Science Finds the Catholic Answer to Aging Healthily

Maybe the fact that I sleep every night with Gregorian Chant playing softly in the background is part of why I'm approaching my 79th birthday.

From Aleteia

By Cerith Gardiner

And the great news is it's accessible and no gym is involved!

Catholics may finally have the perfect excuse to spend more time admiring cathedrals, listening to sacred music, or gazing thoughtfully at Caravaggio.

According to a new study, engaging regularly with the arts may slow biological aging at levels comparable to physical exercise. The research, carried out by University College London and published in the journal Innovation in Aging, found that adults who regularly participated in artistic or cultural activities appeared to age more slowly biologically than those who rarely did so.

And remarkably, the effects were not limited to painting masterpieces or performing in orchestras. Reading, listening to music, visiting museums, attending exhibitions, singing, dancing, photography, and even crafting all appeared to have measurable benefits.

In fact, participants who engaged in the arts weekly aged around 4% more slowly than those who rarely participated, while even monthly engagement was associated with slower aging.

Lead researcher Professor Daisy Fancourt explained that arts engagement should perhaps be viewed “in a similar way to exercise” when thinking about health-promoting behaviours. As People shared, the scientist further explained:

Our study also suggests that engaging in a variety of arts activities may be helpful. This may be because each activity has different ‘ingredients’ that help health, such as physical, cognitive, emotional or social stimulation,

Now this raises a rather delightful possibility for Catholics. After all, Catholicism has spent centuries surrounding believers with art.

Sacred architecture. Stained glass. Choral music. Frescoes. Poetry. Incense. Illuminated manuscripts. Gregorian chant. Marble sculpture. Gold leaf. Candlelight flickering beneath vaulted ceilings. Even the smallest village church often contains some quiet artistic treasure tucked away in a side chapel.

One suspects the Church understood something long before modern neuroscience arrived with blood tests and epigenetic clocks. Human beings need beauty. However, not as a luxury, but as nourishment.

Flourishing physically and spiritually

Of course, the study is not suggesting Catholics can replace exercise entirely with a leisurely wander around the Vatican Museums. A brisk walk remains advisable (and we've reported numerous times on the benefit of getting your walking boots on!). But there is something wonderfully affirming in the idea that spending time with beauty, music, creativity, and contemplation may genuinely help us flourish physically as well as spiritually.

The researchers also noted that the strongest effects appeared among adults over 40. Perhaps that feels instinctively true, too. Many older people speak about becoming more emotionally affected by music, art, literature, or sacred spaces as they age.

Perhaps beauty slows us down enough to breathe properly again. Perhaps it lifts us momentarily out of anxiety and mental noise. Or perhaps human beings simply function better when life contains wonder alongside productivity.

Either way, Catholics are arguably sitting on one of the richest artistic inheritances in the world.

So the next time someone heads off to admire Renaissance paintings, linger in a candlelit cathedral, or lose themselves in sacred polyphony, they may perhaps smile at the thought that they are not merely nourishing the soul. According to modern science, they might be doing something rather good for the body, too.