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Is faith the ultimate wonder drug?
Scientists: Religion, spirituality influence patients’ healing
By Rebecca Rosen Lum
Contra Costa Times (MCT)
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WALNUT CREEK, Calif. -- Carla Dodd was 43 and pregnant with her second child when two rapid-fire brain hemorrhages threatened to end her life. Her husband, John, is a medical malpractice attorney — logical, analytical.

But Dodd says he thinks prayer — by friends, fellow congregants and strangers as far away as Africa — had much to do with his wife’s long-shot recovery.

Scientists are taking a hard look at the value of faith as an instrument in healing — including the “intercessory” or healing prayers said on behalf of others.

Numerous studies show a link between faith and outlook, faith and well-being, faith and healing times.

Scientists at such prestigious institutions as California Pacific Medical Center in San Francisco, Duke University in North Carolina, and the George Washington University Institute for Spirituality and Health in the nation’s capital are exploring the relationship of prayer and faith to healing.

More than half of physicians in an April survey by a group at the University of Chicago said that religion and spirituality significantly influence patients’ health.

But the exact mechanism by which it works remains elusive.

“Does it change your blood markers?” asked neuropsychiatrist James Duffy, president and CEO of the Institute of Religion and Health in Houston. “You’re going to see a lot of research directed at that over the next few years.”

Religion can help those with chronic conditions, including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke and arthritis, say the authors of a study at the University of Missouri at Columbia.

“Religion is infrequently discussed in rehabilitation settings and is rarely investigated in rehabilitation research,” said University of Missouri health psychologist Brick Johnstone. “To better meet the needs of persons with disabilities, this needs to change.”

Yoga, reading of religious texts, meditation or the laying of hands have value in a clinical setting, the researchers concluded.

Asking patients what they believe in

To inquire about a patient’s religious beliefs “is no different than inquiring about their sexual, psychological, substance use and legal histories,” said Johnstone, who directs the university’s Spirituality and Health Research Project.

“Our goal is to bring to the conversation that health is more than fixing your body,” Duffy said. “Health is a transformative process that involves healing the spirit.”

Hospital officials have long left patients’ spiritual needs in the hands of chaplains, but they increasingly are reaching out to faith communities.

Parish, or faith community nursing, which combines spiritual and health services, has exploded since the American Nursing Association recognized the specialty in 2005.

Today, an estimated 10,000 faith community nurses work in American congregations.

In San Francisco, a leading researcher in mind-body medicine found a positive link between intercessory prayer and the well-being of people with AIDS.

Prayed-for patients in a study by late University of California-San Francisco professor Elizabeth Targ had fewer setbacks and lived longer than a comparison group. A follow-up study found the same results. Targ later found a link between spirituality and well-being among women with breast cancer.

A connection notwithstanding, Jeff Leinen, medical director of the emergency department at Sutter Delta Hospital in Antioch, Calif., has qualms about medical practitioners assuaging the spirit. For one thing, it is too easy to impose one’s faith on a patient, he said.

Leinen says a prayer before he performs a procedure or when a patient dies, “but I say it quietly, and to myself.”

“Everybody has their own faith and belief,” he said. “You have to be very, very careful.”

Some can’t see the connection

Some academics recoil at the blurring of the line between faith and health care, saying prayer, meditation, and other faith practices resist definition or measurement.

Far more studies show no link between religious belief and healing than a positive one, said Richard Sloan, a Columbia University behavioral medicine professor and the author of “Blind Faith: The Unholy Alliance of Religion and Medicine.” Suggesting one can mislead people and put an unfair burden on them, he said.

“Look, nobody disputes that religion and spirituality bring comfort in a time of difficulty, but when spirituality is brought into medical care, it is another issue entirely,” he said.

“It can do all sort of harm because it causes people to confuse medical care with other aspects of their lives,” he said. “It can lead them to avoid conventional medical care. And it can lead them to believe their health problems are from inadequate faith and devotion.”

John Dodd, whose wife and daughter are now healthy, smiled when he was told about Sloan’s skepticism.

“He doesn’t realize there is so much to the art of medicine that is unknown,” he said. “(Doctors) don’t know everything because a lot of it isn’t in their hands — the unknown, the unpredictable, the unforeseeable.”

