What Happens To Your Body If You Read Everyday
Shutterstock By Claire Mainprize/May 17, 2021 1:46 pm EST
The COVID-19 pandemic hit numerous industries hard. Amazingly, books made it through relatively unscathed. In fact, despite many bookstores closing their doors for much of 2020, sales hit an eight-year high in the UK, per The Guardian. The upward trend carried over to the U.S., too, as sales were up more than 6% in the first three quarters of 2020 compared to 2019 (via ABC 7). Experts chalk the unexpected boom up to a run of summer bestsellers, increasing demand for children’s books by parents-turned-homeschool-teachers, and a surge of interest in social justice texts. But also, reading is just plain old good for you, and just about everyone knows it.
The mental and emotional benefits of reading are fairly obvious. For example, reading has been shown to increase empathy, improve brain connectivity, fight depression, build your vocabulary, prevent age-related cognitive decline, and help you get to sleep (via Healthline). But reading also gives you some surprising physical benefits as well. Here’s what happens to your body if you turn your dusty and purely aesthetic coffee table books into a daily hobby.
Reading a chapter a day keeps the doctor away
Shutterstock
Another relevant study focused on whether or not reading a chapter of a book each day increases a person’s survival advantage, or length of life. The results, which were published in Social Science & Medicine, indicated that those who regularly read books for 12 years experienced a 20% reduction in their risk of dying compared to non-book readers. Based on these numbers, book readers can add almost a year to their life. This is because reading involves a cognitive mediator, which is a mental process that occurs between an activity and a response (per Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine). It’s similar to how cognitive behavioral therapy affects your mind and body (via Journal of Psychotherapy Integration).
Moreover, these findings proved true regardless of the gender, education, wealth, or health of participants. Reading did, however, have an even more powerful effect on the elderly, and reading books proved much more effective than reading newspapers or magazines. So if you want to live until Elon Musk starts colonizing Mars, you’ll have to put down that People Magazine and head on over to your local library. The glorious smell of old books — and a longer, less stressful life — awaits you.
What Happens To Your Body If You Read Everyday
Shutterstock
By Claire Mainprize/May 17, 2021 1:46 pm EST
The COVID-19 pandemic hit numerous industries hard. Amazingly, books made it through relatively unscathed. In fact, despite many bookstores closing their doors for much of 2020, sales hit an eight-year high in the UK, per The Guardian. The upward trend carried over to the U.S., too, as sales were up more than 6% in the first three quarters of 2020 compared to 2019 (via ABC 7). Experts chalk the unexpected boom up to a run of summer bestsellers, increasing demand for children’s books by parents-turned-homeschool-teachers, and a surge of interest in social justice texts. But also, reading is just plain old good for you, and just about everyone knows it.
The mental and emotional benefits of reading are fairly obvious. For example, reading has been shown to increase empathy, improve brain connectivity, fight depression, build your vocabulary, prevent age-related cognitive decline, and help you get to sleep (via Healthline). But reading also gives you some surprising physical benefits as well. Here’s what happens to your body if you turn your dusty and purely aesthetic coffee table books into a daily hobby.
The mental and emotional benefits of reading are fairly obvious. For example, reading has been shown to increase empathy, improve brain connectivity, fight depression, build your vocabulary, prevent age-related cognitive decline, and help you get to sleep (via Healthline). But reading also gives you some surprising physical benefits as well. Here’s what happens to your body if you turn your dusty and purely aesthetic coffee table books into a daily hobby.
Reading significantly lowers your stress levels and heart rate
Reading a chapter a day keeps the doctor away
Another relevant study focused on whether or not reading a chapter of a book each day increases a person’s survival advantage, or length of life. The results, which were published in Social Science & Medicine, indicated that those who regularly read books for 12 years experienced a 20% reduction in their risk of dying compared to non-book readers. Based on these numbers, book readers can add almost a year to their life. This is because reading involves a cognitive mediator, which is a mental process that occurs between an activity and a response (per Encyclopedia of Behavioral Medicine). It’s similar to how cognitive behavioral therapy affects your mind and body (via Journal of Psychotherapy Integration).
Moreover, these findings proved true regardless of the gender, education, wealth, or health of participants. Reading did, however, have an even more powerful effect on the elderly, and reading books proved much more effective than reading newspapers or magazines. So if you want to live until Elon Musk starts colonizing Mars, you’ll have to put down that People Magazine and head on over to your local library. The glorious smell of old books — and a longer, less stressful life — awaits you.
Moreover, these findings proved true regardless of the gender, education, wealth, or health of participants. Reading did, however, have an even more powerful effect on the elderly, and reading books proved much more effective than reading newspapers or magazines. So if you want to live until Elon Musk starts colonizing Mars, you’ll have to put down that People Magazine and head on over to your local library. The glorious smell of old books — and a longer, less stressful life — awaits you.
