CONSUMER REPORTS ON HEALTH
Few people would call a visit to the doctor
a spiritual experience. Indeed, modern medicine, with its high-tech
wizardry, can do wonders for the body but little for the soul.
And until recently, medical research avoided spirituality altogether.
In the past decade or so, a growing number of
researchers have put spirituality and religion under the microscope.
The number of American medical schools offering courses on spiritual
issues has risen from 3 to more than 40 in the past three years.
And the research so far does suggest that having a spiritual dimension
in your life may help you get healthy when you're sick and stay
healthy when you're well.
Religious Results
The research on spirituality consists almost
entirely of observational studies. While such evidence can't prove
a casual connection, it can suggest possible links. Of the more
than 300 studies done so far, over three-fourths have found seemingly
positive effects. Certain studies have shown that people with
a religious commitment may have fewer symptoms of mental and physical
disorders and make fewer doctor visits than other people. Other
studies have found that they tend to have a reduced risk of various
diseases including cancer and coronary heart disease.
A 28-year California study published last summer
indicated the overall value of those apparent benefits: People
who went to weekly religious services had a one-third lower death
rate than those who attended less often. After controlling for
lifestyle factors, such as smoking, drinking, and social contact,
the researchers still found a one-fourth lower death rate.
A recent Duke University study of some 1,700
older people provided one possible biochemical mechanism for those
reductions: People who attended weekly services were half as likely
as nonattenders to have high levels of interleukin-6, a protein
linked to various age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease,
cancer, coronary disease, and osteoporosis.
Other studies have examined religion's possible
impact on patients' recovery. Researchers from Northwestern University
found that women with strong religious beliefs recovered faster
after hip replacement than less religious women did. And a study
led by Dartmouth researchers, involving 232 open-heart-surgery
patients, found that none of the 37 "deeply religious"
patients died during the six months after the operation, while
21 of the other patients did.
Spiritual Influences
Researchers aren't sure why religion and
possibly spirituality without organized religion seems to
improve health. Here are the four main possibilities.
1) Community support
Just attending weekly services and performing
familiar rituals with others can help people feel they're part
of a community with similar values. Prayer groups, potluck suppers,
bingo nights, and other activities provide additional opportunities
to socialize and form lasting friendships.
 Numerous
studies have linked social support whether from a church,
a synagogue, or a bowling league with reduced rates of
disease and death. In theory, that's because such support may
buffer the stress of everyday life and of major crises. And
stress may help cause or worsen a wide range of ailments, ranging
from infection to cancer.
Belonging to a community seems to account
for much of the benefit of religious affiliation but not
all of it. In the Dartmouth heart-surgery study, for example,
the six-month survival rate was 14 times higher in those who
derived "strength and comfort" from religion and participated
in social groups than in those who lacked both sources of support.
After researchers screened out the social factor, religious
people were still about three times as likely to survive. The
chart shows how the death rate among 232 heart patients varied
during the six months after surgery depending on the strength
of their religious faith and the degree of their participation
in any group activity.
In another study, Israeli researchers compared
death rates of people who lived in secular and religious kibbutz
communities. Both types provided similarly high levels of social
support. But the death rate was almost twice as high in the
nonreligious settlements as in the religious ones.
2) Healthy habits
A Dutch study found that the life span of
Seventh Day Adventists is nine years longer than average in
men, four years in women. One likely reason: Adventists are
encouraged to exercise, eat vegetarian diets, and not smoke
or drink. But even people who practice religions with fewer
restrictions seem to lead healthier lives than nonreligious
people. In one study of some 3000 people, mainly Protestants,
the weekly churchgoers had about half the alcohol-abuse risk
of those who attended less regularly. Other studies have shown
that religious teen-agers are much less likely to drink or use
drugs than less religious teens.
But again, healthy habits aren't the whole
story: When researchers control for the effects of lifestyle,
spirituality still seems to confer a substantial benefit.
3) Positive beliefs.
Having an inner spiritual life may promote
health by creating a sense of meaning and purpose that helps
reduce stress. Studies have shown that religious people tend
to be more satisfied with their lives than nonreligious people
and to have less anxiety, depression, and mental illness. Other
research has linked positive attitudes with better physical
health, including less illness, longer survival when serious
illness strikes, and a lower overall death rate. Those benefits
may occur partly because an upbeat attitude may help patients
cooperate with their doctor and participate actively in their
own care.
4) Moments of relaxation.
Prayer, like many forms of meditation, may
promote health through a special form of stress relief, according
to Harvard researcher Herbert Benson, M.D., who pioneered the
"relaxation response." The response involves relaxed
muscles and slowed breathing, heartbeat, brain waves, and metabolism.
Eliciting the relaxation response regularly can reduce blood
pressure in people with hypertension and blood sugar in people
with diabetes; it may also ease anxiety, depression, insomnia,
headaches, and psychosomatic complaints. And it may have benefits
in sick people, such as easing chronic pain and controlling
nausea from chemotherapy.
Calmly repeating any emotionally neutral word
or phrase, silently or aloud, tends to evoke the relaxation
response. But picking a word, phrase, or passage that has special
positive meaning for you will generally work better. That could
be a prayer or it could be an inspirational poem or even
the name of someone or something you love. Sit quietly in a
comfortable position, close your eyes, clear your mind, relax
your muscles, and breathe slowly and naturally while repeating
the word, phrase, or prayer to yourself for 10 to 20 minutes.
Summing up
Observational studies have linked religion and
spirituality with a reduced risk of disease, faster recovery from
surgery, and a lower overall death rate. Such studies can only
suggest a connection they don't prove that faith bolsters
health. However, there are several plausible explanations for
a faith-health link: Religion and spirituality may encourage healthy
habits and may help reduce stress, perhaps by promoting social
support, an optimistic outlook, and deep relaxation during prayer.
Whether or not religion helps, note that it's possible to accomplish
all those things without holding any spiritual beliefs at all.
Source: Thomas E. Oxman, M.D., et al., "Lack of social participation
or religious strength and comfort as risk factors for death after
cardiac surgery in the elderly," Psychosomatic Medicine,
1995, Vol. 57, pp. 5-15.
© 1998 by Consumers Union of U.S., Inc.,
Yonkers, NY 10703. Posted by permission from CONSUMER REPORTS
ON HEALTH, June, 1998. Downloading, copying, excerpting, redistributing
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