For centuries, people had few options for healing, largely relying on prayer, hope, home-made potions, and a little folklore medicine. With the advent of modern science and medical advances, double-blind placebo studies replaced folklore. Pharmaceuticals took the place of potions. Diagnostic scans and medical interventions swapped places with prayer.
However, the scientific community has begun a serious investigation of the healing benefits of religion and spirituality.
Independent studies have found a link between personal prayer and healing. Researchers hypothesize prayer has the same effects as meditation – a reduction in stress. Stress is known to cause the body to produce hormones that have harmful effects on the immune system.
But more surprisingly, some studies have found a link between intercessory prayer – prayer on behalf of someone else – and healing. A 1988 study on coronary care patients at San Francisco General Medical Center found therapeutic benefits to intercessory prayer. A more recent study, conducted at St. Luke's Hospital in Kansas City, found that patients prayed for by complete strangers did 11 percent better than those who were not prayed for.
These findings are controversial in the medical community. Many physicians say prayer might provide emotional comfort to the sick, but any medical link between prayer and healing is circumstantial. There is no consensus in the medical community regarding the thoroughness of prayer studies, or the accuracy of interpretation of the results. Still, religion and spirituality have found greater validity as topics for future research.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has funded studies to ascertain what effect, if any, prayer and religious involvement have on physical or mental health. Various organizations, such as the NIH, the John Templeton Foundation, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, have sponsored symposiums on religious and faith factors in diseases.
It might be that the centuries-old practice of prayer will be the newest addition to 21st century conventional medical treatment. |
