Want to live to a ripe old age? Personally, I’m very keen on the idea. So I’m intrigued by a new study from University College London, which found that singing, painting, visiting galleries and attending cultural events actually slow your biological ageing. Not metaphorically. Not anecdotally. At a cellular level, measurable in your blood.

The research, published in the journal Innovation in Aging, found that people who took part in arts and cultural activities at least once a week were, on average, a year younger biologically than those who rarely engaged. Those who exercised once a week? Only six months younger by the same measure. The arts, in short, outperform the gym.

Latest Videos From

You may like

Instagram“. It’s more likely to be the last time they were in a gallery, down the front at a gig, taking part in a life-drawing class, or having a stroll around a craft market full of life and colour.

And yet, given a free evening, most of us simply crash on the sofa. We’re tired. We’ll go next week. Then we open our phones “for five minutes” and resurface an hour later. Having learned nothing, felt nothing and gained nothing, other than a sense of vague disorientation and emptiness.