Fitness Files: Take art, live longer?

I was kicked out of community college life-drawing classes, even though I listened to the teacher, did my homework and never left early. I am not allowed back.

Legislators decided scarce funding should be allocated to students moving on to four-year institutions, not retirees who repeat Beginning Life Drawing for several successive semesters.

Seniors finally finding time to pursue a lifelong desire to attend art school are limited to one registration per class. During lectures, we older students were the ones who took notes, turned in assignments on time, never played with phones and rarely arrived late or missed class. Just sayin’.

One day after class, my life-drawing teacher said, “At Santa Monica City College, seniors fought the ban with statistical support for the health-giving aspects of retiree art education.”

I remembered my teacher’s message, so today when a respected friend, who should know better, told me, “I’m too old to learn guitar,” I argued with him. “You can master guitar. It’s the strongest type of learning for any age because it combines touch, sight and hearing.”

Dismissing my comment, he said, “I’m living through my daughter’s guitar class. I can’t remember chords or finger placement.”

After I left him, I decided to find out for myself how an art education aids senior health.

“Your Brain on Art,” from the December 2014 Watercolor Artist magazine, was handed to me by Jan, a fellow senior center artist. (After being excluded from community college, I landed at my city’s senior art program.)

The magazine quotes PLOS ONE, an international, peer-reviewed online journal. German researchers took MRIs and other tests of two groups ages 62 to 70. One group took 10 weeks of hands-on art, and the other studied art appreciation.

End-session MRIs and other testing showed “a significant improvement in psychological resilience” in the hands-on art students, “whereas the art appreciation students did not” improve. Researchers postulated that “motor skills and problem solving involved with actual creation” led to “effective integration between regions of the brain … which process introspection, self monitoring, memory and emotional recognition in others,” thus reversing deterioration of regions of the brain known to decline with age.

Dr. Gene Cohen, oft-quoted authority who wrote the “Creativity and Aging Study” in April 2006, cites final results that revealed “strikingly positive differences between those involved in participatory art programs” verses those not involved. Senior art students had better health, less need for doctors and medication, and “more positive responses on mental health measures,” all pointing to greater involvement in overall activities, maintaining independence and reducing risk factors for long-term care.

Yikes, take art!

Finally, for my friend who thinks he’s too old to study music, sciencedaily.com from May 2011, in a piece titled “Musical Experience Offsets Some Aging Effects,” quotes Nina Kraus, who advocates for lifelong musical training. She says, “When compared to their non-musician counterparts, musicians 45 to 65 years old excel in auditory memory and the ability to hear speech in noisy environments.”

Seems that musical training can reduce age-related hearing loss.

Dr. Norman Weinberger of UC Irvine studies neurobiology and memory. He is quoted in “Never Too Late To Learn An Instrument,” from December 2012 on NPR.org.

Weinberger says, “Pioneering research on the auditory system and the brain, [indicates that] while it’s harder for the mature brain to learn an instrument, it’s not impossible…. A lot of people believe the brain isn’t very plastic after puberty. In fact, the brain maintains its ability to change.”

Then Weinberger asks, “Is it as easy to learn something when you’re 65 as it is at 5? No. But can it be done? Yes.”

Scott Hawkins, a piano teacher, also quoted by npr.org, says, “For those who are willing to practice and settle for something less than virtuosity, there are real payoffs. Playing music is great mental exercise and can keep brain cells alive that would otherwise wither and die. And it’s fun.”

And here’s a personal note regarding the unique creative/social fulfillment of my art class hours.

Struggling with pencil and paint alongside Jan, Gail, Nancy Judy and Mary bonds us and forges strong connections to our teacher, Theresa. As soon as one session ends, we register for the next six weeks, expanding our talents and friendship as well as — a bonus — remaining healthier.

Newport Beach resident CARRIE LUGER SLAYBACK, since turning 70, has run the Los Angeles Marathon and the Carlsbad Marathon.