A former professor at Eastern Virginia Medical School in Norfolk.

He founded an association between good health and religion in studies of children and older adults; of U.S. Protestants, European Catholics, Japanese Buddhists and Israeli Jews; of people living in the 1930's and 1980's; of patients suffering from acute and chronic diseases.

Compelling Evidence

Just how powerful is the evidence linking faith and health? More than 30 studies have found a connection between spiritual or religious commitment and longer life. among the most compelling.

• A survey of 5286 Californians found that church members have lower death rates than nonmembers - regardless of risk factors such as smoking, drinking, obesity and inactivity.
  
• Those with a religious commitment had fewer symptoms or had better health outcomes in seven out of eight cancer studies, four out of five blood-pressure studies, four out of six heart-disease studies and four out of five general-health studies.
  
• People with a strong religious commitment seem to be less prone to depression, suicide, alcoholism and other addictions, according to once research analysis.
  
• One of the most extensive reviews demonstrates that the connections between religion and health cut across age, sex, cultural and geographic boundaries. It includes more than 200 studies in which religion was found to be a factor in the incidence of a disease.

Dr. Herbert Benson, M.D.
Harvard Medical School

Dr. Harold G. Koenig, Editor-In-Chief, Research News & Opportunities in Science and Theology
Director
Center For the Study of Religion, spirituality and Health
Duke University Medical Center
How Prayer Heals

Why does faith appears to have such a powerful protective effect? Experts offer several possible explanations.

• Going to religious services guarantees contact with people. social support is a well-documented key to health and longevity.
  
• Faith gives a sense of hope and control that counteracts stress. "Commitment to a system of beliefs enables people to better handle traumatic illness, suffering and loss," says Dr. Harold G. Koenig.
  
• Praying evokes beneficial changes in the body. When people pray, they experience the same decrease in blood pressure, metabolism, heart and breathing rates as the famous "relaxation response" described by Dr. Herbert Benson. Reciting the rosary, for example, involves the same steps as the relaxation response: repeating a word, prayer, phrase or sound, and returning to the repetition when other thoughts intrude. While the relaxation response works regardless of the words used, Benson says, those who choose a religious phrase are more likely to benefit if they believe in God.

Dr. Randolph Byrd, M.D.
Cardiologist
San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center

Dr. Larry Dossey
Author
Prayer Is Good Medicine
Can Others' Prayers Heal?

Researchers are investigating whether the prayers of others can heal. Benson and his colleagues, studying coronary-bipass patients, and Matthews, studying people with rheumatoid arthritis, are trying to confirm findings of an oft-quoted 1988 study by cardiologist Randolph Byrd.

Dr. Byrd divided 393 heart patients in San Francisco General Hospital Medical Center into two groups. One was prayed for by Christians around the country; the other did not receive prayers from study participants. Patients did not know to which group they belonged. The group that was prayed for experienced fewer complications, fewer cases of pneumonia, fewer cardiac arrests, less congestive heart failure and needed fewer antibiotics.

Even more confounding are controversial studies suggesting prayer can influence everything from the growth of bacteria in a lab to healing wounds in mice. "These studies on lower organisms can be done with great scientific precision, and the findings can't be explained away by say, the placebo effect." says Dr. Larry Dossey.

Dr. Dossey became so convinced of the power of prayer that he began to pray privately for his patients.

Acknowledgement: Faith Is Powerful Medicine By: Phyllis McIntosh, Readers Digest October 1999