Take a look
John Dodd sits in the chapel at the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, Calif., where he spent time praying for his wife, Carla, who suffered two rapid-fire brain hemorrhages while pregnant with their second child. Dodd thinks that prayer aided in his wife's longshot recovery. (Doug Duran/Contra Costa Times/MCT)
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Reader comments on this story - 19 total

Note: All views and opinions expressed in reader comments are solely those of the individual submitting the comment, and not those of the Pantagraph or its staff.

Energizer2112 wrote on Mar 7, 2008 9:24 PM:

" "YAWN..." Everyone I've ever known who's had terminal cancer has died despite all the praying possible by everyone close to the victim. This guy's wife just pulled the right cards from the deck of probability. Who are these "scientists" taking a hard look at the connection between faith and healing? Are they spending Medicare and private insurance funds on this nonsense? "

Bethany wrote on Jan 10, 2008 8:26 PM:

" It is really sad how many people don't believe in God anymore :( "

Len wrote on Dec 31, 2007 6:48 PM:

" Yes to faith. "

Digression wrote on Dec 31, 2007 2:03 PM:

" Yep, when you’re stumped and can’t figure out a logical answer, just scribble “God” in the fill-in-the-blank. That’s what they did after Rome collapsed, and everything turned out great… after the Dark Ages. "

re:Christians wrote on Dec 31, 2007 1:58 PM:

" Hey now, Jesus cured lots of people who were infected by the common … demon. "

Christians wrote on Dec 31, 2007 1:18 PM:

" will believe anything. Hey Christians, the world is flat and slavery is still legal. "

Faith wrote on Dec 31, 2007 1:08 PM:

" I have faith that we'll see some good articles on this site today.... "

Placebo Polonco wrote on Dec 31, 2007 1:06 PM:

" It's too bad I don't believe in fairy tales....I could fool myself into healing better. "

faith wrote on Dec 31, 2007 8:51 AM:

" now this is a drug they should definitely make illegal "

JD wrote on Dec 31, 2007 8:08 AM:

" It is simple mind over body. The mind can fix anything in the body, if it can be convinced to do so. Some Eastern beliefs accomplish this through meditation, other beliefs do it through prayer, and some other do it through elaborate rituals. To attempt to place the 'miracle' on religion is like trying to say that the penny you used to scratch a lottery ticket was the reason you won. It is superstitious hogwash. Events like this have happened in every culture, and the beliefs of those affected range from atheism throughout all the pagan and judeo-christian beliefs. So enough with the religious hogwash. "

to Placebo effect wrote on Dec 31, 2007 7:48 AM:

" What matters? If praying/meditating helps calm a patient, helps reduce blood pressure, relaxes stress on the system, why does it matter if a pill did it or if one taking charge of his psyche did it? The real deal in this story is what people can do for themselves. We need docs, we need medicine but we also need to realize our power to assist in the the body's healing process. If people want to believe, let them believe. "

True Story wrote on Dec 30, 2007 10:52 PM:

" Physician 1 says that my heart sounds strange and sends me to cardiologist. Cardiologist says that my echocardiogram shows extreme elevated pressures on the left side and in pulmonary arteries and orders an angiogram. Wife and I pray. Doctor performing angiogram says my heart is perfect. Science conquers again. "

Welby wrote on Dec 30, 2007 10:46 PM:

" Maintain the wall of separation between church and stat! "

LOL wrote on Dec 30, 2007 6:28 PM:

" What a joke! "

And when things go bad.... wrote on Dec 30, 2007 6:23 PM:

" God often gets the blame. And what about all the Atheists who don't pray nor are prayed for, yet they still "miraculously" recover. Maybe they just had positive attitudes. Also, in studies you often get the results you want to see. There are other studies that show no link between prayer and recovery. "

Placebo effect wrote on Dec 30, 2007 6:16 PM:

" Taking a sugar pill and putting faith in that works as well. "

Just Me wrote on Dec 30, 2007 3:53 PM:

" Darn straight there is a connection. God does wonderous things. It makes those who dont believe take a closer look at what happened. Glad she will be able to help raise their second child. God bless! "

congrats wrote on Dec 30, 2007 1:41 PM:

" God is Good! "

One name says it all wrote on Dec 30, 2007 1:19 PM:

" Carle Marx Cares "
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