The Arts Save Lives!
The arts can uplift, inspire, and instruct. But can they also save lives? A survey of almost thirteen thousand people reveals that those who participate in cultural activities least frequently were one-and-a-half times more likely to die during the nine-year study than those who participated most frequently. Such activities included reading, playing an instrument, and going to concerts, museums, movies and the theater. The study, published in the British Medical Journal, suggested that cultural activity may be part of the reason that the rich live longer than the poor. The cultured people in Bygren’s sample attended cultural events (or participated in an artistic or cultural activity such as reading, playing an instrument, etc.) at least eighty times a year, or once every four days. Lars Bygren, Ph.D., and colleagues at the University of Umea in Sweden aren’t sure how culture keeps us healthy, but they have a few ideas:
- Artistic expression: A tear-jerker film or a rousing symphony can stimulate strong emotions — without causing real-life problems. Research shows that releasing powerful pent-up feelings is good for the body as well as your soul.
- Drawing strength from stories: Seeing a conflict resolved on the stage or on the page may prompt people to address their own problems, Bygren suggests. Some works, he says, “may enhance people’s reflection on their life situation and enable them to prepare for coming events in their minds.”
- Stimulating entertainment: The stimulation of nerve fibers releases hormones that may strengthen the immune system and improve resistance to disease. Environmental enrichment has been shown to increase the number of glucocorticoid receptors in the brain, a development that may protect against depression.
- Friends of the arts: “Attending cultural events widens a social network and gives the feeling of belonging to a group,” Bygren notes. “This itself could be an important determinant of survival.”
Source: Psychology Today, May/June 1998