What does faith has to do with healing
finding the link between the two

In the earlier centuries, it is common for people with health problems to seek help from priests, religious leaders or ask directly for healing from God. However, as the number of people taking part in organized traditional religions diminished considerably, this was no longer an option. As healing became a part of science, Western medical practitioners have slowly moved away from spirituality and religious faith. The relationship between faith and healing was seen as weak or does not exist at all.

However, recent scientific studies have proved that spiritual healing is indeed a powerful "medicine".

Dr. Harold Koenig, an associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, considered to be a pioneer in the scientific study of spiritual healing potential has shown that after studying thousands of people since 1984, religious faith not only promotes overall good health, but also aids in the recovery from serious illness.

“By praying to God,” Koenig said, religious patients “acquire an indirect form of control over their illness.” They believe that they are not alone in the struggle and God is personally interested in them. This safeguards them against the psychological isolation that batters so many people with serious disease.

In a study of 455 elderly hospital patients, for example, Koenig found that people who attended church more than once a week averaged about four days in the hospital. People who never or rarely attended church spent about ten to 12 days hospitalized.

When Koenig initially began telling his colleagues about these observations, many were skeptical. They saw spiritual healing as irrelevant to medical science. In recent years, however, more scientific journals have been publishing reports with similar findings. As a result, more and more doctors are coming to understand the role faith can have in healing.

A Dartmouth Medical School study found that heart patients were 14 times more likely to die following a surgery if they did not participate in group activities and did not find comfort in religion. Within six months of surgery, 21 patients had died – but there were no deaths among the 37 people who said that they were “deeply religious”.

Researchers in Israel studied 3,900 people living on kibbutzim over a 16-year period. Their findings: the religious had a 40% lower death rate from cardiovascular disease and cancer than their secular peers.

A Yale University study of 28,212 elderly people found that those who rarely or never attended church had twice the stroke rate of weekly churchgoers.

Spiritual Healing and God

Harvard Medical School associate professor, Dr. Herbert Benson has brought new understanding of the science involved in such healing faith. It is believed that the correlation can be partially explained by the fact that people who are religious are less likely to smoke, drink or engage in risky sexual activities and they are more likely to have a network of social support. He also noted that 60 to 90 percent of doctor visits are for stress-related illnesses – hypertension, infertility, insomnia, and cardiovascular disease. Benson showed that the relaxed state brought on by the prayers and meditation reduces he impact of stress hormones.

“Repetitive prayer slows a person’s heart and breathing rates," he says. It lowers blood pressure and even slows brain waves, all without drugs or surgery.” Non-spiritual healing techniques such as meditation have a similar effect but most people prefer the enhanced emotion comfort of prayer.

Stress also impairs the immune system by making it produce an inflammatory agent called interleukin-6 which is associated with chronic infection, diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Koenig found high blood levels of interleukin-6 in people who rarely attended church. Regular attendees had significantly lower interleuin-6 levels, suggesting that they coped well against stress, as evidenced by their stronger immune system.

In his book Timeless Healing, Benson said that since we are the only species conscious of our own mortality, he theorize, we have “ an organic craving,” for the eternal.

Medical acceptance

The medical profession is gradually coming to terms with researcher like Koenig and Benson. All American residency programs for new psychiatrists, for example, are now required to address spiritual healing issues in their formal training. At John Hopkins School of Medicine, Dr. Thomas A. Corson and his colleagues have been teaching a faith-and-medicine course for a few years already and he predicted that the courses would soon become more common in the country.

Dr. Dean Ornish, whose cutting edge research into diet and stress-managing relaxation techniques brought him international acclaims, supports the helpful benefits of prayer and meditation. In his book Love and Survival, he noted that emotional tranquility through spiritual might be the “ultimate healing experience.

The happy news is the medical community is starting to embrace these experts’ views. In 1992, only a few medical schools in the United States taught spirituality. At the moment, more than 50 schools of the 125 in the country have a dedicated curriculum. The class teaches about the major religions as seen from medical perspective. Students are taught about the religions’ opinion on issues like euthanasia, transfusion, the use of drugs and organ transplant. They are also taught to tap into religious resources like a hospital clergy when needs arise.

	The Power of Your Emotion Positive attitudes and ability to handle emotions have been shown to strengthen our ability to fight disease.					Faith and Healing Medical community are slowly embracing the fact that faith can do wonders.
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