Can religious faith heal?

In ancient societies, the "medicine man" not only helped relieve physical suffering, he also provided spiritual guidance. Indeed, medicine and religion have been inextricably linked for centuries. The first hospitals, for instance, were opened by monks, and religious orders have historically cared for the sick and infirm.

But beginning with the ancient Greeks, medicine and spirituality began to diverge. As scientific discoveries advanced, religion and medicine became firmly divided into two camps. Armed with antibiotics and other medicines, physicians no longer needed to call on a god or spirit to heal people.

Today, the long-standing wall between medicine and religion is crumbling, due in part to the disillusionment of many people with what they see as high-tech, impersonal care. Indeed, there is a growing interest among patients in simpler, holistic approaches to healing – through the use of such remedies as herbs and meditation – which, say proponents, aim to treat a host of ills, not just specific symptoms. After all, most agree that patients should be treated "as people and not merely as lumps of tissues." There is also a growing belief in the medical community that what happens in a person’s mind can be as important to health as what happens in his body.

Doctors As Believers

Although many physicians are skeptical of alternative remedies, mainly because most remain untested or unproven, some evidence suggest that doctors are overwhelmingly open to the possibility that religious beliefs can heal. At the October 1996 meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians, a survey of 296 doctors indicated that nearly all of them felt a person’s faith could help the physical healing process. And 75 percent said they thought the prayers of others might help as well.

But there are physicians who believe otherwise. Professor Richard Sloan wrote two papers (The Lancet, 1999; The New England Journal of Medicine, 2000) attacking faith and healing studies for their "weak methodologies and soft thinking." The broadside ignited furious letter-writing campaigns in the medical press and divided the health profession into two camps. Prof. Sloan feels that religion has no place in medicine and that steering patients toward spiritual practice can do more harm than good.

Dr. Harold Koenig of Duke University, on the other hand, believes that a growing body of evidence points to religion’s positive effect on health and that keeping spirituality out of the clinic is irresponsible.

Scientific Evidence

Modern medicine, of course, still demands scientific proof and not just anecdotal evidence. And this is part of the problem. Because it is scientifically impossible to prove that belief can heal, the next best way to understand the role of spirituality in health is to conduct studies that look for an association between the two. Such studies cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship but they can uncover apparent connections. Consider the following:

• Duke University researchers found an association between increased immune function and regular attendance at religious services. The investigation, reported in the October 1997 issue of the International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine, involved 1,718 men and women over 65 who were being tracked as part of a larger study on aging and health. Those who attended services at least once a week were about half as likely as non-attenders to have high blood levels of interleukin-6, a protein that regulates immune and inflammatory responses in the body. Elevated levels of interleukin-6 have been associated with some cancers, autoimmune disorders, and heart disease.

• In 2001, a review of 29 separate studies concluded that religious involvement has an influence on longevity. Using data compiled from 126,000 people, scientists at the National Institute for Healthcare Research in Maryland found that people with more religious involvement – for example, attending worship services frequently or spending spare time in religious activities – were almost 30 percent more likely to live longer than those who were less involved.

• Religious beliefs have also appeared to improve recovery from serious medical illness. In a study published in Psychosomatic Medicine in 1995, Darthmouth Medical School researchers reported that older people who underwent open-heart surgery for either coronary artery or aortic valve disease – and who lacked either social support from an organized group or said they received no comfort from religion – were three times more likely to die within six months of the operation than those who said they got solace from community groups or religion.

So over the past decade, researchers have been conducting hundreds of studies trying to scientifically measure the effects of faith and spirituality on health. Can religion slow cancer? Can belief in God speed recovery from surgery? While the results have been mixed, the studies inevitably run up against the difficulty of using scientific methods to answer what most people think are essentially existential questions. In the minds of some, especially theologians, studies in these areas, in fact, may border on the sacrilegious.

The Other Side Of Belief

Some experts, however, worry that faith can sometimes interfere with a patient’s recovery. There may be those who believe that God would protect them anyway and that their illness is some kind of divine punishment. Kenneth Pargament, a psychology professor at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, studied the religious coping methods of 600 patients. He found that those who thought God was punishing or abandoning them were up to 30 percent more likely to die over the next two years.

Columbia’s Prof. Sloan also argues that physicians have barely enough time to examine and treat patients, let alone inquire about their faith. He feels that this should be left to hospital chaplains. "Nobody disputes that in times of difficulty, religion provides comfort for an enormous number of people," says Sloan. "The question is whether medicine can add to that. My answer is no."

Few would disagree, however, that doctors would have to handle the matter carefully. Dr. Jim Martin, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, who also teaches residents how to take spiritual histories, says, "If a patient flinches, we don’t go there." And if a patient indicates that faith or spiritual beliefs are not important to him, "we check the box and move on."

Belief Is Strong Medicine

Dr. Koenig, director of Duke’s Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health, is leading the charge to understand better the role of religion and spiritual beliefs in the medical setting. "It just makes too much sense," he says, when patient after patient tells him, "Doctor, religion is the most important thing; it keeps me going." In fact, in one survey published in the Journal of Family Practice, it was revealed that 77 percent of 542 hospitalized patients think that, as part of their medical care, their physicians should ask about the role of spirituality in their lives. And 40 percent of these patients reported that their religious faith was the most important factor in coping with their illness. But most of the respondents said their doctors never discussed religious beliefs with them.

Information drawn from the numerous studies supports the views of Dr. Koenig that spirituality enhances health. Among them:

• The greater their intrinsic "religious" experience, the faster patients recovered from depression.

• Patients receiving religiously oriented psychotherapy showed significantly more rapid improvement in anxiety symptoms than those receiving traditional therapy.

• The strength of a patient’s religious commitment predicted survival rates after heart surgery.

• Heart transplant patients who had strong beliefs and who participated in religious activities showed more improved functioning.

• People who attended religious services at least once a week and prayed once a day were 40 percent less likely to have high blood pressure than those who did so less frequently.

• Among elderly women recovering from hip fracture surgery, those with strong religious beliefs and practices could walk greater distances when they left the hospital than those who were not so religious.

While there is no absolute scientific proof that belief in God heals, many physicians nonetheless recognize that strong personal faith enhances overall health and complements medical or surgical treatment. And although researchers will continue to investigate the links between religion and health, people who already accept the fact that belief can console and heal don’t need further scientific studies to convince them that it works.