As Christians and other people of faith join the debate over health care, many may not realize they already have a leg up when it comes to good health. It doesn’t obviate the need for a reasoned discussion of health care reform, but a growing body of research suggests that religious belief and practice leads to better physical health.
Interest has grown so much in this new field of science that the Heritage Foundation, a leading conservative think-tank, focused on the link between religion and health in a conference titled Religion and Health: What the Research Says held on December 3, 2008. Part of a religion research conference series called “Religious Practice in America,” the conference saw some of the nation’s leading scientists in the field present new data detailing the positive health effects of faith.
“Religious involvement can buffer stress, reduce depression, and enhance quality of life,” said Dr. Harold G. Koenig, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University Medical Center.
From cancer to cardiac surgery, Koenig ticked off a lengthy list of ailments made better through religious belief.
In a research paper Koenig submitted to the conference, he wrote, “Religious involvement and spiritual activities are associated with lower rates of a whole host of stress-related medical conditions, including less cardiovascular disease, improved outcomes following cardiac surgery, lower rates of stroke, lower cardiovascular reactivity, lower blood pressure, and fewer metabolic problems (related to blood sugar, etc.)”
Koenig noted that the religious have less chance of developing cancer and more favorable outcomes to treatment, specifically mentioning a study in Italy that showed the strongly religious responded better to chemotherapy.
Religious involvement has also been linked to greater longevity, slower progression of cognitive impairments like Alzheimer’s disease, and less functional disability with aging, Koenig said.
Dr. Robert A. Hummer, professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, focused specifically on the link between religious involvement and lower mortality risk. Hummer noted a study that tracked individuals aged 51 to 61 for eight years to document survival rates. The study found that those who did not attend religious services at all suffered a 64 percent higher risk of mortality compared to those who attended services frequently.
The data presented at the Heritage Foundation conference is not the only research to show the positive effects of faith on health.
For example, the American Journal of Health Promotion concluded in a 2005 study that those who pray had “more favorable health-related behaviors, preventive service use, and satisfaction with care.” A study in the February 25, 2006 edition of the British Medical Journal found that recent attendance at a religious event was linked to a reduced risk of contracting meningococcal disease.
Koenig, while expressing surprise that news of such studies had not been spread from church pulpits, said he understood the concerns of pastors and theologians who do not want to promote faith as a means to health.
“There is also concern about the utilitarian use of religion for health, where people say, ‘Well, I’m going to be religious or spiritual and I’ll be healthier,’” said Koenig. “It’s not religion or spirituality they’re interested in. For them, health is the ultimate goal, the ultimate god. But what we are finding is that with religious involvement, health benefits seem to be an unintended consequence of it, not the goal of people who become religious to be healthier.”
Although Koenig presented a large amount of research showing the positive health effects of religion, he also warned against attempting to use science to measure the workings of God.
“I believe that prayer works, but it doesn’t work in a way we can scientifically pin it down and predict it,” he said. “There is no scientific or theological rationale for any effect that you can study and document, as if God were part of the created universe and could be predicted. Science was not designed to prove the supernatural.”
