† KJV †
NOW of course there are going to be the close minded skeptics (regardless of the millions that claim to be healed by divine intervention) who will stop at nothing to try and cast doubt on the claims made within this study page, and then we have those that know prayer works, but work for the "Adversary" and out to break your faith in God. But examine and read these studies and commentaries on the studies and reports yourself, and come to your own conclustions.
Calling Dr. God
By Richard Morin
Sunday, July 8, 2001; Page B05
Washington Post.Can a prayer a day help keep the doctor away?
Yes, claims Jeff Levin, a social epidemiologist. Moreover, he argues, prayer and other forms of religious and spiritual expression can reduce the chances of a premature visit from the Grim Reaper, as well as diminish the risk of suffering from all sorts of ailments and infirmities, ranging from high blood pressure to some forms of cancer."The weight of published evidence overwhelmingly confirms that our spiritual life influences our health. This can no longer be ignored," Levin writes in his new book,
"God, Faith, and Health: Exploring the Spiritual-Healing Connection," in which he reports the findings of hundreds of academic studies into the medical benefits of religious faith.
Researchers have found, for example, that religious people live, on average, about seven years longer than other Americans. Levin cites a study done by California's respected Human Population Laboratory that tracked 5,000 people for 28 years and found that those who frequently attended church were 23 percent less likely to die during the study period than people who didn't regularly go to church. "This holds true even controlling for the fact that religious folks tend to avoid such behaviors as smoking and drinking that increase the risk of disease and death," Levin reported.
Other studies have found that for each of the three leading causes of death in the United States -- heart disease, cancer and hypertension -- people who report a religious affiliation have lower rates of illness. Researchers at Johns Hopkins University have reported that attending religious services at least once a month more than halved the risk of death due to heart disease, emphysema, suicide and some kinds of cancers.
Mention the curative power of religious faith, and one of two things often happens: People either nod their heads vigorously in agreement or arch their eyebrows in utter disbelief. Recently, however, there has been a resurgence of scientific interest in the issue. Two-thirds of the country's 125 medical schools now offer a course on religion and health. In March, scientists and scholars from around the world gathered at Duke University for a conference titled "Faith in the Future: Religion, Aging and Health Care in the 21st Century."
Levin is on the cutting edge of research into what he calls the "epidemiology of religion." He is the former chairman of a group that studies alternative medicine at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). His studies of the faith/health connection have been funded by NIH and the American Medical Association.
As one would expect, Levin's views attract controversy. Some academic critics praise his research but blast him for writing respectfully about "absent prayer," such as when a church group prays for the recovery of a member who is in the hospital.
As an expression of concern, absent prayer seems entirely appropriate. As a technique to promote healing, it seems wacky to many people.
Well, consider this: A 1988 study by San Francisco cardiologist Randolph Byrd in the Southern Medical Journal reported that coronary care patients who, unknown to them, were prayed for by strangers in Christian prayer groups outside the hospital fared significantly better than patients who did not receive prayers -- a finding confirmed by another research team 10 years later and currently the subject of a large-scale study at Harvard Medical School.
More generally, Levin says, a deeply held religious faith seems to be particularly effective in warding off death among people who are already ill or infirm and wish to return to good health. For example, researchers at Dartmouth Medical School examined the survival rates of 232 post-surgical cardiac patients. "Deaths in a six-month follow-up period after open-heart surgery were 11 percent in patients who considered themselves 'not at all,' 'slightly' or 'fairly' religious,' " Levin reported. "In those who were 'deeply' religious, the death rate was zero" -- findings similar to those from a study of 400 older adults in Connecticut conducted by researchers at Harvard and Yale universities.
Why does spirituality seem to promote good health?
Religious beliefs encourage a more temperate, less risky and decidedly healthier lifestyle, Levin asserts. And they lead to a more hopeful, contented and less stressed outlook on life, which positively affects health. Churches also promote social interaction and supportive relationships, which in turn "seem to buffer or mitigate the negative effects of stress on health," he said.
In 1998, Dr. Elisabeth Targ and her colleagues at California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, conducted a controlled, double-blind study of the effects of "distant healing," or prayer, on patients with advanced AIDS. Those patients receiving prayer survived in greater numbers, got sick less often, and recovered faster than those not receiving prayer. Prayer, in this study, looked like a medical breakthrough.Dr. Elisabeth Targ, a psychiatrist at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, recruited experienced distant healers who used prayer and other techniques on patients with advanced AIDS for at least one hour a day. In the first part of the study, which was published in the Western Journal of Medicine, 40 percent of those not prayed for died, while none of the patients who received the distant healing died. Targ doubled the number of patients and started over- again, the patients who received prayer fared much better in terms of AIDS-related illnesses.
Geraldine Brush Cancer Research Institute, California Pacific Medical Center, San Francisco, USA.
