Could There Be a Hobby To Live Ten More Years?
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Article written by:
Dr. Francisco Arroyo
Medical Director of SportsMed
Sports Medicine & Stem Cell Specialist
Medical | Regenerative Medicine
Practice some art on a daily basis, lowers the level of stress, minimizes physical and mental ailments.
I think that many of us have a hobby or a pastime which we have chosen consciously or unconsciously, or maybe if we think about it a little we do not have any, but in fact reading this article I realized that personally the hobbies that I have had during my life I have been changing, and I have not stayed with any personally. In an interview remembering Chabelo he said that he had a hobby that was relating figures of frogs and that he had more than 2500 and continued collecting, that is a hobby.
But it turns out that there are hobbies and in this article we are going to see why. A group of researchers with cutting-edge technology did an investigation with which they analyzed the effect of art on our brain health.
According to the leading neurologist of the Project, the daily practice of any kind of art has a profound effect on our brain health. Mentioning some of the types of practices that can have an influence on our bodies we have for example: eating 5 different fruits and vegetables a day (researchers say that 30 a week is better, personally I think it is the same), but did you know that if you get hooked on art then you can extend your life by 10 more years?
The truth is that in these studies I always have doubts, but if they mention it as a scientific study then there is some truth in it.
The theory of the research says that if you practice some art on a daily basis (no matter how good or bad you are at it), this has physiological effects on your body such as: lowers the level of stress, minimizes physical and mental ailments and helps us to continue learning even when we are old.
Professor Susan Magsamen, who is executive director of the International Laboratory of Arts + Minds, of the Center for Applied Neuroesthetics at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, in her new book Your Brain on Art and co-authored by Ivy Ross, made a summary of many studies about the vital role that art plays in our brain health.
The recommendation is to do 4 min. of any type of art (from coloring, dancing or playing music) since this decreases our cortisol levels and with it we have a happier and healthier life.
The recommendation from the medical point of view is not bad since cortisol influences our health a lot, since even for me listening to music can be an escape to relax and I had not thought of this as a health treatment.
“Music triggers different patterns that go from the auditory cortex in the brain (processes sounds), the amygdala (this is where emotions are located in the brain), and the hippocampus (which contains memory),” that is, different areas are activated by listening to just one melody.
The ideal indication is to dedicate 30 to 45 minutes per day to art and they name the following examples: you can sing or hum, you can choose to listen to a list of songs that make you groove or that you have happy memories of, read a poem that you really like, make figures with clay, start knitting or make a circle of friends to knit (although I think that is not used anymore, my memories are of good friends of my grandmother all knitting and gossiping), color or paint pictures, smell a fragrance that you really like, etc.
Recommendation: choose something that you like even if you are not good at it and even if it makes the neighbors yell at you to shut up, that is the least of it. The book is called: ‘Your Brain on Art’ by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross published by Canongate.
Article written by:
Dr. Francisco Arroyo – Medical Director of SportMed