Florida Hospital Pastoral Care - Religion and Health

Growing evidence is increasingly pointing to physical and mental health benefits for patients who hold spiritual or religious convictions. The several hundred studies that have now been published on the subject cover addictions, patient survival, coping with stress, rate of recovery from illness, and other health-care issues.

In his book, The Faith Factor: Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer, Georgetown University medical professor Dale Matthews says: "Scientific studies show that religious involvement helps people prevent illness, recover from illness, and - most remarkably - live longer. The more religiously committed you are, the more likely you are to benefit."

Armed with the best clinical and scientific data, Dr. Matthews confirms what many patients have long suspected but some doctors don't acknowledge: faith and religious practice can be valuable medicine. In his book, The Faith Factor, he cites studies that appear to show that patients are much more likely to survive open-heart surgery if they depend on their religious faith and social support.

In other studies, mortality for frequent attendees of religious services was much lower than for people who attended less frequently. And those who attend religious services at least once a week have been shown to have stronger immune system functioning.

Dr. Matthews is not alone in his research findings. Another noted researcher, Dr. Harold Koenig, associate professor of psychiatry, and director for the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, Duke University Medical Center, found that therapies for depression and anxiety that incorporate religious beliefs in treatment result in faster recovery from illness than do traditional therapies. He further found that greater religious involvement has been associated with lower blood pressure, fewer strokes, lower rates of death from heart disease, lower mortality after heart surgery, and longer survival in general.

Other studies showed that heart-surgery patients who are religious have 20 percent shorter postoperative hospital stays than nonreligious patients. Hospital stays are nearly 2-1/2 times longer for older patients who don't have a religious affiliation. Koenig also found that people who are more religious experience greater well-being and life satisfaction, less depression, less anxiety, and are much less likely to commit suicide.

In another study the best predictor of survival was the degree to which these patients drew strength and comfort from religious faith. Those who did not have such faith were three times more likely to die.

A strong religious faith and active involvement in a religious community appear to be the combination most consistently associated with better health. Study after study seems to show that the more religiously committed you are, the more likely you are to benefit.

The Faith Factor : Proof of the Healing Power of Prayer by Dale A. Matthews, Connie Clark (April 1999) Penguin USA

The Healing Power of Faith : Science Explores Medicine's Last Great Frontier by Harold George Koenig, M.D. (April 1999) Simon & Schuster

Handbook of Religion and Health by Harold George Koenig, Michael E. McCullough, David B. Larson (November 2000) Oxford University Press.