Various forms of distant healing (DH), including prayer and "psychic healing," are widely practiced, but insufficient formal research has been done to indicate whether such efforts actually affect health. We report on a double-blind randomized trial of DH in 40 patients with advanced AIDS. Subjects were pair-matched for age, CD4+ count, and number of AIDS-defining illnesses and randomly selected to either 10 weeks of DH treatment or a control group. DH treatment was performed by self-identified healers representing many different healing and spiritual traditions. Healers were located throughout the United States during the study, and subjects and healers never met. Subjects were assessed by psychometric testing and blood draw at enrollment and followed for 6 months. At 6 months, a blind medical chart review found that treatment subjects acquired significantly fewer new AIDS-defining illnesses (0.1 versus 0.6 per patient, P = 0.04), had lower illness severity (severity score 0.8 versus 2.65, P = 0.03), and required significantly fewer doctor visits (9.2 versus 13.0, P = 0.01), fewer hospitalizations (0.15 versus 0.6, P = 0.04), and fewer days of hospitalization (0.5 versus 3.4, P = 0.04). Treated subjects also showed significantly improved mood compared with controls (Profile of Mood States score -26 versus 14, P = 0.02). There were no significant differences in CD4+ counts. These data support the possibility of a DH effect in AIDS and suggest the value of further research.
Publication Types: Clinical Trial Randomized Controlled Trial
PMID: 9866433 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
A Randomized, Controlled Trial of the Effects of Remote, Intercessory Prayer on Outcomes in Patients Admitted to the Coronary Care Unit William S. Harris, PhD; Manohar Gowda, MD; Jerry W. Kolb, MDiv; Christopher P. Strychacz, PhD; James L. Vacek, MD; Philip G. Jones, MS; Alan Forker, MD; James H. O'Keefe, MD; Ben D. McCallister, MD Arch Intern Med. 1999;159:2273-2278.
Context Intercessory prayer (praying for others) has been a common response to sickness for millennia, but it has received little scientific attention. The positive findings of a previous controlled trial of intercessory prayer have yet to be replicated.
Objective To determine whether remote, intercessory prayer for hospitalized, cardiac patients will reduce overall adverse events and length of stay.
Design Randomized, controlled, double-blind, prospective, parallel-group trial. Setting Private, university-associated hospital. Patients Nine hundred ninety consecutive patients who were newly admitted to the coronary care unit (CCU). Intervention At the time of admission, patients were randomized to receive remote, intercessory prayer (prayer group) or not (usual care group). The first names of patients in the prayer group were given to a team of outside intercessors who prayed for them daily for 4 weeks. Patients were unaware that they were being prayed for, and the intercessors did not know and never met the patients.
Main Outcome Measures The medical course from CCU admission to hospital discharge was summarized in a CCU course score derived from blinded, retrospective chart review.
Results Compared with the usual care group (n=524), the prayer group (n=466) had lower mean±SEM weighted (6.35±0.26 vs 7.13±0.27; P=.04) and unweighted (2.7±0.1 vs 3.0±0.1; P=.04) CCU course scores. Lengths of CCU and hospital stays were not different.
Conclusions Remote, intercessory prayer was associated with lower CCU course scores. This result suggests that prayer may be an effective adjunct to standard medical care.
From the Mid America Heart Institute, Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Mo (Drs Harris, Vacek, O'Keefe, and McCallister and Messrs Kolb and Jones); the Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Missouri–Kansas City (Drs Gowda and Forker); and the Department of Preventive Medicine, University of California, San Diego (Dr Strychacz)
In 1988 Dr. Randolph Byrd conducted a study pertaining to patients that came in having heart attacks or severe chest pains. Dr. Byrd is a cardiologist at San Francisco General Hospital, His study was entitled "Positive Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit Population" and was in the Southern Medical Journal and then was republished again in 1997 by Alternative Therapies, Vol. 3, No. 6. Dr. Byrd randomly appointed approximately 400 patients in the coronary-care unit to either a grouping that received daily prayers or a grouping that did not. When they were discharged, the study found that those that had been prayed for were much less likely to need antibiotics or develop complications.Positive therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer in a coronary care unit population.
Author: Randolph C. Byrd, M.D.
Institution: Medical Service, San Francisco General Medical Center, CA. Source: Southern Medical Journal 1988 Jul; 81(7): 826-9
Abstract: The therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (IP) to the Judeo-Christian God, one of the oldest forms of therapy, has had little attention in the medical literature. To evaluate the effects of IP in a coronary care unit (CCU) population, a prospective randomized double-blind protocol was followed. Over ten months, 393 patients admitted to the CCU were randomized, after signing informed consent, to an intercessory prayer group (192 patients) or to a control group (201 patients). While hospitalized, the first group received IP by participating Christians praying outside the hospital; the control group did not. At entry, chi-square and stepwise logistic analysis revealed no statistical difference between the groups. After entry, all patients had follow-up for the remainder of the admission. The IP group subsequently had a significantly lower severity score based on the hospital course after entry (P less than .01). Multivariant analysis separated the groups on the basis of the outcome variables (P less than .0001). The control patients required ventilatory assistance, antibiotics, and diuretics more frequently than patients in the IP group. These data suggest that intercessory prayer to the Judeo-Christian God has a beneficial therapeutic effect in patients admitted to a CCU.
