The arts are good for your health

Being ‘healthy’ doesn’t just mean an absence of illness, but complete physical, mental and social wellbeing – that’s according to the World Health Organisation.

You might already understand how having a dance or watching a play can improve your mental health, but new scientific research has revealed that engaging with the arts has anti-ageing properties and helps to keep your body younger biologically.

What are the arts, anyway?

Any good scientific research has to define its scope, so under the umbrella of ‘arts and culture’ the study included visual arts (such as photography, painting and crafts), performing arts (including music, dance, theatre), literature (reading, writing and attending literary festivals), electronic arts (animation, film making, graphics) and culture (including visiting museums, galleries, cultural events and heritage sites).

Each artistic or cultural activity is by definition valued in its own right rather than being useful for some other purpose, and is an imaginative experience that provokes an emotional response.

How can the impact of arts and culture be measured?

The researchers looked at seven different biological markers in blood samples taken from a large sample of people from the UK. These individuals also rated how often they had done any cultural activities over the last 12 months, and whether these activities were participatory (doing the singing, dancing or painting yourself), ‘receptive’ (experiencing the art created by someone else), or simply involved visiting a cultural or heritage site. The range of different activities was also measured.

For comparison, the researchers also recorded the frequency, intensity and variety of physical activity each individual did in this period.

The study involved a very large data set of 3,556 individuals and controlled for demographic, socioeconomic and health status. That means the results do indicate the benefits of the arts specifically, rather than, for example, the benefits of a more comfortable life that might make it easier to access the arts.

What are the biological markers?

Over recent years, molecular biologists have uncovered some of the ways ageing shows up at molecular, cellular and systems levels. For example, stress can affect the way DNA replicates itself so that genes are not expressed properly, causing various issues including leading to cancer.

Certain parts of our genomes can be studied as ‘biological clocks’, their changes revealing how our biological age might differ from our chronological age. Although it’s not a perfect method, studying these ‘clocks’ across large numbers of people can highlight which behaviours and lifestyles are beneficial for our ‘healthspan’ (how healthy our life is regardless of lifespan).

‘Younger’ biological markers are associated with greater health in terms of less inflammation across the body (a cause of diverse illnesses) and reduced risk of cardiovascular disease, among others.

What exactly does the research show?

The research found arts and cultural engagement has as powerful an effect on biological health as physical exercise or giving up smoking.

There’s also a sliding scale of benefits, so the more often you engage with a greater range of artistic and cultural pursuits, the greater the benefits to your biological age. If you’re active monthly, you age 3% more slowly, but if you up that activity to weekly, you age 4% more slowly.

People who engage weekly are one year biologically younger than those who rarely engage with the arts – while weekly exercise only results in being six months biologically younger!

The arts are for you – now

Don’t worry if you feel you come to this knowledge late. The benefits of arts and cultural engagement are strongest among those aged 40 and up. There’s no better time than now to pick a new artistic hobby.

While the greatest benefits are for those who participate directly, by singing, painting or dancing, even wandering around a gallery, picking up a book to read or visiting a stately home has health benefits.

We already know about the anti-ageing benefits of meditation, a Mediterranean diet and maintaining a healthy body weight, but it won’t be long before your new membership of the local cinema, theatre or art gallery starts to pay for itself in terms of your health.

6 July 2026