I read 10 pages before going to sleep or have the radio on or do you mean that I have to go and sing in a choir?
Daisy: We've looked at a really broad range of activities within the index. So we looked at performing arts, so making things, crafts, music, dance as well as people going to cultural events whether that's museums or libraries or carnivals, gigs, festivals.
We used a very broad inclusive index that captured a lot of modern and digital participation as well, but we found it's not just about frequency of engagement, diversity of engagement also appears really important.
Nick: So doing different things, not just the one thing that obsesses you. And if people want some advice, really, I know you're not there to give advice, what would you say?
Daisy: We're all used to the kind of advice we have for diet and physical activity, like get your five a day of vegetables and fruit or get your 10,000 steps. And I think it can be helpful if we start to frame arts engagement in a similar way, behaviourally.
So trying to find a rule for ourselves that tries to prioritise even small amounts of engagement, but on that regular basis, ideally on a day-to-day basis.
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