In a study of people who had undergone heart surgery, survivorship increased by at least 6 months in "people whose religious beliefs give them feelings of strength and comfort and who regularly participate in a social activity. . ."
Work of Thomas E. Oxman and coworkers at Dartmouth Medical School. (Jan-Feb 1995 issue of Psychosomatic Medicine)
These are impressive double-blind studies, (The 1998, Dr. Elisabeth Targ and 1988, Dr. Randolph Byrd studies) meaning that no one knows who is receiving prayer and who isn't. This eliminates or at least reduces the placebo effect, which is the power of suggestion or positive thinking. However, the studies I find most impressive are not done on humans. For example, when bacteria are prayed for, they tend to grow faster; when seeds are prayed for, they tend to germinate quicker; when wounded mice are prayed for, they tend to heal faster. I like these studies because they can be done with great precision, and they eliminate all effects of suggestion and positive thinking, since we can be sure the effects aren't due to the placebo effect. Mice, seeds, and microbes presumably don't think positively!
Larry Dossey, M.D.
Chief of Staff, 1982 Medical City Dallas Hospital
Director, Biofeedback Department Dallas Diagnostic Association 1976-88
Hillary Rodham Clinton's Task Force on Health Care Reform, 1993
The Section on Alternative Medicine of the British Parliament, 1993
President, Isthmus Institute, 1987-89
Executive Editor Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, 1995-2003Upon graduating with honors from the University of Texas at Austin, Dr. Dossey worked as a pharmacist while earning his M.D. degree from Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, 1967. Before completing his residency in internal medicine, he served as a battalion surgeon in Vietnam, where he was decorated for valor. Dr. Dossey helped establish the Dallas Diagnostic Association, the largest group of internal medicine practitioners in that city, and was Chief of Staff of Medical City Dallas Hospital in 1982.
An education steeped in traditional Western medicine did not prepare Dr. Dossey for patients who were blessed with "miracle cures," remissions that clinical medicine could not explain. "Almost all physicians possess a lavish list of strange happenings unexplainable by normal science," says Dr. Dossey. "A tally of these events would demonstrate, I am convinced, that medical science not only has not had the last word, it has hardly had the first word on how the world works, especially when the mind is involved."
Another study involved 150 patients having a stent inserted and appears in the current issue of the American Heart Journal. Seven prayer groups of different denominations including Catholic, Buddhist, Jews and Christians. The patients were randomly assigned as to weather they would receive IP or not and neither patients nor staff knew who was being prayed for.
Patients who were prayed for during their procedure had far fewer complications, reports lead author Mitchell W. Krucoff, MD, director of the Ischemia Monitoring Laboratory at Duke University Medical Center. "This was a very rigorously controlled study, just as we would look at any therapeutic -- a new cardiovascular drug, a new stent -- and see the results in terms of patients' outcomes,"
Currently, Dr. Mitchell Krucoff at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, is studying the effects of prayer on patients undergoing cardiac procedures such as catheterization and angioplasty. Patients receiving prayer have up to 100% fewer side effects from these procedures than people not prayed for.
"Prayer works," says Dr. Dale Matthews, associate professor of medicine at Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and senior research fellow at the National Institute for Healthcare Research in Rockville, Maryland. Dr. Matthews has reviewed more than 200 studies linking religious commitment and health, cited in his book, 'The Faith Factor'. He cites studies suggesting that people, who pray are less likely to get sick, are more likely to recover from surgery and illness and are better able to cope with their illnesses than people who don't pray. Some evidence indicates that sick people who are prayed for also fare significantly better than those who aren't. In fact, some physicians report that people who are prayed for often do better even if they don't know they're being prayed for. References
And a 1995 study from Dartmouth College in Hanover, NH, monitoring 250 people after open-heart surgery concluded that those who had religious connections and social support were twelve times less likely to die than those who had none.
According to Harold Koenig, director of the Center for the Study of Religion/Spirituality and Health at Duke University Medical Center , "when prayer uplifts or calms, it inhibits cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine - hormones that flow out of the adrenal glands in response to stress. These fight-or-flight chemicals, released over time can compromise the immune system, upping the odds of developing any number of illnesses, including heart disease, stroke, peptic ulcers, and inflammatory bowel disorder.” Many experts feel that the immune system is strengthened and nourished by a sense of peace, which can be transferred from one individual to another or used inwardly. Of course, the ancient Rabbinic literature links healing with faith. So, it is reasonable to assume that something such as prayer that provides comfort and peace would influence how you recover from a disease.
A 1993 Israeli study monitoring 10,000 civil servants for 26 years establish that Orthodox Jews weren’t as susceptible to die of cardiovascular troubles than the secular establishment.
The affirmations in the Word of God on the matter of. . .
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