Artistic pursuits could help slow down aging, and there's science behind it

• New research from the United Kingdom shows that people who engage in artistic pursuits of various kinds experience a slower pace of aging.
• The study even suggests that the positive effect of having an active cultural life is akin to that of regular exercise.
• While this study does not prove a causal relationship, the researchers believe that artistic and creative pursuits can have beneficial effects on many aspects of health, including lowering inflammation and protecting brain health.

Participating in creative pursuits and engaging with arts and culture is good for the soul but could it also help the body stay in shape? That seems to be what a new study from University College London (UCL) in the United Kingdom is suggesting.

The study — whose findings appear in the journal Innovation in Aging — has found an association between engagement with arts and culture and a slower pace of biological aging.

Other studies have connected creativity with better cognitive health. For instance, research published in Nature Communications in October 2025 found that activities such as dancing and engaging with the visual arts could help the brain stay younger for longer.

It may be, however, that creative and artistic interests and activities may help the entire body maintain its youthfulness in some respect.

Speaking to Medical News Today, one of the study authors, Feifei Bu, PhD, principal research fellow in statistics/epidemiology within the Social Biobehavioural Research Group in the Department of Behavioural Science and Health at UCL, said that the research team was keenly interested in exploring just how artistic interest can actually shape our health throughout our lives.

“Arts and cultural engagement is increasingly seen as a health behaviour,” Bu suggested. “Many studies have linked it to health outcomes such as better cognition, lower depressive symptoms, and improved physical health.”

“However, very little research has examined whether its benefits are biologically embedded — so that’s what we wanted to explore in this study,” she told MNT.