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The Health Benefits of Religion

The Health Benefits of Religion. Results. Research is still very preliminary, with many outstanding concerns regarding methods Some aspects of religion negatively effect health, eg . attitudes to sexuality, limits on treatment

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The Health Benefits of Religion

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  1. The Health Benefits of Religion

  2. Results • Research is still very preliminary, with many outstanding concerns regarding methods • Some aspects of religion negatively effect health, eg. attitudes to sexuality, limits on treatment • However, there is growing evidence from 1000s of studies that considered aggregately religious & spiritual practice is associated with lower mortality from all causes (i.e. it has a generally positive impact)

  3. Longevity University Of Colorado At Boulder (1999, May 17). Research Shows Religion Plays A Major Role In Health, Longevity. ScienceDaily.

  4. Religious Challenges to Health Care • Two types: (1) religious beliefs that restrict the use of medical interventions, such as Jehovah’s witnesses disapproval of blood transfusion and (2) religious beliefs that bring psychological or physical harm, such as a view of disease as a result of sin and evidence of God’s wrath (Taylor, Highfield & Amenta, 1994) • “You will be healed” vs. “You may be healed” (Hufford 1993) illustrates how differences in religious teachings about disease can positively or negatively effect healing

  5. 4 Types of Influence Studied • Health Behaviors that influence health risks (Eg. Smoking, drinking, religious activities, etc) • Adjustment to Illness (Eg. Psychosocial and Psychodynamic effects) • Physiological functioning and disease progression (Eg. Healing effects of meditation, prayer or superempirical forces) • Effects of “spiritual care” by health care professionals

  6. Possible Scientific Explanations • Strict moral standards can obviously can help promote healthy lifestyle • Typical group oriented character of religions supports our well-understood needs for group acceptance and interaction • Salvation beliefs can obviously effect our sense of security and well being • So-called supernatural effects might just be examples of the “placebo effect”

  7. 1. Health Behaviors • Lower rates of coronary disease, emphysema, cirrhosis & suicide (Comstock & Partriidge 1972) • Lower blood pressure (Larson, Koenig & Kaplan, 1989) • Lower rates of heart attack (Madalie, Kahn & Neufeld 1973)

  8. 2. Adjustment to Illness • Improved functioning, compliance, self esteem & lower anxiety 1 year after heart transplant (R.C. Harris et. al. 1995) • Reduced levels of pain in cancer patients (Yates, Chalmers, St James, et. al. 1981) • Better perceived health and less medical service utilization (Frankel & Hewitt, 1994) • Decreased disability among nursing home dwellers (Idler & Kasl, 1992, 1997)

  9. 3. Disease Progression - Meditation • Alexander, Langer, Newman and Chandler (1989) compared impact on short-term mortality of 73 nursing home residents of Transcendental Meditation, Mindfulness Meditation, Relaxation Training and a control group. At 3 years TM group had a 100% survival rate, 87.5% for the MM group, 65% for the RT group and 62.5 for the control.

  10. 3. Disease Progression - Intercessory Prayer • Byrd (1988), Sicher, Targ, Moore & Smith (1998), W.S. Harris (1999) conducted double blind studies on effects of prayer on mortality after heart attack. Patients prayed for • used 7% fewer antibiotics • 6% less need for intubation • 6% less pulmonary edema • 6% less congestive heart failure • 5% less heart attack

  11. 4. Effects of “Spiritual Care” • A few studies have documented a positive relationship between care-giver attitudes towards spiritual care-giving and self-reported feelings of spiritual well-being (Millison & Dudley, 1990; Highfield, Taylor & Amenta, 2000) • Still much controversy over whether “spiritual care” helps improve health outcomes (Sloan et. al 2000, VandeCreek, 1999 vs. Weaver et. all., 2002)

  12. The Placebo Effect • A placebo is a sham medical intervention. In one common placebo procedure, a patient is given an inert sugar pill, told that it may improve his/her condition, but not told that it is in fact inert. Such an intervention may cause the patient to believe the treatment will change his/her condition; and this belief does indeed sometimes have a therapeutic effect, causing the patient's condition to improve. This phenomenon is known as the placebo effect.

  13. Some New On-line Books On the Science of Spirituality and Health • http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=wuWh0eWk8ZwC&oi=fnd&pg=PR11&dq=Religion+and+longevity&ots=NoOujhWiLv&sig=pAogNRHyKAJMhVKNNz8Kt6imcao#v=onepage&q=Religion%20and%20longevity&f=false • http://books.google.ca/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mGscSLMA_P4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA435&dq=Religion+and+longevity&ots=JOjDlmi2ns&sig=d5MBQQ6Rlbjy8VsHGOp_u7FSq6Y#v=onepage&q=Religion%20and%20longevity&f=false

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