The faith-health connection

The idea that faith can heal human afflictions, an age-old biblical precept, is beginning to bear scientific basis. Reports of terminally ill patients miraculously recovering or surviving far longer than doctors thought possible are mounting. And science tends to confirm that the phenomenon has direct correlation to the patients' faith.

While doctors in general are still reluctant to claim outright that God heals, an increasing number of them believe that faith in God has a beneficial effect in the treatment of illnesses. There have been extensive studies to prove that profound religious faith and practices promotes general wellbeing and effectively boosts medical treatment of diseases.

Likewise, the connection between spiritual or religious commitment and life span has already been substantially established. In a U.S. survey it was found that among people with basically the same lifestyles and risk exposures, churchgoers had lower death rates than non-churchgoers. Pious people had fewer medical problems or were healthier compared with those whose religious beliefs were lax or vague. The findings cut across such factors as age, gender, cultural types and geographic boundaries.

Faith appears to have a powerful protective effect. There are several scientific accounts for this. One is that regularly attending religious services provides good opportunity for social contact. Being in the company of people gives one a sense of support, something that has long been proven to promote health and general wellbeing.

Another explanation is that faith gives a sense of hope and power over one's circumstances. It has a positive effect on people to feel that a higher power will help resolve their troubles. It makes them better able to deal with stress, to handle suffering and loss. Also, a hopeful attitude has long been proven effective in surmounting illnesses.

Praying evokes beneficial changes in the body, bringing forth a state of calm very similar to that attained by meditation or relaxation procedures. A prayerful mood decreases blood pressure, metabolism and heart and breathing rates, thus enabling the body to come to a level of peace and quiet that's necessary for maintaining equilibrium. The repetition involved in religious rituals like reciting the rosary or other memorized prayers helps in centering the mind, making it difficult for other thoughts - especially negative thoughts - to intrude.

Even others' prayers help. A study of heart patients had found that patients prayed for by others had fewer complications, fewer cases of pneumonia and cardiac arrests, less congestive heart failure and had notably less need for antibiotics. The patients in the study, numbering around 400, were divided into two groups. One group was prayed for by Christian congregations. The other group did not receive prayers. All patients were chosen according to a certain faith level, to make sure that, as much as possible, their own personal prayers were not the main operative factor in the study. They also were not told which of the two groups they belonged to.

Even more amazing are laboratory findings suggesting the influence of prayer in the growth of bacteria and in healing wounds in mice. The studies were done with great scientific precision, and the findings can't be explained away by, say, the placebo effect since the subjects were lower organisms.

Many health-care institutions are now beginning to pay serious attention to the faith-health connection. More and more doctors today believe in the effect of religious fervor on the healing process. Many of them invoke their faith in God in healing their patients and their own ailments.

Novel as it may sound, the truth that faith heals is not at all new. Over two thousand years ago a woman who was suffering from severe bleeding for twelve years asked Jesus to heal her affliction. Jesus told her, "Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your trouble." It is written, and so it is.