There’s no denying, for those of us who are believers, faith or invoking God for our health can have beneficial effects – be it paltry or significant.
Faith, or spirituality, is the more generic term which can involve faith in oneself and/or belief in God. People express their faith or spirituality in a variety of ways, but prayer is the most common practice.
But, ask thee, let alone our ardent faith as believers, is there any scientific evidence of positive correlation between faith or prayer and physical health?
In the last 20 years or so, there has been a deluge of researches and studies affirming the beneficial correspondence between prayer and healthier lives.
According to a recent study conducted by experts from Harvard School of Public Health and Brigham Women’s Hospital, “spiritual community participation – as exemplified by religious service attendance – is associated with healthier lives, including greater longevity, less depression and suicide, and less substance use.” (“Spirituality in Serious Illness and Health,” Tracy A. Balboni, MD, MPH; Tyler J. VanderWeele, Ph.D.; and Howard K. Koh, MD, MPH; Journal of the American Medical Association, 12 July 2022).
Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of Duke University’s Center for Spirituality and Health, reported in 2015 that an analysis of more than 1,500 reputable medical studies indicates that people who are more religious and pray more have better mental and physical health.
“Of the 125 studies that looked at the link between health and regular worship, 85 showed regular churchgoers live longer. Studies have shown prayer can prevent people from getting sick – and when they do get sick, prayer can help them get better faster,” Koenig said.
“Devout religious practice, such as involvement in a faith community, enables people to better cope with stress, experience greater well-being because they have more hope, and have stronger immune system, lower blood pressure and probably better cardiovascular functioning,” Koenig added.
Dr. Herbert Benson, director emeritus of the Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine and professor at Harvard Medical School, in his WebMD article, suggested that “prayer, because of its repetitive nature in sounds and words, promotes healing effects.”
Benson, one of the first Western physicians to bring spirituality and healing into medicine, reported that “his studies over the past 30 years indicate that all forms of prayer – such as the Rosary or the Buddhist meditation – evoke a relaxation response that quells stress, quiets the body and promotes healing.”
Clay Routledge, social psychologist and professor of psychology at North Dakota State University, writes of numerous studies showing that prayer can improve an individual’s emotional and mental state, which can result in better physical health.
“Those who pray,” Routledge said, “are more self-controlled, less aggressive, more forgiving and more likely to offset the negative health effects of stress, including high blood pressure.”
One particular scientific proof of the efficacy of intercessory prayers for hospital patients is reported by psychologist and best-selling author Dr. Nicholas Kardaras in his May 2011 article in psychologytoday.com: “I discovered that there was actually an incredible amount of research that indicates that consciousness can manifest independent of the body. In addition, there have been controlled double-blind experiments that have shown that INTERCESSORY PRAYER OR HEALING PRAYER AT A DISTANCE YIELDS POSITIVE RECOVERY OUTCOMES FOR BOTH CORONARY AND ONCOLOGY PATIENTS (underscoring mine).”
Interestingly also, regardless whether our prayers for good health or recovery from illness are granted or not, or whether we get or don’t get what we are praying for, it has been shown that prayer can have collateral benefits for the one praying: it calms the spirit, clears the mind, and brings peace. It also provides us transcendent articulation of joy, gratefulness, and relief.
Rev. Dr. John K. Graham, Episcopal priest, experienced physician/CEO of the Institute for Spirituality and Health at Texas Medical Center in Houston, verily said: “Prayer is even more beneficial than just being healed. Your soul and your spirit are touched. You get reconciliation with God. We have a God who loves us, that’s what prayer is all about. Getting that connection with God.”
Lastly, and worth underscoring, the efficacy of prayer is founded not solely on God but, of equal importance, on our faith, free choice, and cooperation. This theological tenet has been laid down by St. Augustine when he said: “Deus non salvabit te sine te (God cannot save you without you).”
In the contemporary secular world, this is even resonated by Gregg Braden, long known for bridging science and spirituality, and author of 12 books (five of which are New York Times’ best sellers).
Braden, in his book, “The Wisdom Codes” (Hay House, 2020), contends that prayer, which is rightly embodied not in the words but the “feeling,” works through our “participation” in the outcome.
“We are not trying to convince God to make something happen. We are recognizing that we can participate in the creation of the outcome, and that we’re actually a part (underscoring mine) of that outcome. The science for this comes together in a very beautiful way. We know that when we have certain feelings, we elicit certain chemical changes in our bodies. We create what’s called a neuropeptide, a chemical equivalent of that emotion. Those neuropeptides elicit changes on the genetic level. They actually up regulate (switch on) or down regulate (switch off) genes, which communicate in a nonphysical way with our environment. In the laboratory, we’ve seen human emotion influence DNA, and then DNA influence the stuff matter it is made of. So changing our emotion changes our DNA and influences what’s happening in the world around us, which is how be become part of the solution to the healing we are asking for.”
Well, be it feeling, emotion, genes, participation, cooperation… one thing is clear, it’s faith that spells the difference, one that can “move mountains” – faith in God, faith in ourselves, faith in our common humanity.
Matthew 17:20 said it right:
“Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Have faith, prayer works – for your physical as well as spiritual health!